A MEMBER of the Second Congressional Commission’s Advisory Council on Friday stressed the need to decentralize the Department of Education to implement effective reforms in the education system.

Fr. Bienvenido Nebres emphasized that the DepEd itself is huge and centralized that the government cannot carry out reforms.

“Give more autonomy to curriculum, to the implementation, to the division level, or at least to the regional level,” Fr. Nebres said.

Nebres shared his hope that the Commission will look at the structural problems of the education system.

“I don’t know if you realize that there are only three signing authorities: the Secretary, the Division Secretary, and the Principals…but you have 800,000 teachers, 45,000 elementary schools…we have to find a structure that is more decentralized so that it can be more effective,” he said.

“It would be great if EDCOM can reform the K-12 law…and create a more decentralized DepEd,” Fr. Nebres added.

Decentralization is listed as one of the 28 Priority Areas of the Commission.

EDCOM noted the need to decentralize the governance structure in education to make the system more agile, participatory, innovative, and responsive.