Mr. President, my dear colleagues:
We are honored to co-sponsor Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 with our fellow champions of education and EDCOM II Commissioners, Senators Koko Pimentel, Win Gatchalian, and Alan Cayetano.
In his third State of the Nation Address, the President called for a “strategically calibrated” education sector that will ensure that our youth are “not only taught to become literate but it should also consciously develop them to be problem solvers and into critical thinkers, hungry for success, ready for the future.”
True to his words, the President has listened and has approved, in principle, the proposal to create a Cabinet Cluster for education. He has directed the Cabinet Cluster to pursue a ‘coherent and system-wide’ integration of education and workforce development strategy.[1] We are optimistic that this will mark the beginning of a sustainable and transformative approach where our education agencies proactively coordinate their policies, programs, and reforms together.
As outlined in the Year One Report of EDCOM 2, effective coordination among our education agencies continues to fall short, despite years of operating under a tri-focalized system and several attempts to address these gaps.[2] Our education system’s weaknesses are no longer abstract. They are now painfully reflected in the results of the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In 2024 alone, 5.58 million high school graduates were identified to be not functionally literate.[3]
What’s even more concerning is that a total of 19 million people aged 10 to 64 years old across the country are considered not functionally literate due to their lack of comprehension skills.[4] The statistics breaks my heart as a passionate advocate for the education sector and more so as a parent myself.
The creation of a cabinet cluster in education will significantly enhance and deepen the motivation for collaboration among DepEd, TESDA, and CHED. Drawing from my experience as former TESDA Secretary, I have seen firsthand how the actions of one agency can impact the entire education system. Our recent legislative efforts—such as the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF), the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) Framework Act, the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP), and the ongoing push for the Lifelong Learning Framework Bill— highlight the necessity for these agencies to share not only goodwill but also information, resources, and capabilities. And with how Artificial Intelligence impacts our education and job market, these agencies cannot work in silos but must act more collaboratively.
We cannot emphasize enough how critical and urgent it is to align and harmonize the efforts of various government agencies concerned with education. In doing so, this shall ensure that plans and solutions for the sector are holistic, learning targets are monitored and evaluated, the use of resources for the sector is rationalized, and reforms are properly implemented. Again, we express our sincerest gratitude to President Marcos Jr. for heeding our call to create a separate Cabinet cluster for education. Together, we shall take bold and unified steps in pursuing development in the education sector.
Thank you, Mr. President, dear colleagues, and may God bless us all.
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