The CSF Education Summit 2024 was officially announced on August 12, 2024, at a press conference held in Heroes Hall, City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Scheduled for August 22-23, the summit will focus on the theme “Validating EDCOM 2 Findings: Towards An Inclusive And Responsive Education System In The City of San Fernando.”
Prominent figures including City Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag, City Administrator Nelson Lingat, DepEd OIC Regional Director Ronnie Mallari, and MSGC officers Sonia Soto and Lourdes Javier, among others, were present at the event. The summit aims to validate the findings of the Congressional EDCOM 2 first-year report on the state of the Philippine education system, in collaboration with institutions like the University of the Assumption, TESDA, and CHED. The event is expected to draw around 300 participants, who will engage in focus group discussions to consolidate findings for future implementation and legislation.
Caluag emphasized the significance of the summit, stating, “Upon assuming office, I made it a priority to support our learners and educators, especially those competing internationally in academic quizzes. This summit is a continuation of that commitment, focusing on addressing the pressing issues identified in the EDCOM 2 report.”
MSGC Executive Director and Vice Chair of the MSGC Education Sector Soto, provided an overview of the EDCOM 2 Year 1 report, validating the decline in the state of education from 2005 to 2024. She remarked, “The crisis in our education system is not new, and the pandemic has only exacerbated it. The findings of the EDCOM 2 report are a wake-up call that we must act upon urgently.”
Despite the CSF’s annual Special Education Fund (SEF) of ₱230 million, with ₱90 million allocated for CSF City College and ₱8.7 million for ECCD, the summit will confront the ongoing educational crisis highlighted by the EDCOM report. This report identifies inadequate government investment and mismanagement as key contributors to the decline in educational quality in the Philippines.
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara underscored the severity of the situation, noting that the Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 countries in global educational outcomes, placing second to last in ASEAN. The findings also revealed that the country ranks near the bottom in reading, mathematics, and science skills. Despite efforts to improve, these rankings have seen only slight, statistically insignificant changes since the 2018 PISA results.
The EDCOM report also uncovered severe inefficiencies in textbook procurement, with only 27 titles procured for Kindergarten to Grade 10 since 2012, despite billions of pesos in budget allocations. This failure, along with insufficient Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) budgets for schools, underscores the systemic issues plaguing the education sector.
Caluag outlined the summit’s objectives, which include reviewing the EDCOM 2 Report, analyzing local educational challenges, and fostering collaboration among stakeholders to improve education outcomes in San Fernando, Pampanga. The summit is a crucial step toward addressing the broader national education crisis, with EDCOM 2 playing a pivotal role in assessing and recommending legislative measures over the next three years to combat these issues.