Back to basics

On Jan. 29 this year, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom-2) submitted its final report to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) at Malacañang Palace. Aptly called Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reforms, the EdCom-2 final report included a list of recommendations to address, among other things, the learning crisis of many Filipino school children.

In these last two years of the Marcos administration, three of the most important recommendations of the EdCom-2 are now being implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd). Created by Republic Act 11899, EdCom-2 is a national commission tasked with assessing the Philippine education sector. It took off from the first EdCom established in 1990.

Under its 10-year national education and workforce development plan, EdCom-2 recommended “transformative reforms to make the country globally competitive.” EdCom-2 reviewed the mandates of the country’s three main educational agencies: the DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

As endorsed by EdCom-2, DepEd phased out the “de facto mass promotion” of public school students who lack the required skills to advance. Recently, DepEd implemented the overhauling of teacher workloads and school staffing structures, also on EdCom-2’s imprimatur. And currently, the DepEd is strengthening early childhood education to improve foundational reading and math before Grade 3 under the K-1-to-12 curriculum.

After RA 11899 lapsed into law on July 23, 2022, EdCom-2 formally convened on Jan. 23, 2023 and started its three-year review and assessment. The life of this congressional oversight body was extended for two more years. Currently, EdCom-2 continues its review until late 2027 under RA 12315 approved into law by the 20th Congress on March 4 this year to oversee the implementation of many other recommended policies.

Among the principal authors and sponsors is Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, who admitted the EdCom-2 really needs to maintain oversight functions to be hands-on in the implementation. As the chairman of the House committee on basic education and culture, Romulo sits also as co-chairman of the EdCom-2.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Romulo vowed to ensure the implementation of EdCom-2 recommended reforms. He noted the use of laptop and tablets for the “blended” learning proved to be helpful to protect schoolchildren during the COVID pandemic in 2020. But Romulo argued “there is no substitute for face-to-face learning” and physically attending classes.

“We want our learners to go back to pencil-and-paper. We’re going back to basics,” Romulo declared.

Likewise, Romulo called out the need to speed up the implementing guidelines for the textbook procurement at the DepEd central office. That is, without sacrificing safeguards to prevent corruption seeping into the textbook procurement process. Romulo stressed the urgency to return the interest of schoolchildren to reading textbooks and using workbooks rather than online learning.

Romulo echoed his call related to renewed legislative initiatives to protect children and youth from the adverse influence allegedly spawned by online games. Romulo called for regulation and not a total ban on online games available on social media platforms.

Romulo vowed to support any measure to address the growing public concerns over the increasing violence being traced to pernicious online games. Before the 20th Congress adjourned sine die last month, several bills were filed before the House of Representatives and the Senate to prohibit minors under 16 from registering, accessing or maintaining accounts on social media platforms.

The proposed legislations came in the aftermath of the June 22 shooting spree done by two minor students at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City where they killed three of their schoolmates and injured 20 others. One of the students, a 14-year-old boy, was found to be an active player of an online game called Gorebox.

From Google, Gorebox is described as a first-person shooter video game that can be played solo or as online multiplayer that has an R18 rating due to extremely violent, explicit and unrestrictive gameplay. Cybercrime Investigation and Co-ordinating Center undersecretary Aboy Paraiso earlier announced the gaming app Gorebox has been temporarily blocked in the Philippines.

Instead of a total ban, Romulo believes what is needed is to regulate or to impose reasonable and realistic limitations on the use of social media for young kids. “For me, don’t ban it, but we need to have something called a regulation…What I want is to regulate it. Let’s give parents responsibility when they are at home, they need to have monitoring. How to do it, we need to discuss that carefully,” Romulo explained.

“We know that it is difficult to ban because you can’t monitor children at home. Let’s say they (minors) are banned from accessing social media. When they are at school, you can monitor them but when they come home, let’s face it, a solo parent or the mother and father have to work, how can they monitor them?” Romulo pointed out.

Thus, Romulo conceded Congress needs to discuss the possible culpability of parents, while social media platforms should also have accountability. “It’s not easy as there are many nuances. But the nuances are really realities. We need to confront them to the best that we can but we need specific regulations,” Romulo stressed.

Romulo noted the proposed legislative measures were referred to the House committee on the welfare of children. Romulo, however, was tapped to head the technical working group (TWG) to tackle the proposed measures since the age groups mostly belong to schoolchildren from K-1 to K-12.

At this stage, the 59-year-old representative from the lone congressional district of Pasig City has not made up his mind yet if he will make a run in the mayoral race in May 2028. Romulo cited outgoing Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto has already declared he will not seek re-election but go back to teaching in school.

But for now, Romulo is pushing for the return to pencil-and-paper for safer learning spaces, far from the harms of cyberspace. So it’s back to basics for young learners.