SENATOR Juan Edgardo Angara on Wednesday stressed the need for accountability mechanisms for the education system.

“We gave so much freedom, but there were very weak accountability mechanisms in the education sector,” Angara said during the organizational meeting of the Second Congressional Commission on Education Standing Committee on Governance and Finance.

Angara, co-chairperson of the Standing Committee and one of the commissioners of EDCOM 2, in his opening speech highlighted the need to build accountability systems not only in terms of good government but also in terms of results.

The senator cited as an example the numerous government scholarship programs that lacked accountability mechanisms.

Angara also cited improvements to the sector through the years.

“In the 1980s, for instance, during the first Aquino Presidency, we were spending around 2.4% of our GDP on education. And as we enter the second Marcos administration in the 2020s, we’re spending about 3.7% of GDP, and we hit the high in 2018 of 3.9%,” the senator said.

EDCOM 2 is the Congressional body created through RA 11899 tasked to undertake a comprehensive national assessment and evaluation of the performance of the Philippine education sector.

In the next three years, it will also recommend legislation that aims to address the education crisis in the country.