Cabinet cluster to tackle crisis in education

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the creation of a Cabinet cluster that will tackle the country's crisis in education in «a whole system rather than in multi-agency silos,» Malacañang said Tuesday.

Palace press briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez said the President approved «in principle» the proposal during a sectoral meeting in Malacañang.

«This is to synthesize a common vision and common direction to reform the education system, to have positive long-term effect on every Filipino student and graduate,» Oseña-Paez said.

EDUCATION IN FOCUS President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presides over a sectoral meeting on the Creation of Cabinet Cluster for Education on Aug. 13, 2024. PPA POOL PHOTO

She said the President recognized the urgency of creating the cluster «to address this learning crisis that has crippled our education system for decades,» which she noted resulted in a learning gap of 5.5 years for Filipino students.

«President Marcos directed the agencies to devise a coherent and system-wide national integrated education and workforce development strategy that starts from early childhood education to basic education, senior high school and so on,» the Palace official said.

«The President directed the proposed Cabinet cluster to ensure that education issues are tackled as a whole system rather than in multi-agency silos,» she added.

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Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara, who joined the Palace press conference with Executive Director Karol Mark Yee of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2), thanked the President for his «swift action» on the proposal.

«Towards the end of the meeting, the President basically said that in principle, he approves of it, and he'd like us to fast-track some of the actions because he sees its urgency and it's a very deep-seated problem,» Angara said.

«We need to follow through with the needs of every sector from early child development to daycare centers to kindergarten up to K-12, up to college, up to tech-voc, all of these, he said, should have positive interventions for our learners,» he added.

Angara said the cluster would be composed of the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher