Wednesday, January 09, 2008 Editorials: Perils in proposed DepEd reforms
WHIILE the notion of decentralized management or supervision and control of the operation of the Department of Education (DepEd) is sound, there is also the risk involved in the advocacy.
The need for reforms in education is consistent with the popular observation that our educational system has deteriorated to a level its product is no longer of the quality we enjoyed before the war.
That the educational system needs strengthening, or structural reform, is already a given, the reason why decentralization of function and operation have been recently advocated, allowing for regional flexibility in operation, as well as adaptability in program implementation.
This matter is of imperative importance if we have to improve the quality of our students nationwide.
Budget
This sense of urgency in the matter of public education has found significance in the 2008 General Appropriations Bill, with the House setting aside almost P6.5 billion for DepEd’s operation alone.
This includes, for construction and rehabilitation of school buildings, P1.720 billion; additional teaching and non-teaching positions, P1.060 billion; pre-school education, P1 billion.
About P2 billion is appropriated for additional teachers’ benefits.
What appears to be most heartening is the trend towards socialized education.
Committee on appropriations chair Edcel Lagman said: “We are dismantling the dominance of elitist education in the country by starting to fund pre-school education in the grass roots.”
In 1993, Lagman initiated the pilot funding of pre-school education with P100-million allocation.
Politics
What appears risky in the proposed decentralized DepEd operation is the political, social, and economic variables prevailing in the area of operation.
Among the three, the political variable is the most worrisome since it could dictate and override deployment of human resource.
Politics, being the way it is in our country, assumes many faces and varied hues as our politicians inveigle to gain for their personal politics the strength necessary for them to sustain their power and influence over the political playing field.
Here lie the risks and dangers to well-meaning efforts to raise the quality of education in the country.
