Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman sais the COVID crisis has exposed the weaknesses of the country’s educational system that “has remained anchored in the traditional method of face-to-face teaching.”
“In our neighboring countries, in Europe and the United States, students have shifted to online classes with utmost ease because they had already integrated online teaching even before COVID-19,” Roman said during her privilege speech during a video conference with her colleagues at the House of Representative via Zoom last Wednesday June 3.
Students in other countries, she added, also benefit from online libraries, which do not only cut costs in terms of books but also promote reading and competence while saving the country’s forests.
“What are we waiting for? We have already passed the Free Wifi and Internet Access Act (RA 10929) for all public places, including schools. Has this been implemented?” Roman asked her fellow lawmakers.
Presently, education in the Philippines is offered through formal and non-formal systems. Formal education typically spans 14 years and is structured in a 6+4+4 system: 6 years of primary school education, 4 years of secondary school education, and four years of higher education, leading to a bachelor’s degree.
Congresswoman Roman also filed the Philippine Online Library Bill (House Bill 514) which mandates the digitization of all required reading material for all levels of schooling to facilitate online reading for our students.
“This is a wake-up call. Innovation does not only involve technology which admittedly could be costly but more importantly, it should be organizational. Had we started investing in distance-learning earlier on, this pandemic would not have set back the education of our children,” Roman stressed.
In a recent published research, the Philippines ranks 25th in the list of countries with the worst education system. The national government uses only 2.7% of the country’s GDP—which is, at an estimate, eight from 304 billion pesos—which is not enough to sustain an effective education system.