Oreta urges more perks for children’s program producers

Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta urged yesterday the government to give additional incentives to telenovela production outfits to encourage them to produce more child-friendly television shows.

In a statement, Oreta said at present there are not enough kid-friendly TV shows that could educate and impart good values to young Filipinos.

Oreta, who chairs the Senate committee on public information and mass media and is former head of the committee on education, said a recent survey showed that most kids in the 8-12 years old age bracket preferred watching early evening telenovelas and noontime variety programs geared more toward the young adult audience.

She said that according to the "Anak TV Youth Vote" survey on children’s television preferences, only five educational shows were included in the Top 20 choices.

But she noted that Sineskwela, Math-Tinik, Hirayamanawari, Epol/Apple and Bayani all lagged behind the telenovelas in the rankings.

"Our grade schoolers in public schools do not usually get the best education they deserve because of the perennial shortages ailing our public education sector like the lack of teachers, textbooks, classrooms and desks," Oreta said.

Oreta, convenor of the Save Our School (SOS) multisectoral advocacy network, said the results of the Anak TV Youth Vote were alarming.

"It is sad to find out that after school, there are a few TV programs they can watch at home that would help them cope with such school-related deficiencies, leaving them with no option other than to settle for telenovelas," she said.

Oreta said that producers of telenovelas should be given additional incentives that would encourage them to produce more kid-friendly TV shows.

"Television needs to come up with more kid-friendly shows to help fill the knowledge gap in public schools, where learning facilities are inadequate, performance levels of students are below par, and opportunities for in-service training of teachers to upgrade their skills are scarce," she said.

The opposition senator earlier filed separate measures establishing funds to meet the perennial shortages ailing the education sector and develop the information technology skills of students and teachers in public schools.

Among the measures is Senate Bill 2598 or the Basic Education Rehabilitation and Improvement Act, which aims to establish a one-time special purpose fund of P25 billion to wipe out in a single blow the shortage of 24 million textbooks, 44,000 classrooms, and 4.8 million school desks in public schools.

Another is Senate Bill 2597, which provides for a separate start-up fund of P10 billion to sharpen the computer skills of public school teachers and their pupils.

Oreta also seeks a tapping of a portion of the P110 billion in projected sales from the planned sale of the 550-hectare National Bilibid Reservation lot in Muntinlupa; the P25 billion in projected savings of the budget department due to lower interest rates and higher revenues; and at least P5 billion of the $658 million (roughly P36 billion) in escrow funds recently forfeited by the Supreme Court in favor of the government.