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MANILA: A lawmaker on Wednesday said colleges and universities should focus on producing more graduates with multilingual mastery, particularly in European and Asian languages, to offset the “waning edge” in English.
Bohol Rep. Kristine Alexie Besas Tutor suggested having more degree programs and short courses in Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Chinese language variants, and European languages, noting that this would be in addition to addressing shortcomings faced by senior high school graduates in English.
‘While our basic education sector is in a learning crisis, the leading higher education institutions are not because of our growing middle-class population. This is where our comparative strengths in human resources are,” Tutor said.
Tutor said multilingual mastery would offer “new horizons” for Filipino graduates aiming for jobs and business ventures in the business process outsourcing sector and for overseas migration.
She also emphasized the need to invest in tertiary student subsidies to make college edu
cation more accessible.
‘Investments of the government in higher education through the Tertiary Education Subsidy and UniFAST (Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education) are working and should be ramped up in the coming years because college education is opening up more opportunities for young Filipinos and professionals,” she said.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) earlier said it would work more closely with the Department of Education (DepEd) to improve the performance of Filipino learners in international large-scale assessments.
It stated that the Philippines ranked poorly in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) among 81 participating countries.
According to the 2022 PISA results, the Philippines ranked third from the bottom in science with an average score of 356, sixth from the bottom in mathematics with an average score of 355, and sixth from the bottom in reading with an average score of 347.
The CHED vowed to engage Centers of Developme
nt and Centers of Excellence in Teacher Education to study further the details of the country report to frame comprehensive solutions for consideration of the DepEd.
To address teacher quality issues that ultimately influence learning outcomes, the Commission has created a technical working group and developed guidelines for the monitoring and evaluation process that will lead to the phasing out of teacher education degree programs in poor-performing technical education institutions.
Apart from improving Filipino learners’ performance, the Commission wants to realize the national education vision laid out in the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028, ensuring that they achieve their full potential to keep pace with the envisioned socio-economic transformation.
Vice President Sara Z. Duterte has also assured the state of education in the Philippines is being addressed by DepEd.
Duterte, who is also the DepEd Secretary, said the result of the international assessment has actually provided them with valua
ble insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the country’s education system.
“We have introduced the MATATAG Curriculum, implemented the national reading, math, and science programs, initiated the Catch-up Fridays for learners and teachers, expanded the teacher career progression, pushed for transparent educational programs and practices, and started digitalization among our schools,” Duterte said.
She rallied all stakeholders to join DepEd in addressing the issues of learning among Filipino children.
Source: Philippines News Agency
