SENATORS Pia Cayetano and Manuel Roxas II
yesterday pushed for reforms in the education sector and for
starters, urged a ban on the appointment of politicians to the
Department of Education and other related agencies, and the
closure of mediocre nursing schools.
Roxas said politicians should not be
appointed heads of educational institutions like DepEd and the
Commission on Higher Education.
"The worst thing to do is to appoint a
politician to educational institutions. The education system in
our country needs educators and managers because of its
wide-ranging priorities," he said.
Roxas is the author of the proposed Omnibus
Education Reform Act of 2008, which he filed during the 14th
Congress and which is now under consideration by the Senate
committee on education.
He said the educational system has diverse
needs which require prioritization. "Sa skills set, ang
kailangan ay isang manager para sa pagbalangkas ng magagandang
programa na siyang sasagot sa mga problema sa sistema. Ito ay sa
kabila ng iba’t-ibang priorities na hinihingi ng mga
constituents," he said.
"Whoever sits at the head of DepEd or CHED
should have managerial skills. Politicians have no place in this
system," he said.
The current chief of DepEd is former Tarlac
congressman Jesli Lapuz while CHED has educator Dr. Emmanuel
Angeles as chairman.
Cayetano said CHED should immediately phase
out mediocre nursing schools, particularly those whose graduates
have fared poorly in the annual nursing licensure examinations
administered by the Professional Regulation Commission.
She said CHED should also tighten its system
of monitoring underperforming nursing schools in light of
reports that the average passing rate in the nursing board exams
has been declining over the last 10 years.
"When a school with hundreds or thousands of
graduates fails to produce a single nurse in any given year,
then its quality of teaching should already be suspect," she
said. "CHEDs failure to address this situation gives the
impression that it is protecting these institutions at the
expense of pulling down the quality of nursing education in the
country, which is in direct defiance of the agency’s own
mandate."
She said the Commission of Audit in its
report last year noted that CHED has never shut down a single
nursing school despite the poor passing rates of several schools
in the nursing board exams in the last 10 years.
Citing the COA report, she said that from
2001 to 2005, only 111 of 263 nursing schools nationwide managed
to have 50 percent of their graduates pass the licensure
examinations. Thirty-five of these 111 nursing schools are in
Metro Manila, she added.
Roxas said the country’s next president
should have the political will to carry out the changes
regardless of the maneuverings of powerful individuals. "Our
educational system is in shambles. We really need to reform it
if we want progress for our country," he said, noting that the
system is stunted by lack of funds and student malnutrition,
among others.
"Ang pinakamahalaga ngayon sa educational system ng ating
bansa ay tama at wastong political will na baguhin ang sistema.
Ang mga namamahala kasi diyan ngayon, sa kagustuhan daw na
baguhin ang sistema, lahat pinagbibigyan para lahat ay matutuwa.
Kaya sa kabila ng bilyon-bilyong budget na inilalaan para sa
DepEd taon-taon, at the end of the year, akala nila okay na pero
sa totoo lang, wala namang na-accomplish," he said. –
Dennis Gadil
