EDCOM aims to ‘leapfrog’ quality of PH education
SENATORS and House members who constitute the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) and officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) headed by Vice President Sara Duterte witnessed the signing of the Data Sharing Agreement between the two agencies Thursday, April 13, 2023 at the Senate.
Present at the event were EDCOM 2 co-chairpersons, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, and Representatives Roman Romulo and Mark Go.
Senators Juan Edgardo Sonny Angara, Pia Cayetano, Reps. Kiko Benitez and Khalid Dimaporo, EDCOM 2 commissioners, also joined the signing between EDCOM 2 Exec. Dir. Karol Mark Yee and DepEd Usec. Jose Arturo De Castro.
Aiming at improving the quality of education, Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Sec. Sara Duterte highlighted the efforts of the current administration to “provide quality, accessible, relevant, liberating, and resilient education for Filipino learners” in her opening statement during the meeting between EDCOM 2 and DepEd.
Duterte also acknowledged the move of EDCOM 2 commissioners in pushing for transformative, complete, and targeted reforms to address the learning crisis and further improve the country’s education system.
EDCOM 2, which was established through Republic Act (RA) 11899, is a national commission tasked to undertake a comprehensive national assessment and evaluation of the performance of the Philippine education sector.
Angara, one of the commissioners of EDCOM 2, batted for the use of technology in solving the country’s education problems in order to “leapfrog” education in the country.
During the alignment meeting between EDCOM 2 and DepEd, Angara reiterated the importance of using “cutting-edge” technologies to enhance the learning experience of Filipino students.
“I hope we can leverage the use of technology in addressing the education gaps in the country. There are a lot of resources online which are free… Khan Academy, Coursera. We have technologies like ChatGPT, which will help our teachers. I just see technology as a way of leapfrogging a lot of problems,” Angara said in mixed Filipino and English.
