DepEd wants to get support from LGUs, big business for education

With help from the private sector and the local government units, the Department of Education plans to make education a national priority this year.

DepEd regional director Carolino Mordeno said the education department would intensify its campaign to solicit big business support for the improvement of the education system.

He said efforts would be strengthened to get local government units and the private sector to continue supporting public education saying that without the help of the private sector and LGUs, the resource gaps in education would have been bigger.

Because of the perennially meager allocations given to education, the DepEd has over the years turned to the private sector and LGUs for funding assistance, Mordeno said.

Education Secretary Fe Hidalgo said DepEd is making do with meager resources in an attempt to raise the standard of education in the country's public schools.

"We have said it time and again that Philippine education is in crisis. It's time that we enjoin not just DepEd officials around the country, but more importantly the entire nation, to act now to solve this crisis," Hidalgo said.

The DepEd had said that private sector assistance to public education amounted to around P1 billion in the form of materials and time spent improving classrooms in the past few years.

Aside from seeking help from the private sector and the LGU's, Mordeno said that it would focus more on the reading programs for children in order to achieve the target of a zero non-reader class until they reach grade 3.

" Our target is to make these children independent readers or functionally literate when they reach grade three. We want to achieve that goal this year because that is very essential to the children, reading with comprehension," Mordeno said.

Alongside with their target, Mordeno said that they would also focus on the schools first initiative program of former DepEd Secretary Florencio Abad wherein students will be the main focus of the program. - Jasmin R. Uy