Government bares framework for education, 18 Nov. 2016

The government bared the four components of its education program for the country’s youth to prepare them, not only for global competition, but also for the local employment scene which is becoming more competitive due to the emerging Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration.

In a press briefing at Malacañan on Friday, Nov. 18, Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones bared the framework of the Duterte Administration for Philippine education as: human rights; global citizenship; nationalism and awareness of our history; and critical attitude.

The Education Secretary said the young student must be imbued with and develop that attitude of critical thinking.

“And the third aspect and I have mentioned this, is to develop a critical attitude among our learners… after you leave school and go for a job, then you realize that much of what you were taught in school may not necessarily apply,” said Briones.

She added that this is also true even among Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or Technical Vocational students that, by the time they finish their academic programs, a lot of changes have already happened.

“So we go beyond and this is what I would like to emphasize, we go beyond data, we go beyond dates, we go beyond documents, we teach our children a critical attitude,” said Briones.

“We teach our children that they are not only citizens and residents of this country, they are global citizens and there are United Nations resolutions, agreements to which we are signatory, which respects human rights in all its different forms and complexions,” stressed Briones as she emphasized on global citizenship as another aspect of the framework for education.

The Cabinet official added that global citizenship is our responsibility not only to our country but to the global community and that includes human rights because we have to know ourselves as a people as other countries know themselves.

She also pointed out that part of the framework is to develop nationalism and a recognition of our history as a people which makes us different from other countries in the global community.

The DepEd Secretary noted that in the aspect of human rights, the students must learn that it is not only political rights but also other rights as enshrined in the UN declarations such as the right of the people to homes, to development, the right to education, the right to food.

During the same briefing, Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag said the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders Meeting in Peru which has the theme Quality Growth and Human Capital Development would focus on improvements in doing business through more efficient and responsive governance.

It would mean that our LGUs must keep up “at ayusin nila ‘yung kanilang mga burukrasya doon sa pagbibigay ng permit at pagpo-protekta sa ating mga negosyante na papasok sa ating bansa, at sa iba pang mga ahensya ng gobyerno who are dealing with the business sector,” Banaag said.

“This would mean economic development that would trickle to the less fortunate or the marginalized sector of our society and of course human capital which may translate to more jobs, job opportunities, higher income for those who are already employed,” she added.

The Palace official also thanked the public for the satisfaction rating of the Duterte administration.

“Again, nagpapasalamat po tayo. We are so humbled sa ating mga kababayan na naniniwala po sa ginagawa ng ating pangulo at naniniwala sa pagbabago,” Banaag said.PND