Hopefully, the present multi-pronged reforms to our educational system undertaken by DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus can put an end to this vicious cycle. What Secretary Lapus wants to achieve is quality education that is affordable to everyone.

Since his appointment in 2006, Lapus has been putting together a system where teachers are periodically trained and reprogrammed to make them more effective and dynamic mentors. This makes sense. Incompetent teachers can produce only incompetent students

Apart from making hiring standards for teachers higher, Lapus has also initiated an English proficiency program for teachers. This year, P500 million has been earmarked for this purpose. Proficiency in English has given us an edge over our other Asian counterparts and has resulted in jobs for our OFWs, who, with their dollar remittances, have propped up the economy for the past several years

DepEd has also invested in programs like Every Child a Reader Program (ECARP), which turns Grade 3 pupils to better readers before they move on to Grade 4.

The image of DepEd has also dramatically improved, prompting the private sector to donate over P4 billion to the department’s fund-raising drives, one beneficiary of which is the Adopt-a-School project. This project has resulted in the construction of thousands of classrooms, and the rehabilitation of old buildings including those damaged by super typhoons.

Last year, 14,665 classrooms were built and 5,883 classrooms were rehabilitated. Also, 16,390 teaching positions were created. Other donations came from the Congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund, Kalayaan Barangay Project of the AFP and local government units.

Even the nutritional needs of pupils are being addressed. Through its School Feeding Program and the Malusog na Simula project, children are being given fortified rice, milk and noodles for 120 feeding days.

To beef up computer-aided instruction, the DepEd has provided access to computer services to 4,712 public secondary schools with 1,149 of them having Internet connectivity.

Through Lapus’ initiative, DepEd has also tied up with Gawad Kalinga PagIBIG Fund and local government units to provide affordable housing for public school teachers.

Before Lapus assumed office in 2006, the DepEd was a hotbed of corruption. He has succeeded in dismantling well-entrenched syndicates that had long cornered the multi-billion peso book and supplies contracts of the department.

The combined private and public school enrollment is 19.4 million.

Recently that number increased to 19.7 million or 298,130 more students. The private schools educate only some two and a half million (12.7 percent) of our children; educating the rest is left to the public schools.

The share of public schools is broken down into 11.98 million for elementary and 4.92 million for secondary.

The DepEd budget for 2008 is P137 billion, 20 percent of the total that the government will spend this year.

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We have a letter: "I appreciate you having an open mind and heart to the ZTE issue. We need more people like you to make this country a better place to live in. It is very sad to see people simply digesting all that is being spoon-fed to them by the media and as well as the statements of Lozada. There may be a grain of truth to his allegations but I doubt if they were all true.

"Like for instance, the ‘abduction’ issue. I worked with PRO LIFE Philippines and have worked with Sec. Atienza. I know for a fact that he helps people all the time. He was always true to his words when he said that he wanted the Rule of Law. He wanted it during the time of Marcos, Cory, Erap and until now. He did not side with Marcos. In fact, he was even sent to jail because he did not want to help Marcos with his advocacy. Even during the time of President Erap, when people knew that the best way to go was to show themselves in Edsa, I did not see him there, even when the best strategy for politicians then was to show their faces there.

"This time I saw him and asked him how all these came about. He told me that he only wanted to help the man but it was not to stop the man to testify. I believe him ‘coz his past shows that he is consistent. I feel bad seeing my colleague go through this when he does not deserve it. How can a man who fights for and defends life be accused of abducting someone who I believe has hidden a agenda?

"How can (J. Lo) ask help from Sec. Atienza and then meet up with other people such as Lacson, Madrigal and even the De Venecias? I just pray that people would learn to study issues before they fully react to it.

"We need people with integrity but how can we use their capabilities if we shoot them down right away without even giving them the benefit of the doubt. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. If he does not show up in the hearing, he’s guilty, if he shows up, he is still guilty.

"I want to stay in the Philippines but seeing how the mob rules our democracy makes me want to just go to the States and just give my services to them. I am so bitter and enraged by all these.

"Please just stay open. We need writers who are responsible in what they write, not instantly swayed by emotions rather, by rationality and a sound mind." – Andrew