After a year of surviving floods and other calamities and still improving enrollment and the quality of public and private education, the education sector looks forward to sustaining the momentum for improvement in 2010.

“In 2010, Philippine education will be directed toward sustaining our momentum,” said Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.

DepEd plans to increase student participation rate, reduce the number of drop-outs, and provide education to Filipino children through alternative modes as well.

“With the public perception of DepEd much better than decades ago, coupled with the recognition given by international organizations, we aim to keep the respect of our fellow Filipinos and the global nation high,” Lapus said.

However, the challenge that the public education sector still and will face in the coming year is how to draw support from private and public sectors.

Through these support, DepEd can do a lot more and achieve the goals they have set for the improvement of the public education sector.

Next year, DepEd aims to pull in all 5-year-old Filipinos to pre-school and in 2010 the department is looking forward to having 53% (about 900,000) of all 5-year-olds in school and 95% of them completing pre-school at the end of the school year. To carry out the program, P1.8 billion will be allocated in 2010.

Other plans are strengthening the “no collection” and “no uniform” policies, the alternative delivery modes, expand Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) and Madrasah programs, strengthen distance education through the open high school system, among others.

DepEd will also focus on teachers’ benefits, which they admit needs attention. It also aims to work for the passage in the House and Senate of the institutionalization of pre-school in the Basic Education System, the Governance of Private and Public Pre-school Bill, bill providing additional allowance to public school teachers, and National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) bill.

They will also continue their advocacy on passing of amendments to RA 9155 (Governance of Basic Education Act), RA 4670 (Magna Carta for Teachers), RA 7889 (Fair and Equitable Allocation of DepEd Budget for Capital Outlay) and RA 7160 (Local Government Code).

Better future
On the other hand, Commission for Higher Education (CHEd) has also big plans for next year and the years to come -- from infrastructure and facility improvements to strengthening teachers’ competencies.

This year, CHEd Chairman Emmanuel Angeles revealed the plans of constructing the country’s first Philippine Center for Engineering, Science, and Technology (PCEST) worth P5.08 billion. The modern facility will be built on a 1,000-hectare land in the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga, with the construction set to start next year.

This facility is dedicated to bringing back the country’s topnotch scientists and engineers as well as producing more great minds. The country currently has only 125 scientists and engineers per million population which is below the standard of 380 per million population as mandated by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

CHEd will invest in improving manpower service. It plans to train over 6,000 faculty members in two to three years – 4,000 for master's degree program and 2,000 doctoral degree program.

The country’s education sector faced a number of challenges in the past year, from budget controversies to natural disasters to acts of human violence. But apart from what seems to be endless, violent, and destructive blows, the country’s largest sector still managed to pull through it all.

Kidnappings
At the beginning of the year, the DepEd faced its first challenge – three teachers from Zamboanga City were kidnapped by a rebel group. Amid negotiations for their freedom, two months after, another group of teachers were abducted, also in Zamboanga City.

Through the efforts of the education agency, various teacher groups, the military and local government units, the first batch of teachers – Quizon Frieres, Janette Delos Reyes, and Raphael Mayonado – were released on May 26. Four months later, on September 23, the three remaining teachers – Jocelyn Enriquez, Jocelyn Inion, and Noemi Mandi – were freed.

Noodle scam
The education agency’s secretary, Jesli Lapus, did not escape controversies.

The most infamous, the “Noodle Scam,” accused the agency and the secretary himself of overpricing the procurement of fortified instant noodles intended for DepEd’s health care program. More procurements were questioned – from the large-scale printers to citronella shampoos.

The alleged irregularities, however, were never proven but nevertheless some contracts had to be cancelled as a result of the allegations.

Natural disasters
Aside from internal issues in the agency, the past year saw enormous destruction in the education sector. Schools were struck by devastation caused by natural disasters and students were left vulnerable from highly contagious viruses.

Thus, closed gates greeted some public and private school students at the opening of classes in June. The Influenza A (H1N1) virus scare left some schools under quarantine and forced to close down for 10 days by the Department of Health (DoH). The CHEd even moved the opening of classes for a week.

The rainy season also forced schools to close down due to floods. This elicited calls for DepEd to move the opening of classes from June to September, which is similar to other countries such as the United States.

Aside from keeping schools closed down for days, typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” left most parts of Metro Manila and Northern Luzon flooded for days, leaving massive damages to public schools. Damage to school infrastructure was close to P1 billion.

At least 30 school days were lost in the current school year.

After a lull, kidnapping of educators resume in the last quarter of the year.

Last October, Gabriel Canizares, an elementary school principal in Sulu, was kidnapped and later killed by his captors due to unsuccessful negotiations.

Just this month, a teacher was also kidnapped and killed in Zamboanga and a tribal armed group in Agusan del Sur abducted some 75 civilians which included teachers and even students.

More recently, a high-ranking school official of Basilan State University was kidnapped and released later.

Tougher higher education
In an effort to control the quality of higher education in the country this year, CHEd announced that it has closed down six law schools for continuously performing below CHEd standards in the Bar Examinations conducted by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC). These schools have consistently rated zero percentage in the said examinations.

A couple of months later, the higher education agencies warned more than 100 low performing nursing schools that they will be closed down if they don’t improve their passing rate in the annual licensure examination.

International success
Despite the challenges, there were still success stories in the sector. Aside from the inclusion of foreign languages like French and Spanish in the public school curriculum in selected secondary schools, Filipino students still proved to be internationally competitive.

Last summer, the Philippine Robotic Team composed of 20 junior high school students of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)-Diliman bagged two awards at the 2009 First Robotics Competition (FRC) in Hawaii, earning them a ticket to Atlanta, Georgia for the Robotics world championship, furthering robotics in the country.

On the other hand, four students bagged awards at this year’s Intel international Engineering and Science Fair (Intel ISEF) held in Reno, Nevada, USA. Angeli Joyce Yap Dy, 14, from Capiz National High School; Jovani Tomale, 16, of Davao City National High School; and the team composed of Kevin Jer David , 16, and Orven Jules Dumaoang, 16, of the PSHS- Diliman was among the winners at the annual fair participated in by more than 1,500 young scientists from more than 50 countries.

CNN Hero of the Year
But apart from the students, a new hero was born this year.

Efren Peñaflorida, a “pushcart educator” who gives unfortunate youth a chance in education, won this year’s CNN Hero of the Year, giving Filipinos, especially the country’s struggling educators, something they can be proud of.

Just recently, DepEd’s own Essential Health Care Program was recognized in the 2009 Global South-South Development Expo held in Washington DC, USA as one of the world’s best practices in primary health care among schoolchildren.

Next year, three teams from selected tertiary schools in the country will represent the country in the first Asia Eco-Marathon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a competition that promotes environmentalism through fuel efficiency to the youth of the world.