With a few weeks left in office, President Arroyo takes pride in her achievements in advancing the quality of education in the country.

During the 2010 Philippine Education Congress at the historic landmark Manila Hotel, the President hailed education authorities for their efforts to improve the crucial sector and urged them to sustain the reforms for “a high quality education.”

“In a world where knowledge has become a crucial element for nations to prosper and compete, we put primacy to quality and accessible lifelong learning, from early childhood development to primary, secondary and tertiary learning,” she said.

“My goal is for every Filipino child to be assured of the opportunity to get high quality education that will make him or her a whole person, a responsible citizen, and lead him or her to a successful entrepreneurial venture,” she added.

At the forum, Education Secretary Mona Valisno presented to the President a report showing the improvement of the delivery of education, performance of students, student participation, and resource mobilization in all levels of education.

“We have a bigger budget that is steadily increasing during President Arroyo’s term, we have more classrooms constructed, more teachers trained, increasing participation rate and decreasing dropout rates, and our students’ achievement level is also increasing,” Valisno said.

Valisno also expressed gratitude to public school teachers and other education officials who contributed to the success of the country’s first automated elections.

“The modernized election is a key component of the President’s BEAT THE ODDS agenda and we are proud to be part of the team that made it happen,” Valisno added.

During the education congress, Arroyo conferred on Valisno the Order of Lakandula and presented DepEd with a Presidential Citation.

The Presidential Citation was given to DepEd in recognition of its contributions to the success of the recent national automated elections while the Order of Lakandula was given to Valisno in recognition of her active involvement in building a strong foundation for the Philippine education system.

The education congress, held in cooperation with the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Presidential Task Force for Education (PTFE), gathered key officials in the education sector, including PTFE chairman and Ateneo de Manila University pPresident Fr. Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, CHEd chairman and PTFE co-chairman Emmanuel Angeles, and TESDA director-general Pastor Z. Guiao to report on the contribution of their respective institutions to the current state of education in the country.