Economist and education consultant Mario M. Taguiwalo called for increasing the effectiveness of public spending in schooling during the Roundtable Discussion on the 2010 Education for All Global Monitorng Report held last March 16, 2011 in Pasig City, Metro Manila.

UNESCO Office, Jakarta and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) organized the roundtable discussion in cooperation with the Department of Education. Participants included key education stakeholders in government, international organizations, NGOs and media.

Taguiwalo, who is president of the National Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS), pointed out that the evidence of effectiveness from current public spending in schooling is not very encouraging.
 
“It is crucial for the long-term credibility of Philippine education leadership of the Department of Education that it maintains a robust scientific effort to track and measure the continued effectiveness of public spending in schooling through a large and active monitoring and evaluation effort coupled with a wide variety of instructional and other innovations being tried and tracked,” he said.

EXPANDING PHILIPPINE EDUCATION

Speaking on “Economics of Education: Notes for Philippine Education Reform,” Taguiwalo also discussed the need to expand the definition of the Philippine education enterprise by going beyond schools and universities to include families, communities, media, churches, arts and culture, and workplaces.

He also pushed for Improving disciplinary learning in the mother tongue to provide strong foundations for future learning in other languages; increasing linkage of education research with teacher education, hiring and promotion to improve teacher performance; and expanding employer-sponsored training to motivate young people to make further investments that can increase their longer-term employability and to provide an opportunity for employers to teach young people what kinds of capacities they seek from their workers.

Other recommendations Taguiwalo put forward to reform Philippine education were the following:

• Educating parents to value competencies rather than credentials so that they may become better investors in the education of their children;
• Increasing funding to schools that are more popular with parents so that the power of parents in choosing their children’s schools is increased;
• Using sports and culture to link schools and communities; and
• Making poor families better investors in their children’s education through the government’s anti-poverty program, including the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

MAKING GROWTH INCLUSIVE

Dr. Cielito F. Habito, economics professor and director of the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development, Ateneo de Manila University, pointed out the incongruity of increased poverty among Filipinos amidst growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during the period 2000-2006.

A former Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning, Habito stressed that education is a vital public investment that makes economic growth inclusive.

Speaking as a panel discussant during the Roundtable Discussion, he proposed that the Philippine education system should become entrepreneurship-oriented, teaching entrepreneurship values at the primary school and entrepreneurship skills at the secondary school and up.

He further said that, with the basic principles of economics providing guidance on how best to provide education, the Philippine education system must support students rather than schools, provide incentives to teachers and schools, allow the community to participate in managing the school.

Dr. Vicente Paqueo, economist and World Bank consultant, commented that the allocation of resources for the marginalized must not only be based on the “disadvantage” indicator, but must also reward performance.

To address the poverty and marginalization issue, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program must be scaled up and implemented efficiently, he said.

REACHING EFA GOALS

While declaring that the Philippine EFA goals are reachable, he enumerated the conditions needed, including addressing accountability and incentives issues, more intensive attention to the marginalized, timely enrolment of six-year-olds, and focus on implementing EFA.

Dr. Manuel S. Alba, Senior Adviser to the Quezon City Mayor and Founding Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on Education (1969-1970), highlighted the vital role of the Local Government Units (LGU) in fulfilling education goals.

A former Secretary of Budget and Management, he discussed how the Quezon City government has been strengthening basic education services by allocating a bigger percentage to education through the School Board, enhancing teacher competency, and improving school administration.

REPORTING ON THE PHILIPPINES

Dr. Anwar Al-Said, Head of the Education Unit of UNESCO Office, Jakarta, noted that although the Philippines is a higher-income country, it is in danger of failing to achieve the EFA goals largely because of deeply entrenched national inequalities.

Citing data from the 2010 EFA Global Monitoring Report, he said that education poverty rates among the Philippine poor are four times the national average. Specifically, about six percent of 7-to 16-year-olds from the poorest households are reported as not attending school or never having attended. Extreme economic inequalities fuel education inequalities, notably by pushing many children out of school and into employment.

Dr. Al-Said pointed out that, according to the Report, current policies are not breaking down inherited disadvantage due in part to low investment education. Thus, only 2.3 percent of GNP was invested in education, compared with the East Asian subregional average of 3.6 percent.

He observed that the Philippines provides a particularly striking example of underperformance in achieving universal primary education. With an average income four times that of Tanzania or Zambia, it has a lower net enrolment ratio (NER). In addition, while Tanzania and Zambia have been steadily increasing their NERs, the Philippines has had a stagnating NER since 1999.

Given the country’s starting point in 1999, achieving universal primary education (UPE) by 2015 should have been a formality, given the country’s higher income level and starting point, Dr. Al-Said said. He warned that there is now a real danger that, without political leadership, the country will miss the UPE goal by 2015.

He challenged his audience that with leadership and ownership of the education goals, education for all in the Philippines can be achieved.

Other resource persons at the roundtable discussion were Dr. Yolanda Quijano, Department of Education Undersecretary for Programs and Projects, and Ms. Jeannette Tuason, Officer in Charge of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines. AIJC President Ramon Tuazon served as moderator.