House approves 34 measures to improve education system

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has approved at least 34 measures aimed at improving the country’s education system, including bills that open up opportunities for indigent students, before it adjourned last week.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the education bills were approved during the first regular session that opened in July last year and adjourned sine die on June 11.

“We made education a high priority of the chamber,” Belmonte said, adding the House was fully aware of the importance of education as a driver of growth.

Among those passed on third reading were the proposed Ladderized Education Interface Act, which seeks to enable technical vocational (tech-voc) students a college degree by giving corresponding higher education credits to subjects/training programs acquired in tech-voc institutions and vice-versa; Open Distance Learning Act, which seeks to expand access to educational services by institutionalizing open distance learning in higher education;

The proposed Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Higher Technical Education Act (UNIFast), which shall harmonize all government scholarship and grants-in-aid programs to promote greater efficiency, coherence, synchronization, rationalized access, effective funding and improved coordination among implementing agencies;

The Voluntary Student Loan Program of Private Banks Act that extends new financial incentives so that private banks may be encouraged to grant educational loans to college or post-secondary technical-vocational institute students; and the bill that seeks to establish a special education center in all public school divisions in the country.