Memo to DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara

Among those who were considered for the position of DepEd secretary, we truly believe that the president did the right thing when he appointed you, Mr. Secretary. You are not a traditional politician and you are an educator, yourself, having taught in Law school in New Era and Entro Escolar. Like your late dad, Senator Ed Angara, who was the youngest UP President, you are a genuine pillar of Philippines education.

You will most probably breeze through the Commission on Appointments considering that most of its members were your colleagues for the longest time and they know you to be a man of competence and probity. They know you as hardworking, focused, and conscientious as well. Being a professor myself who never stopped teaching since 1969 in the undergraduate level and since 1977 in the College of Law, I have a distinct interest in the quality of education in our country. My late father, like his own father too, my paternal grandfather, was a teacher for more than 40 years in the public schools in the mountain villages in southern Cebu. My late mother also was a master teacher who taught in various elementary and primary schools in Ronda, Cebu, for more than 38 years.

For these reasons, I am very excited by your appointment as I wish you could assess the quality of the entire education system, the quality of teachers, curriculum, teaching methods and modalities, school buildings, as well as the quality of administrators who lead and manage the whole teaching and learning environment in the Philippines. I believe that your stewardship of DepEd should start with the realities on the ground. The dismal and even shameful results of the Philippine education system in international assessments like the PISA, TIMSS, and SEA-PLM are making our country the laughing stock in the Asia-Pacific Region. We are beaten black and blue by Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia among ASEAN member nations. We should not wait until Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia beat us too.

Compared to their counterparts in Europe, America, and even here in Asia, the Filipino teachers are still underpaid and overworked. More importantly, they are overmanaged but underled. What I mean is that supervisors, superintendents, regional directors, and undersecretaries are too fixated on imposing plans and controls that they demotivate teachers from excelling in the academic and scholarly performance of their most fundamental work of facilitating the learning process. The school administrators are too focused on reports and rituals and are distracted from their main job of teaching, mentoring, coaching, and counseling. There is too much controlling and too little leading, too limited motivating and rewarding excellence in the teaching/learning environment.

Perhaps you need to reexamine the curriculum too. What do we really want our children to become? Are we training future migrant workers who shall leave the country in order to empower the economies of other nations? Are we teaching our pupils to become intellectual giants and moral pygmies? Are leading our students to be dependent on gadgets and ignore basic knowledge on reading, writing and mathematics. Why are our graduates unable to speak and write correct grammar, syntax, logic, and even spelling? Why can't our learners not answer 9 multiplied by 7 without using a calculator? Why are our graduates ignorant of Philippine geography and history? They do not even know where Sarangani and Dinagat are located.

If you still have time and energy, maybe you need to look at the school buildings too. Why are these infrastructures being invaded by evacuees during typhoons, floods, fire, and other disasters and calamities? Why are these edifices being used during elections and other non-education functions and activities? You may also look at the safety and security measures put in place in order to safeguard the health, safety, and security of students, faculty, and non-teaching personnel. And please consider how to maximize synergies with the PTA’s and the LGU’s.

And by the way, I am glad that you do not demand an intelligence fund or any confidential fund for that matter. We have high hopes and expectations from DepEd now that you are at the helm. I hope you will not disappoint us.