March 2-3, 2009
Liberal Think Tank Crafts Education Policy
 Professor
Mario Taguiwalo |
The
Department of Education
(DepEd) has been initiating reforms since its inception, but these
have not been successful in transforming the educational system.
With national elections next year, the
National
Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS) wants to raise the need
for education reform in the public’s consciousness and have
the country tackle the problem as a nation instead of waiting for
the DedEd to roll out more of the same. Thus, with the support of
the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty, NIPS is putting together
an education policy that will go beyond rhetoric and will focus
on continuous implementation.
To help it do this, NIPS sent its president, Mario Taguiwalo,
and its executive vice president for policy research, Juan Miguel
“Mike” Luz, to a Philippine
Business for Education multi-stakeholder conference from 2-3
March 2009 in Cebu. Entitled “Philippine Education Roadmap
2010 and Beyond,” the event gathered together 20 experts
in education reform to discuss the way forward in the light of
the national leadership transition in 2010.
The participants agreed early in the conference on what fundamentals
in education needed to be reformed. The rest of the time was spent
discussing which elements had to be in place for these to happen
and what needed to be done.
Taguiwalo led a session on the importance of politics in education
reform. He said that for reforms to be sustainable
they must be done as a coherent package rather than
the isolated initiatives of the past. He further
explained that these are unlikely to succeed without
the education sector working in closer partnership
with broader multi-sectoral groups. He also stressed
that these two things would not be possible without the strong
political backing of the president.
“… the presidency is the only true and capable
center of national leadership for education reform
of the right type, scale and scope. We have gotten used to looking
at the education secretary as our champion for education reform
despite so much evidence that the changes we seek in education
require power and leadership that only a good
president can provide,” Taguiwalo said. “Since education
reform is so important to the nation’s welfare and future,
it should play a greater role in defining
who should best lead our nation starting 2010,”
he added.
