Leave DepEd to educators, keep politicians out: Roxas

SENATORS Pia Cayetano and Manuel Roxas II yesterday pushed for reforms in the education sector and for starters, urged a ban on the appointment of politicians to the Department of Education and other related agencies, and the closure of mediocre nursing schools.

Roxas said politicians should not be appointed heads of educational institutions like DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education.

"The worst thing to do is to appoint a politician to educational institutions. The education system in our country needs educators and managers because of its wide-ranging priorities," he said.

Roxas is the author of the proposed Omnibus Education Reform Act of 2008, which he filed during the 14th Congress and which is now under consideration by the Senate committee on education.

He said the educational system has diverse needs which require prioritization. "Sa skills set, ang kailangan ay isang manager para sa pagbalangkas ng magagandang programa na siyang sasagot sa mga problema sa sistema. Ito ay sa kabila ng iba’t-ibang priorities na hinihingi ng mga constituents," he said.

"Whoever sits at the head of DepEd or CHED should have managerial skills. Politicians have no place in this system," he said.

The current chief of DepEd is former Tarlac congressman Jesli Lapuz while CHED has educator Dr. Emmanuel Angeles as chairman.

Cayetano said CHED should immediately phase out mediocre nursing schools, particularly those whose graduates have fared poorly in the annual nursing licensure examinations administered by the Professional Regulation Commission.

She said CHED should also tighten its system of monitoring underperforming nursing schools in light of reports that the average passing rate in the nursing board exams has been declining over the last 10 years.

"When a school with hundreds or thousands of graduates fails to produce a single nurse in any given year, then its quality of teaching should already be suspect," she said. "CHEDs failure to address this situation gives the impression that it is protecting these institutions at the expense of pulling down the quality of nursing education in the country, which is in direct defiance of the agency’s own mandate."

She said the Commission of Audit in its report last year noted that CHED has never shut down a single nursing school despite the poor passing rates of several schools in the nursing board exams in the last 10 years.

Citing the COA report, she said that from 2001 to 2005, only 111 of 263 nursing schools nationwide managed to have 50 percent of their graduates pass the licensure examinations. Thirty-five of these 111 nursing schools are in Metro Manila, she added.

Roxas said the country’s next president should have the political will to carry out the changes regardless of the maneuverings of powerful individuals. "Our educational system is in shambles. We really need to reform it if we want progress for our country," he said, noting that the system is stunted by lack of funds and student malnutrition, among others.

"Ang pinakamahalaga ngayon sa educational system ng ating bansa ay tama at wastong political will na baguhin ang sistema. Ang mga namamahala kasi diyan ngayon, sa kagustuhan daw na baguhin ang sistema, lahat pinagbibigyan para lahat ay matutuwa. Kaya sa kabila ng bilyon-bilyong budget na inilalaan para sa DepEd taon-taon, at the end of the year, akala nila okay na pero sa totoo lang, wala namang na-accomplish," he said. – Dennis Gadil