ANGARA BATS FOR A SUSTAINABLE MODERNIZATION PLAN FOR RP SCHOOLS

With the emergence of knowledge-based society, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today stressed the need to formulate a comprehensive and sustainable modernization plan for schools especially at the elementary and secondary levels.

"The era of globalization has placed extreme pressure on our government to produce highly specialized and technical personnel in a relatively short period of time. Given the rapid changes and developments in the field of Information Technology, the Philippines has to reorient the thrusts of its educational system to meet the growing needs and demands of a highly competitive world market," said Senator Angara, who also chairs the Congressional Commission on Science Technology and Engineering (COMSTE).

At present, the students in public schools have been left behind by their counterparts in the private schools.

Based on preliminary report of Department of Education (DepEd), only 50% of the 4,336 high schools nationwide have computer laboratories. But most of them need to be repaired or upgraded because after these computers have been delivered to schools, they have not been properly maintained. A computer laboratory consists of a minimum of 10 computers.

Apart from facilities, Senator Angara also sees the urgent need to fill up the shortage of public school buildings to accommodate the increasing number of enrollees in our public schools.

To date, the national classroom - student ratio for elementary and secondary public schools is still far from the ideal ratio of 1:30, due largely to the free education program, which has not been met by a corresponding increase in the number of classrooms.

As per DepEd records, the total nationwide classroom shortage is 41,197 - at current prices, the government will be in need of at least P16 Billion of additional funding to be able to crack the classroom shortage. Furthermore, it also reported that 20% of the country's classrooms have no proper ventilation, 27% have no lighting, 55% do not have electricity, and 25% have no ceilings. It also added that in 2005, 20% of elementary and secondary schools did not have science laboratories.

Given the scarce resources of the national government, Angara said that there is a need to be more cost-effective and innovative in our approach to finance school modernization programs. He said that this can be achieved through active partnership with local government units and private sector such as foundations, private corporations and business groups.

In this light, Senator Angara drafted two important bills which will help shed light into our deteriorating education system.

This 14th Congress, Angara authored the School Modernization and Innovation Act of 2007, which seeks to encourage the schools to become more innovative and resourceful in developing and implementing programs geared towards modernization; develop mechanisms that will define the roles and responsibilities of the officials from the regional, division down to the school levels in the implementation of school modernization programs; and provide mechanism on how the private sector can participate in the program.

Under this bill, a School Modernization and Innovation Trust Fund will also be established to augment the regular appropriations that will be provided under the annual General Appropriations Act to finance the priority programs for school modernization and improvement of public elementary and secondary schools.

He also authored the School Building Program of 2007, which seeks to create a comprehensive program which will address the problem of classroom shortage. One salient feature of this bill is the provision for build-operate-transfer, build-lease-transfer, build-transfer, rehabilitate-operate-transfer, and other contractual arrangements that will allow the use of both government and private funds to finance the construction of needed school buildings, and the creation of an inter-agency committee to formulate and ensure the effective implementation of the program by the DepEd.

The program also provides for the integration of all the necessary information for the effective monitoring and maintenance of existing school buildings. "This is the opportune time for the government to seriously consider ways of increasing the share of budget devoted to computerization of schools, upgrading of libraries and science laboratories as well as reducing class sizes into a manageable and ideal proportion level for a more conducive learning environment. I believe that apart from all these innovations, we must also incorporate information technology in classroom instruction. In this way, we would be able to increase efficiency in teaching and learning process as well as enhance competencies of students," said Senator Angara.