INTRODUCTION
Allow me to greet and congratulate you once again on the start of this year’s Educators Congress.

When I spoke before this same gathering last year, I dwelt largely on the need for Philippine education to promote people empowerment and global competitiveness toward the achievement of our shared vision of “Philippines 2000!!!”.

I said then that to truly empower our people, government must ensure that every Filipino could read, write, compute, analyze and solve problems.

He should be able to make decisions to improve the quality of his life as well as that of his family, from a strong foundation of Filipino values that contribute to responsible citizenship and enlightened leadership.

I noted further that, to develop a Filipino human resource base that is globally competitive, our educational system should be relevant and responsive to the manpower needs of industries both here and abroad. We need to produce nothing less than world-class workers.
MANY POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS
I am glad to note that many positive developments have taken place since then. For example, beginning June 1993, public elementary schools previously offering incomplete grades now offer a complete grades-one-to-six program through a system of multi-grade teaching.

By June 1994, all our municipalities will have public high schools. By June 1995, almost all of our rural barangays will have complete public elementary schools.

We can predict as well that the quality of basic education will soon improve as we focus on strengthening the teaching of English, science, math and values.

At the tertiary level where we have very strong private sector participation, a policy of liberalization adopted in 1992 should further accelerate excellence in technical-vocational education and training and in higher studies.
READY FOR TAKE-OFF
The theme for the 1994 Educators Congress — “‘Education 2000!!!’: Strategic Actions” — clearly indicates that, today, education is ready for take-off!

This is the positive result of your collective efforts — all of you who are here today, as well as those others who will participate at the workshop sessions in Baguio City.

You have been steadfast in pursuing a common vision of growth and prosperity for our people by the year 2000. As the winning poster in the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS)-sponsored contest says, “Ang ‘Philippine 2000!!!’ Ang Ating Kinabukasan”.

When educational planners, policy makers, academicians and practitioners such as you gather together to draw up a blueprint of strategic actions for “Education 2000!!!”, you need to be guided by current trends, developments and events around us that would have a bearing on education.

I refer you to our own Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) which is the country’s guidebook and road-map towards our shared vision of “Philippines 2000!!!”. I also invite your attention to the growth areas we are pushing such as the northwestern Luzon growth quadrangle, the Subic Bay area and the east ASEAN growth area in southern Philippines, among fifteen other growth centers.

With the help of the MTPDP and the economic diplomacy we have begun pushing among our neighbors, we expect new and tremendous economic opportunities to arise all over the country.

That new burst of growth will require the best of our minds and of our labors to sustain.

We in government can provide the right policy environment for growth to take place. But it is up to those of you who work in education to supply the brainpower and the technical training that development demands.

Thus, strategic actions in education must be geared towards developing a human resource base that will push us towards a newly industrializing economy by the year 2000.
STRENGTHENING BASIC EDUCATION
Our system of basic education must provide a strong foundation in English, science, math and values with a curriculum that is at least comparable to those of other ASEAN countries.

For this reason, i have given the go-signal for a possible transition to an 11-year basic education program to be implemented in the years to come. When all our ASEAN neighbors and almost all countries in Asia have 11, 12, or even 13 years of basic schooling, how can the performance of our schoolchildren, with only 10 years of schooling, compare favorably?

Measures of educational achievements such as those in science and mathematics have expanded, beyond merely national measures, to higher regional and international standards.

We cannot continue to explain the dismal performance of our schoolchildren as being the consequence of a short basic schooling cycle.

If we are to catch up with our neighbors in ASEAN, then our children must have more — and better-quality — schooling.

I am aware that the strategic plans to strengthen basic education were discussed at last year’s Educators Congress. I am very pleased to learn that an implementation plan is now being drawn up.

This plan defines the ways and means by which to administratively implement improvements such as increasing time on tasks through a lengthening of the school calendar and additional time for teaching English, science and math.

For the first time, a National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) was administered to provide a baseline date by which improvement of school performance may be measured over time.
FOCUS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The establishment of regional science schools in 15 regions beginning June 1994 is a clear signal that government will provide opportunities to the less privileged but most promising of our students who wish to pursue a career in science and technology.

The enactment of the Science and Technology Scholarship Law (RA 7687) was an event of momentous significance because it signals a new, strong thrust in our efforts to develop our country’s science and technology (S&T) capabilities, particularly the creation of a multi-disciplinary pool of scientific and technological talent. With an annual target of about 3,500 scholars on science and technology under this law, we will soon be accelerating on our way to attaining the quality and the quantity of S&T scholars, while at the same time fostering greater interest among the youth in science and technology courses.

By concentrating on the development of new industries that require brainpower more than large amounts of capital or material resources, we can “leapfrog”, so to speak, into the 21st century.

It can be done. The Filipino mind is up to the task, but it needs to be encouraged and supported as a matter of state policy.
LIBERALIZATION FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLS
One of the means by which we might achieve that would be strengthening education itself as a knowledge industry. Thus, we have adopted a policy of liberalization in respect of our private schools.

On the basis of this policy, our private schools now enjoy greater autonomy and flexibility in the pursuit of their academic programs, especially at the tertiary level.

In education as well as in other sectors, i have consistently maintained that the private sector which is generally perceived to be more efficient and effective than government in certain areas of enterprise should be encouraged to take a more active role in the delivery of social services.

I must mention that a $25-million non-formal education project of the DECS funded through a soft loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be implemented through participating non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in literacy work.

DECS as a government agency in charge of promoting literacy will only play a coordinating role. What would otherwise have taken decs alone 30 years to achieve in terms of eradicating illiteracy will now be dramatically hastened through private sector delivery of literacy programs, including distance education with the use of the latest in audio-visual-video and satellite delivery techniques.

I am especially glad to learn that decs is implementing a project in June 1994 which will likewise grant some degree of autonomy and flexibility to 600 selected public elementary schools and 200 public high schools.

These will become “lighthouses” or model-schools to be emulated in other communities, with the school heads to be themselves “empowered”. The policy of deconcentration which decs is pursuing reflects the sensitivity with which its leadership is responding to present needs. This I fully support.

In the field of technical-vocational education and training, I signed into law last February the Dual-Training Act (RA 7686).

This law defines a new strategy of partnership and cooperation between our schools and our industries in the areas of curriculum development, student apprenticeship and faculty training.

I am certain that there are many more areas of linkages and cooperation that you can look into. The dual-training law will make these and other opportunities possible.
OTHER CHALLENGES
We face many other challenges and opportunities where education make a crucial difference. These concerns include the promotion of the peace process and of peace itself, sustainable development, preservation of the ecosystem, population management, disease prevention and respect for human rights, most of which are now integrated in the learning modules of our schools.

But the biggest challenge of all is the challenge of empowering the next generation of Filipinos with an education that is comparable or even superior to those in other ASEAN countries, and other countries of a similar stage of development as ours and with training that is relevant and responsive to modern agricultural and industrial needs.

And I have no doubt that you will all rise up to this challenge.

Even as we speak today of strategic actions in education, i am sure that we all realize that education, in itself, is the most strategic of all interventions we can make in the lives of our citizens.

The education of our nation’s forefathers enabled them to gain their intellectual and political freedom from their masters. Education has kept our democracy alive.

And now, we look to education to carry us beyond the determination of will into the prosperity of means. If we are to grow as a people into fuller and richer lives, the first growth must take place in the Filipino mind.

To you, my friends, we entrust these hopes. I wish you every success in your efforts.

Mabuhay ang “Education 2000!!!”

Salamat sa inyong lahat!!