BALER, Aurora, Philippines – Senator Edgardo Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, urged over the weekend the national government to revisit the country’s policy on the share of tertiary education in the national budget.

Speaking in his hometown here, Angara said: “Our country ranks second lowest in the ASEAN in terms of of spending per head for education in relation to national income. We have to start climbing up.”

Stressing the need to benchmark our academic programs with the rest of the world, Angara underscored the need for two-fold reform in the said sector: increased support for tertiary education from the National Government, and the stricter implementation of accreditation systems coupled with rigorous curriculum review.

“We must provide the financial help needed by these institutions, and maybe even lessen regulation, but then they must commit to accept structural and strategic reform that will allow us to improve the quality of our education," he said.

Angara also urged CHED Chair Patricia Licuanan to explore halting the issuance of licenses to new private schools and close down non-performing schools.

Angara, a former UP President, also encouraged SUC Presidents in attendance to focus on generating their own income to supplement appropriations from the National Government.

"The reality is, the government pie is not going to grow bigger. And so while we commit to reviewing and pushing for increased allocation for SUC's, you also should exert effort in generating your own income because your resources are there, and you have the mandate to keep and spend it," he stressed.

Angara also urged the government, particularly the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Department of Education (DepEd), to provide scholarships to teacher educators in the country to help enhance the quality of instruction in convergence with the full K-to12 reform in basic education.

"Instead of spreading our financial resources too thinly, it would be wiser to concentrate these scholarships to teacher educators, who in turn educate and train our students and future workforce--including those aspiring to be teachers.

He added that if the government does not help teachers raise the standards on a par with the best teacher education institutions in the world, then the country will definitely lack competent educators who will implement all our curricular improvements.