DAVAO CITY—A private sector council advising President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on important policy moves has declared its support to Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s proposal to revise basic and higher education to improve skills competencies of Filipino students.
“Under the leadership of Duterte, PSAC fully supports their [Department of Education] efforts and comprehensive plans for improving the Philippine basic education system. We believe that it will bring about positive change for students, educators, and the country as a whole,” said former Trade Secretary Joey Concepcion, currently the Jobs Lead of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC).
The PSAC was formed last year upon the instance of President Marcos to Aboitiz Group President and CEO Sabin Aboitiz to form an advisory group from among business leaders and experts to help him steer the economic goals of his administration.
Concepcion is president and CEO of the family-owned RFM Corp. and also founded the Go Negosyo program.
“PSAC is committed to working with the government and other partners to help achieve the goals DepEd has set out and to contribute to the development of a well-educated and skilled workforce,” he said.
Concepcion said PSAC had already met with Marcos, Duterte and other high-ranking government officials on December 9 “to discuss concrete plans to create more and better jobs for Filipinos,” or a month before Duterte disclosed the weaknesses of the current Philippine education, especially on the failure of the 12-year basic education program to produce a skills-certified graduate of the Kindergarten+12 basic education.
One of PSAC’s proposals presented to Malacañang was to build skills and capabilities that would allow longer-term competitiveness, Concepcion said.
The PSAC Jobs Sector recommended “identifying specific skills for long-term competitiveness and revamping basic and higher education and workforce development to drive productivity and encourage entrepreneurship,” he added.
“The specific skills identified during the December 9 meeting were English proficiency, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] related skills, and digital readiness,” Concepcion said.
In addition, he said, PSAC recommended further integration between DepEd, the Commission of Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), and to work with the private sector to set standards, update curricula, and design training programs that match with the real skill needs of priority sectors.
“These recommendations were reflected in the speech of Vice President Duterte and the DepEd’s MATATAG agenda,” he said.
The PSAC said Duterte outlined in her January 30 report the current state of basic education in the country as she also launched DepEd’s MATATAG: Bansang Makabata, Batang Makabansa agenda to address the challenges and roadblocks that young learners face.
“We will engage with CHED, Tesda and various industry partners to address the issue of skills mismatch in our senior high school program. We will need your help to make our graduates employable, we appeal to the industries and to employers to accept our students in work immersions and hire them when they graduate,” she added.
“We will make the curriculum relevant to produce competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens,” Duterte said.
The VP also said DepEd would strengthen the numeracy and literacy programs and to “revitalize our reading, science, technology, and math programs by utilizing the gains of previous programs.” She added the programs would be benchmarked by local and international best practices, “consulted with experts, and will be research- and evidence-based.”
“We will improve English proficiency while recognizing linguistic diversity. We will work towards the goal of English language proficiency within the context of a multilingual nation,” she added.