MAR Roxas

Last year, I have filed in the senate the Omnibus Education Reform Act of 2008. The bill proposes eight provisions that could institute real, meaningful change in our educational system, namely: • Mandating the use of the mother tongue, or the language first learned by the child and customarily used at home, as the medium of instruction for Grades, 1, 2 and 3. Filipino and English as separate subjects. • Increasing the basic education cycle from 10 years to 12 years. • Establishment of a mandatory in-school direct feeding program for at least Grades 1 and 2, to sustain the nutrition and health of children and prevent dropping out. • Imposition of performance standards, whereby a diagnostic test is administered to students at the end of Grades 3 and 6, to identify those who need special learning assistance as they proceed to the next grade level. • Revising the high school curriculum so that students may be equipped to either pursue further studies or enter the world of work. • Intensive training and continuous upgrading programs for teachers such as on the use of the mother tongue for teaching Grades 1 to 3 and on the teaching of English, Science and Math for teachers who are not majors in these subjects; and • A compulsory pre-school education year. Why do we need educational reform? Simple lang: Palpak ang sistema. The education our children are getting is substandard and incomplete. Consider these facts: • Out of 100 children who enroll in Grade 1, only 65 complete Grade 6. Even less – 43 – graduate from high school.• Only 23% of those who finish Grade 6 can actually understand what they are reading. • Of those who complete 4th year of high School, only 16% achieve the required mastery of Math. The numbers are worse for English and Science: 7% and 2%, respectively. During these times of crisis, our children are most vulnerable. They are being forced out of school, because their parents are hardly coping with skyrocketing food and oil prices. They are being shortchanged and left behind. We can't just put more taxpayers' money in the government's lap and expect change to happen overnight. We are facing a systemic problem, and to solve it requires the political and the active participation of citizens like you.