The Philippine Education Agenda: Problems, Policies, Private-Public Partnerships

A Comparative Perspective

Submitted by:

Jaime Stefan Inocentes

Carlo Ocampo

Keisha Shaneika Mei Pandapatan

Riza Franchesca Regala

Marjoerie Mae Villanueva

AB European Studies

Submitted to:

Harald Eustachius Tomintz

In partial fulfilment of requirements for SocSc13

The Economy and Sustainable Development

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Introduction

An old Filipino saying goes: ​ang edukasyon ay siyang tanging kayamanan na hindi

mananakaw sa isang tao ninuman. Education is the only wealth that cannot be taken away

by anyone. This saying in itself showcases the value that Filipinos put on one’s education.

On a wider scale, such value is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and

the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It equips the person with the necessary

knowledge and skills to be globally competitive. Moreover, education is an empowering tool

both at the individual and collective levels. Especially for the impoverished and the

marginalized, having an education presents prospects for social mobility.

Aside from the frameworks provided by international institutions, education is greatly

integrated within constitutions and national policies. Through legal provisions, the right to

education is formalized. However, it does not come without any challenges. To these ends,

the approach to education may often be coursed through public and private partnerships.

For developing countries such as the Philippines, it is done to enhance and respond to

deficits in the system and its policies. Amidst a pandemic, these demands are made more

apparent and states are urged to ensure access to quality education by partnering with

private institutions. In this paper, the group will: (I) assess the main frameworks for

Sustainable Development in education; (II) explore and elaborate on the current landscape

of education in the Philippines; (III) compare educational systems in the Philippines with

other countries; and (IV) propose possible solutions to improve the education in the

Philippines.
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I. Main Frameworks for Sustainable Development in Education

The issue of access to quality public education in the Philippines has existed for

many decades. Various initiatives have been attempted on the local and national levels

towards its overall development. However, in the recent interactions with the students and

teachers of some of the many public senior high schools in Quezon City, the problems are

still seemingly prevalent. This showcases the importance of arriving at proper sustainable

solutions. In this regard, the paper intends to propose two potential frameworks that could

serve as foundations for long term positive action, namely the Basic Needs Approach and

the Rights-Based Approach. Both of the methods heavily incorporate key notions of the

institutionalist perspective, whereby recognition is given to the various social factors, and

their influence over institutions (Todaro & Smith, 2015). Such is significant in the analysis of

societal situations and subsequently informed actions taken as a result.

The Basic Needs Approach, otherwise referred to as the Entitlements Approach, is a

development outlook that gives primacy to prioritizing all individuals within a society being

able to first meet their basic needs. This allows for societies to promote communal progress.

Typically, the method covers physical and material needs such as food, water, and shelter

though such could be applied to the educational realm (Stewart, 1985). The former needs

have served as part of the original core of the approach, for it was seemingly clear then that

those are the minimal requirements towards a person’s survival. However, in recent years,

through the adaptation of the definition of a basic need to fit in the idea of anything that

mainly contributes to long-term physical-wellbeing, concepts like health and education were

factored in (Rodgers, 2008). Education can be the source of numerous opportunities,

especially employment, that enables overall security and prosperity in one’s life. Hence, the

approach proves significant in the context of the local public school systems, for it highlights

the inherent need for proper quality education for all students in a society towards the

fostering of genuine development.

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The Rights-Based Approach, on the other hand, definitively enshrines the relevance

of identifying and upholding one’s essential rights as a human being. This fosters

wholesome and inclusive development for all persons and their perspectives are properly

considered. When utilising the concept of rights, it necessitates action from states and

governmental authorities in fulfilling their obligations to the inhabitants they serve (UN

Women, 2013). Per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, it has been widely

held that quality education is a right within the confines of society. This is premised on its

connection to other important rights such as the right to life, which allows for every person to

live their lives fully and meaningfully (UNESCO, 2007). What this connotes is that quality

education and not education in itself must be made readily accessible to all, regardless of

one’s age, race, gender, and societal status. It is then an avenue for comprehensive and

participatory development, which seeks to empower those currently marginalised. This now

applies to the Philippine public education system, with regards to the national government in

its various agencies, even noting its contexts as a developing country. As a signatory of the

previously stated international agreements and conventions, the administrative authorities

must still comply and find inclusive, interconnected and sustainable ways in guaranteeing

effective quality education for Filipino citizens.

II. Current Educational Landscape in the Philippines

Beginning with the microlevel, the group will attempt to establish the status quo of

educational access in the country. This part aims to show how the educational experience is

disparate between private and public schools. ​Although the COVID-19 pandemic has made

this disparity more apparent due to the online setting, the educational system in the country

has already faced issues since before.

In terms of public learning materials, the modules implemented by DepEd have

recently garnered attention questioning its quality. Concerns have been raised on errors with

grammar and unverified information (Chiu, 2019). Regardless of the department’s three-step
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review process, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported in 2019 that around PHP 254

million of materials for Grade 3 pupils were filled with inaccuracies. Aside from errors,

auditors have also requested an explanation of the undistributed materials amounting to

PHP 113 million (Nicholls, 2019). Teachers have expressed to state auditors that they have

resorted to utilizing supplementary materials from the internet or private schools when the

textbooks provided by DepEd are not aligned with the curriculum (Buan, 2019).

Public schools also face a lack of facilities and infrastructures that highlights the

issue of conduciveness. It is not unlikely to hear about classroom shortages that result in

crowded lecture rooms (Tomacruz, 2019). From 2014 to 2018, funds were allocated to

66,000 classrooms that have yet to be completed or turned over to the institutions

(Reysio-Cruz, 2019). Before the opening of classes in 2019, at least seven public schools in

the National Capital Region had to configure the schedule and implement triple-class shifts

(Hernando-Malipot, 2019). Within a school day, class shifts are commonly divided into two -

morning and afternoon. In the triple-class shift setting, time is reduced for each allotment.

Although DepEd has assured that these were simply temporary measures in light of

unfinished school buildings, the struggle of both teachers and students cannot be denied.

Secretary Briones herself said that there is a commonly held perception that private

schools are better than public schools (DepEd, 2018). Although there may be systematic

differences, this should not be the case. Section 4 of Article XIV in the Phillippine

Constitution acknowledges the complementary roles of both public and private institutions.

With COVID-19 and the implementation of various quarantine measures, a new set of

concerns have been raised on the educational approach. Included are the calls for an

academic freeze, the lack of technological resources, and the quality of teacher-student

dynamic, among many other things. With no end yet in sight to this pandemic, domestic

educational policy will continue to be reshaped. As distance learning is normalized in the

country,​ ​substantial measures within the system are seen as both necessary and urgent.

Moving on from the micro-level analysis, we must now take a look at the situation on

a global scale which is necessary to be able to pinpoint the areas for improvement. This is
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where the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) come in. There are three SDGs that

this paper will focus on: Goals 4, 17, and 1.

SDG #4 aims to give inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong

opportunities for all. It is a concern for developing nations. Kids from the poorest households

are four times more likely to not be able to attend school than kids from the richest

households. The Philippines, as a developing country, has always struggled with making

quality education accessible to all Filipinos. The good news is that as of 2018, the

completion rate of students in primary and secondary education have increased according to

the latest preliminary submissions of DepEd to the Philippine Statistics Authority. While the

Philippines has taken substantial steps in ensuring that out of school youths are about to

receive a proper education and that all learners work towards becoming a literate global

citizen, there are some steps that they should still take. It is also worth noting that the most

recent statistics on the SDG progress does not account for the year 2020 (Philippine

Statistics Authority, 2020), in which we know that the number of enrollees in primary and

secondary education have dropped due to the financial incapacity of their families.

This current situation brings us to the second mentioned SDG: Goal 17 which calls

for Partnerships for the Goals. Public-private partnerships among Philippine institutions can

address more complex issues through indicators set by Partnership for the Goals (SDG#17).

The Philippines recognizes the fact that it is going to take the whole of society working

together to implement the SDGs. Cross-sectoral coordination and planning are through

existing institutions. (UN, 2019). Public-private partnerships will not only bolster the access

to quality education. It is mentioned in the 2019 Voluntary National Review of the Philippines

that the government has encouraged such partnerships by providing tax incentives to

partnerships with the private sector (UN, 2019). Two partnerships worth mentioning are

Teach for the Philippines and Room to Read. Teach for the Philippines is a local non-profit

organization that enlists young teachers to work for public schools in the first two years of

their tenure before proceeding to their choice of occupation. Room to Read, on the other

hand, is an international organization in Asia and Africa that focuses on literacy and gender
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equality in education. The two organizations target one aspect of education that remains to

be issues in the country.

Finally, the two aforementioned issues will inadvertently impact the Philippines’

progress on SDG #1: No Poverty. Receiving quality education is the first step in breaking the

cycle of poverty (Sachs, 2015). The Philippines is far from achieving both goals. However,

by working towards the SDG #4, the country is closer than they were before. It can be seen

in this case that the SDGs are not mutually exclusive. These SDGs overlap in certain areas

and likewise prove to be a more holistic form of development.

III. Comparative Analysis

Demands for improvement in the present Philippine educational landscape can be

understood better from a comparative perspective. Situating the domestic socio-political

realities vis-a-vis those in neighboring and developed countries alike offers more evidence to

support the need for both structural and institutional reforms to address policy gaps. To

these ends, this section examines the Philippine educational realities with respect to

Indonesia and Finland.

Indonesia can be considered a relatively identical country in terms of its social and

political aspects. Similar to the Philippines, it is one of the original founders of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Despite their general similarities, trends in

education between the two countries have much to do with internal factors. In 2016, a study

employing the Right to Education Index revealed that education services in Indonesia ranked

lower than the Philippines (Network for Education Watch Indonesia). According to the

Jakarta Post, the index takes into account five facets as indicators for a country’s

performance including education governance, accessibility, availability, adaptability, and

acceptability (2017). Not long after, however, Indonesia made notable progress in the right

direction in spite of the unpromising indicators at the beginning. Some studies attribute this

to major reforms in 2014 that were designed not only to uplift the educational sector in
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contemporary Indonesia, but also ensure that per capita incomes were more than tripled

from 2011 to 2025 (Oxford Business Group, 2017).

Meanwhile, education in the Philippines has also enjoyed its set of milestones in the

last decade. From transitioning to the K-12 curriculum to making access to education in state

universities free, the administration has taken some strides in improving the country’s

educational situation. However, studies suggest that its overall performance still falls short

within the ASEAN, pinning areas such as total public expenditure on education,

pupil-teacher ratio in primary and secondary schools, and compensation in service

professions and labor force growth in particular as factors for its flaws (The ASEAN Post,

2019). Compounded by a set of controversial budget cuts to the education sector from 2017

to this day, it is not surprising to see that Indonesia has surpassed the Philippines in several

indicators for quality, accessible, and affordable education. In fact, just last year, a study by

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in its Programme for

International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that the Philippines ranked the lowest

with respect to its ASEAN neighbors in some of the most basic indicators for education such

as reading literacy as well as in math and science (Farolan, 2019). Some critiques singled

out the mismatch between the country’s economic situation and the demands of the

educational sector as the biggest contributor to these gaps. While the topic remains up for

debate, it is certain that the problem in the country’s educational system is not confined

within the sector alone. Put simply, the issue is very much intertwined with other issues that

beg to be addressed.

On a regional level, it is worth mentioning that in 2011, the ASEAN committed to a

5-year Work Plan on Education that was meant to “build toward the vision of an ASEAN

education sector in which individual Member States’ education sectors offer progressive,

systemic and organizational capacities, practices, and programmes.” This framework was

originally created in line with the Millennium Development Goals. As such, it was meant to

increase regional cooperation among ASEAN member states and push for deeper

integration through partnerships. Although it did meet certain success indicators in terms of
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building on what had been established in the ASEAN Charter, domestic situations among

ASEAN member states in the succeeding years still showed great disparities in the

education sector within the region. Additionally, patterns of inconsistencies that can be

attributed to change in individual administrations also reflected that regional partnerships

within the intergovernmental scope of the ASEAN prove inadequate in meeting the demands

of education in the bloc.

To further challenge the local and regional context, the Philippine educational sector

can perhaps be compared to the Finnish education system: one of the top models for

education in the world according to PISA indicators (Strauss, 2019). In one study, the

Philippine and Finish education systems have been characterized as “polar opposites”

(Aranilla, 2017). The two countries diverge in three key points: first, the Philippines relies

mostly on standardization while Finland emphasizes flexibility and diversity. Second, in

connection to the priority on standardization, the Philippines pays substantial attention to

literacy and numeracy in contrast to Finland who gives importance to broad knowledge.

Third, evaluation in the Philippines is carried out mainly through inspection or grading while

in Finland, a culture of trust is essential as it allows students to track their progress

according to the recommendations of their educators. These divergences can be seen as

points of improvement. Unfortunately, reforms to the system are not that simple. In

particular, the same study suggests that the Philippine education, although flawed, is heavily

influenced by its colonial past. Hence, reforms to the system require undoing years of

damage brought about by unresolved post-colonial issues.

IV. Solutions

Given all these social realities, integrated with perspectives from international

situations, the group will attempt to provide feasible solutions aiming to address not only the

issues within the education system itself, but also the socio-economic determinants affecting

education outcomes. These solutions are two-fold: the first places heavy emphasis on the

role of the government in policy-making and project implementation; and the second posits
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the significance of public-private partnerships in improving the quality and widening the

access to education.

More equal societies such as Finland are definitive examples proving the importance

of greater government involvement. In improving the education system of the country, first

among the roles of the government is creating policies which ensure that rights of both

students and teachers are actively upheld. On one hand, it is the government’s responsibility

to provide students adequate resources and facilities conducive to effective learning,

focusing on improved quality of modules and adequate classroom-to-student ratio. On the

other hand, the teachers--who carry the formidable task of delivering education--must be

provided with proper compensation, resources to facilitate teaching, and adequate class

size. ​Although the education sector receives a great allotment from the national budget

(Department of Budget and Management, n.d.), measures have to be taken in order for

these basic rights to be secured. More importantly, given today’s context, proper budgeting

and spending proves salient to allow students to adapt to distance learning.

However, these alone may not be sufficient because these do not address the

deeper, more intrinsic issue rooted in the socio-economic aspect. Education outcomes are

directly affected by socio-economic levels, and this is explicitly linked in the rate of

educational attainment vis-a-vis per capita household income (Maligalig et al., 2010).

Despite the provision of free basic education, the external costs of enrollment such as

transportation, school supplies, etc. bear a heavy burden on poor families. That said, the

government has initiated programs to help alleviate this such as “No School Contributions

Collection” wherein extraneous monetary contributions apart are prohibited, and “Breakfast

Feeding Program” which aims to provide basic sustenance for undernourished students.

However, according to a research conducted by the Asian Development Bank, these

projects seem to not be as effective as they were intended to be, and children from these

impoverished sectors still remain vulnerable (2010). Therefore, the most apparent course of

action would be to provide money transfers to ensure that families are able to adequately

allocate for their household expenditure. Moreover, an indirect socio-economic determinant

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of education outcomes is attributed to the educational attainment of household heads,

showing that uneducated parents tend to underinvest in their children’s education (Sachs,

2015). Given this information, training programs targeted towards family heads with low

educational attainment must also be initiated by the government. The capacity of students to

attend classes is not just that of the individual, but rather that of the entire household. And

through these projects, families where the students belong are tended as a whole, not just

the students themselves.

Despite the increase in budget allocation for the said sector, the issue in access to

quality education still persists. The government must actively seek innovative solutions to

this problem, and the group proposes that institutionalization of public-private partnerships

(PPPs) in the education sector may prove to be effective. The role of the private sector is

greatly valued by the country, and the notion of PPP projects is not necessarily novel.

However, these projects have been mainly geared towards infrastructural development and

economic sustenance. As of 2018, only two of the 109 PPP projects are from the education

sector (Ricote, 2018). It is understandable that the complex nature of PPPs limits pipelined

projects, but their potential for the education sector is certainly not maximized. On the aspect

of accessibility, Infrastructure PPPs are definitively significant in furnishing facilities for

remote areas. This also includes establishment and maintenance of e-laboratories. Private

entities give the government the benefit of efficient operations and management of projects

insofar as the government ensures regular payments within the contract duration. Likewise,

with regards to raising the quality of education, PPP projects can improve education service

delivery through private management of public schools, government purchase of private

education service, and tutoring services (LaRocque, 2008). These may be manifested

through leasing of public schools, private involvement in curriculum development, and

cross-institutional engagements such as the Ateneo BIGKIS Program respectively.

Moreover, access and quality can be enhanced further through private financing programs.

Similar to the Education Voucher Scheme of Punjab, India, students are given the freedom

to choose an institution of their liking through vouchers or scholarship grants (Malik, 2010).
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This, however, necessitates distinct criteria such as income distribution in order to be

deemed eligible. Through this program, apart from freedom of choice, students are also

given the opportunity to experience quality education from institutions not limited within their

vicinity.
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Conclusion

Through the Rights Based and Human Needs Approaches, the paper forwarded the

need to address gaps in quality education in the Philippines. Essentially, it argued that the

recent pandemic attests to the call for immediate solutions in not only addressing already

existing problems in Philippine education, but also responding to the new problems that

come with the recent crisis. Moreover, as analyzed through both local and global contexts,

the paper served as critical review on the current state of education in the country and its

connection to other societal issues. Recommendations presented include a two-fold

approach: first, the need to highlight the role of the government in pushing the education

agenda at the forefront of priorities; and second, the potential of public-private partnerships

in the situation.
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