A Philippine education situationer by Youth Against Debt and Freedom from Debt Coalition

1. Education Situation
Youth Against Debt
Freedom from Debt Coalition

2. Policy Gaps, Flawed Framework

3. The Philippine Education Sector can be described
as gradually being transferred from the public to
the private sector.
1. Section 42 of Batas Pambansa 232 or the
Education Act of 1982
2. RA 6782 or Government Assistance to Students
and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE).
3. RA 7772 or Higher Education Act of 1994.
4. Section 4 of RA 8292 or the Higher Education
Modernization Act (HEMA) of 1997.
Privatized, Deregulated and
Commercialized Philippine Education

4. 1. Section 42 of Batas Pambansa 232 or the
Education Act of 1982 allows private schools
to determine the rate of its school fees without
regulation.
Supreme Court ruled in 153 SCRA 622 (Philippine
Consumer’s Foundation vs. Secretary of Education,
Culture, and Sports) that the power to regulate
school fees devolves to the Department of
Education
Nonetheless, there is a lack of a mechanism to
mitigate the impact of deregulation to the
education cost, given that DepEd don’t have any
regulatory powers.
Policy Gaps in the Education Sector

5. 2. RA 6782 or Government Assistance to
Students and Teachers in Private
Education (GASTPE).
While Section 10 of GASTPE requires consultations
before any increase is to be made, it does not
guarantee bargaining powers to consulted parties.
No mechanisms that would prevent these
consultations from being mere announcements of
fee increases
Policy Gaps in the Education Sector

6. 3. RA 7772 or Higher Education Act of 1994.
The RA that created the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED) failed to give CHED the ff.
powers: a. to regulate tuition increases, and b. to
stringently penalize violators.
Even if it is the policy of the state to privatize the
education sector, no provisions that would empower
CHED to regulate and stabilize private education
cost
No mechanisms to ensure accountability on the
part of CHED
Policy Gaps in the Education Sector

7. 4. Section 4 of RA 8292 or the Higher
Education Modernization Act (HEMA) of
1997.
Supplements corporatization
Governing boards of SUCs given the power to
engage in private and profit-oriented transactions
Facilitates the slow relinquishing of state
responsibility on education, since it forces SUCs to
find other means to sustain its own operations.
Inconsistent with the mandated policy of the state
(as stipulated in the constitution) to prioritize
education in the allocation of its resources.
Policy Gaps in the Education Sector

8. The Philippine Education System lacks a clear
national policy.
Crucial in determining the role and position of the education
sector in the whole schema of social production.
Especially true for higher education, since we (wrongly)
assign to it the function of training our labor sector
Governed by the policy of trifocalization. The
current education paradigm treats vocational-
technical education for basic production as
extrinsically separate and independent of basic and
higher education.
May have been caused by the difference of the three levels in
terms of cost.
For example, basic education is supposedly universally free,
and there is an option later whether to pursue vocational-
technical education or a much more expensive higher
education.
The Philippine Education System

9. Basic (primary and secondary) education is
unable to capacitate the labor pool to a level
of competence apt for specialized training due
to lack of government and private investment
for a quality education system.
Due to this incapacity, the populace had been
conditioned to view primary and secondary schooling
only as preparations for college, thus resulting in the
relegation of much of the tertiary education to skills
training.
In this case, we have higher education system only
serving to bridge the gap between the technical skills
of the existing workforce (produced by secondary
education) and the demands of the labor market.
The Philippine Education System

10. As a social reaction to the emergent problems of
this education framework, there is a trend
towards tying vocational-technical education
with higher education.
College courses being offered gradually begin to
reflect the technical needs of the booming
industries, such as healthcare and ICT
(Information Communication Technology).
There had also been proposals to create college
programs that are modularized to include
technical education, so one receives a technical
education diploma sometime along the middle of
the college program.
The Philippine Education System

11. Because of the service-oriented nature of labor
demand, and the current framework of higher
education only as a bridge between the basic
education institutions and the labor market,
private sector investment in higher education only
serves to offer training for service industries.
Labor demand remains to be services-oriented
because private sector investment in higher
education is focused solely on existing labor
market demand and not on a specific
industrialization strategy.
The government is currently supporting a labor-
exportation policy, primarily compelled by low
internal employment rate and the macroeconomic
value of foreign currency remittances of Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFW).
The Philippine Education System

12. Trends in Basic Education Sector
Some figures from Prof. Benjamin Diokno, 2007

13. Neglecting Education
Public expenditures on education in some ASEAN countries, 2004
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
INDONESIA PHILIPPINES THAILAND MALAYSIA
1.1
3.2
4.2
8.1
9
17.8
27.5
20.3
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON EDUC AS % OF GDP
PUBLIC EXPENDITURES ON EDUC AS % OF TOTAL GOV'T EXPENDITURES
Source: Benjamin
Diokno, 2007, citing
World Bank

14. Left Behind
Completion Rates in Percentage
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006
66.13 66.33
66.95
59.32 59.07
56.76
70.62 69.97
59.9
63.14
64.77
54.14
Elementary Level Secondary Level
Source: Benjamin Diokno, Real State of the Nation, 20 July 2007, citing DepEd

15. Giving Up, Losing Opportunities
Drop-out Rates in Percentage
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006
Elementary Level Secondary Level
Source: Benjamin Diokno, Real State of the Nation, 20 July 2007, citing DepEd

16. Lagging Behind
Rank and Score of Higher Education 2006
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
CAMBODIA
VIET NAM
PHILIPPINES
INDONESIA
THAILAND
MALAYSIA
SINGAPORE
110
90
63
53
42
32
10
2.63
3.39
4.02
4.25
4.44
4.8
5.59
SCORE RANK
Source: Benjamin Diokno, Real State of the Nation, 20 July 2007, citing World Economic Forum

17. Trends in Higher Education Sector
An Analysis by Youth Against Debt (YAD)

18. Exodus to Public HEIs
Costs in Private
Higher Education
Institutions (HEI)
are going up
beyond people’s
ability to pay.
This forces
students to
transfer to Public
HEI (SUCs, LUCs,
etc.).
Average Net Increase of Students per HEI
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Public
Private
Growth rate
for private
Schools dips,
despite
increase in
new entrants.

19. SUCs cannot Accomodate
But, the meager SUC budget cannot simply capacitate our
SUCs to absorb the college entrants.
New SUC Budget per College Entrant
(4,000)
(2,000)
-
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003
 SUCs will thus be forced to past the cost to the students. The
UP System, for example, recently hiked tuition by 300%.

20. Result: College Enrollment Dips
Students thus, not
being able to afford
any school at all, have
nowhere to go. This
slows down net
growth of college
students.
Less and less people
are enrolling in
college.
This trend will
inevitably take its toll
on our economy,
which will have a
decreasing supply of
skilled labor.
-4.00%
-2.00%
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Net Increase in College Students Growth Rate

21. The Delors Standard, Education
Spending, and Debt Servicing
An Analysis by the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)

22. UNESCO on 21st Century
Education
In 1996, the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formed the
International Commission on Education for the 21st
Century (a.k.a. the Delors Commission)
Headed by Jacques Delors, stated that “in
confronting the many challenges that the future
holds in store, humankind sees in education an
indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the
ideals of peace, freedom and social justice”.
“Education is a human right and an essential tool for
achieving the goals of equality, development and
peace.”

23. The Delors Standard
This Delors Commission pegs real
education expenditure at 6% of the Gross
National Product (GNP) for developing
nations such as the Philippines.
The international benchmark set by Delors
was adopted by UNESCO.
This is to increase the skills and
knowledge of the would-be labor sector of
the country.

24. Education Spending of Various
Countries (2002, UNESCO)

25. Education Spending of Various
Countries (2002, UNESCO)

26. 0.00%
0.50%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.50%
3.00%
3.50%
4.00%
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Ramos Estrada Arroyo
3.30%
3.76% 3.80%
3.53%
3.34%
3.13% 2.97%
2.79%
2.45%
2.23%
2.20%
2.26%
Education Spending as % of GNP

27. Education Spending and
Relative Wealth of Countries
We decided to test if there is a correlation
between education spending as % of GNI/GNP,
and GDP per capita in PPP (purchasing power
parity, US dollars), of 83 countries in the year
2004, using UNESCO Institute for Statistics data.
The resulting correlation coefficient is 0.468412
< .5, indicating mild correlation between the two
variables.
This only proves that to some degree, the wealth
of the country is proportional to its education
spending.

28. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
- 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000
EducationSpendingperGNI,inpercent
GDP per Capita, PPP, in US$
Scatter Diagram of 83 Countries
Philippines
Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines
Denmark
Chad
Kenya

29. Education Spending and
Relative Wealth of Countries
But let us look for
countries with similar
income per capita as
the Philippines. Are
they spending the
same for education?
Only war-torn Lebanon
is fractionally higher
than the Philippines.
All others are spending
above 5% of their GNI
to education.
Thus, education under-
spending is mostly a
matter of national
policy.
UNESCO
2004 data
GDP per
Capita, PPP,
in US$
Education
Spending as
% of GNI
Cape Verde 5,449 6.23
Lebanon 5,422 2.51
Philippines 4,834 2.36
Swaziland 4,646 6.24
Guyana 4,482 5.35

30. -
50.0
100.0
150.0
200.0
250.0
300.0
350.0
400.0
450.0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Ramos Estrada Arroyo
Education Spending vs. Delors Required
Education Spending (in billions)
6% of GNP Education Spending

31. Years and
Admin.
Ramos Estrada Arroyo
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
in billion pesos
6% of GNP 135.7 151.4 168.9 188.2 209.8 232.6 253.4 277.9 314.9 353.1 394.2 436.5
Education
Spending
74.7 95.0 106.9 110.6 116.8 121.5 125.4 129.0 128.8 131.2 144.2 164.1
Delors Gap 61.0 56.4 62.1 77.6 93.0 111.1 128.0 148.9 186.1 221.9 250.0 272.4
Delors Gap
Total 1,668.5
in percentage
Education
Spending as
% of GNP
3.30 3.76 3.80 3.53 3.34 3.13 2.97 2.79 2.45 2.23 2.20 2.26

32. Where did the money go?
There is no exact answer to that, but let take
a look at where government spending goes.
While there are many answers to this
question ranging from corruption, obese
pork barrel allocations to unnecessary
spending, one way of knowing is by looking
deeply into our debt problem.
Due to the policy of prioritizing debt
payments as mandated by the automatic
debt servicing provision as provided for by
Sec. 26(b) of the Revised Administrative
Code of 1987, administrations have been
investing much less in social services in
terms of percentage.

33. Education vs. Interest Payments
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Ramos Estrada Arroyo
Education Spending as percent of the Budget
Interest Payments for Debt as percent of the
budget

34. 154
347
1,783
2,284
117
233
1,318
1,668
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
Ramos (96-97) Estrada (98-00) Arroyo (02-07) Combined (96-07)
Delors Gap vs. Interest Payments (in billions)
Total Interest Payments
Total, Delors Gap

35. Neglecting Education
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Marcos Aquino Ramos Estrada Arroyo
Basic Education Spending per pupil

36. -
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Aquino Ramos Estrada Arroyo
Suffer the Future
Debt per capita vs. Health, Education per capita
Health per capita (deflated)
Education per capita (deflated)
Debt payment per capita (deflated)

37. What was lost?
-
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Ramos Estrada Arroyo
Additional
Classrooms
that could have
been built if
Delors required
spending was
followed
PhP 400,000
/ classroom
2000 prices
•Php
375,000
infra
•30 books
•30 chairs

38. Recommendations for an Alternative
Public Higher Education System

39. A Strong, Sustainable Higher
Education System
Moratorium on fee increases in public HEIs.
So as not to compromise the fiscal standing of public HEIs
about to increase its tuition and other fees, economic relief
equal to the projected increase should be provided by the
State upon justification of immediate and substantial need.
Republic Act 7722 or the Higher Education Act of
1994 must be amended to increase the power of CHED
in regulating and stabilizing tuition and other school fees.
The amendment must include the power to impose fee
increase cap and the power to prosecute in incidents of
violation.
Section 42 of Batas Pambansa 232 or the Education
Act of 1982 which deregulates school fee increases must
be amended
Following the Supreme Court ruling in 153 SCRA 622 which
states that the power to regulate school fees devolves to the
education departments

40. Multi-sectoral School Fee Boards in all private and
public HEIs.
Composed of an equal number of representatives from the
administration, academic and non-academic personnel,
parents/guardians, students and alumni association
Concurrent with the strengthening of pre-basic (e.g.
Early Childhood Care and Development or ECCD) and
basic education (primary and secondary)
Using the Education for All (EFA) framework, technical
training should gradually be infused to secondary
education through establishing greater coordination
with TESDA and DepEd,
Instead of relegating the task of technical training to
higher education.
A Strong Developmental Higher
Education System

41. Public HEIs must be subjected to a periodic
review, which will ascertain:
Effectively performing public HEIs, based on a certain
benchmark pegged on international standards
For non-performing HEI’s, how much performance
was a function of resource input (to determine
potentially performing HEIs)
Best academic and management practices, which will
be documented and used as a resource by all HEIs
Transition to a Strong
Developmental Higher Ed System

42. Performing HEIs must be capacitated to a
degree which will enable it to absorb the
demand for non-performing HEIs in proximate
locations. Local and national development
demands shall be considered when expanding.
In this modified outcome-based financing, both the
potential and actual outcome are assessed
These performing HEI are in essence competing with these
HEIs for students, which gradually weeds out non-
performing HEIs without compromising the capacity to
accept entrants and to offer those entrants quality
education.
Regionalized return-of-service programs must be
strengthened.
Transition to a Strong
Developmental Higher Ed System

43. Participatory Education
Budgeting
Student groups must consider advocating for a
multi-stakeholder, participatory budget
process in their respective public universities.
The students must proactively and critically
engage the administration in developing the
school’s budget (or at least, the budget it will
proposed in the DBM and CHED)
Instead of the administration solely developing
the budget, and instead of the students
merely calling for higher state subsidy

44. Protecting Student Rights, Upholding
Student Welfare

45. The constitution guarantees all citizens concrete
civil and political liberties such as the freedom of
the press, assembly, and organization.
The studentry, being citizens themselves, should
thus be capacitated to enjoy and exercise such
liberties, with governing institutions designed in
such as way that they will respect and protect
these rights.
Moreover, since education is perceived to be the
engine with which we perpetuate our societal
values, the way we do education should above all
reflect the progressive ideals our democratic
society – thus the continuing need to proactively
establish an intellectually free, equal-opportunity
learning environment.
The Continuing Need for a
Magna Carta of Students

46. But while our ideals and laws do require
those conditions, the status quo
continuously fails to deliver. This is
actually due to certain statutory
inadequacies, in particular:
The arbitrary and non-uniform standards and
procedures imposed by school administrators on
students regarding democratic and education
rights;
Lack of student awareness of these rights;
The Continuing Need for a
Magna Carta of Students

47. Lack of democratic space and institutions which
will negotiate for the interest of the students;
Lack of stakeholders’ representation and
channels for participation in the fundamental
formulation of policies, despite the multi-sectoral
effects of these decisions; and
Lack of punitive mechanism against violators of
education statutes which will discharge justice,
guarantee compensation to aggrieved, and act
as a deterrent for future violations.
The Continuing Need for a
Magna Carta of Students

48. Magna Carta of Students hopes to a
comprehensive set of solutions which will
protect student rights, to forward their welfare,
and assure basic services for them.
Aims to increase the democratic space within
campuses, ensuring that students can exercise
constitutional liberties such as the freedom to
organize and empowering them to participate in
policy-making.
Establishes punitive mechanism to discharge
justice, guarantee compensation to the
aggrieved, act as deterrent for future violations.
The Continuing Need for a
Magna Carta of Students

49. To be effective, the Magna Carta should
have three primary components. It should
have:
1. Provisions on student rights, welfare, and basic
services.
2. Provisions on student representation and
involvement in decision-making processes.
3. Provisions for violators. The absence of any of
the three components would necessarily dilute
the effectiveness of the statute.
The Continuing Need for a
Magna Carta of Students

50. An explicit declaration of these rights and
privileges will only serve to define the State’s
responsibility towards the students.
Democratic Rights
Right to have an autonomous student council or
government
Right to publish and circulate an independent
campus publication
Right to due process in disciplinary proceedings
Right to organization and recognition
Right to assembly and redress of grievances
Right to information and consultation
1. Provisions on Students Rights,
Welfare, and Basic Services (A)

51. Academic Rights, Student Welfare, and Basic
Services
Protection against discrimination in admission
policies
Right to take periodic exams even if a student has
not paid the amount due provided there is a
reasonable justification
Right to academic freedom
Right to adequate academic and welfare services
consistent with the economic capacity of the
school
Non-militarization of the campuses
1. Provisions on Students Rights,
Welfare, and Basic Services (B)

52. Proposes a student representative in the
highest policy-making body (e.g. board of
directors, regents, trustees) of all
educational institutions.
In the case of public learning institutions,
the representative must have both
deliberating and voting rights, given the
multi-stakeholder nature of public
institutions.
2. Provisions on Student Participation

53. On top of that, the following institutions must be
established in all schools, with the students fully
represented (with voting and deliberation rights):
1. Tuition and other Fees Board which decides on the
rate of fee increases
2. Administrative Council which is responsible for
screening incoming faculty members and retention of
academic personnel
3. Programs and Curriculum Council which is responsible
for the approval of courses/subjects to be added,
modified, or deleted and the revision/retention of
school curricula
4. Disciplinary Council which gives the final decision on
matters related to discipline problems of both
students and academic and non-academic personnel.
It will also have power to amend school regulations.
2. Provisions on Student Participation

54. 3. Provision on Criminalization
of Violations
All of these provisions will be rendered
useless if there would be no punitive
mechanism to ensure justice for victims of
current violators and deterrent against
future violators. Thus, it is important that
we make punishable the derogation of any
of the provisions of the Magna Carta.

55. “The pessimism of mind… the
optimism of the will”
Antonio Gramsci
(Italian thinker and revolutionary)