SENATOR Francis ‘Kiko’  Pangilinan pushed for the creation of an agency that will help address the crisis in education that worsened because of the Covid19 pandemic.

Pangilinan said there should be a separate agency attached to the Commission on Higher Education that will evaluate and provide solutions to the problems faced by Filipino students.

The senator said this is the purpose of Senate Bill 2485 of which he was one of the co-.

“Sana ay mapag-aralang mabuti ng proposed Educational Commission II ang pangkalakhang umiiral na kondisyon at mga problema,” Pangilinan said, noting the urgency of addressing the problem head-on.

In his sponsorship for Senate Bill 2485, the lawmaker cited the World Bank report which showed that Filipino students scored poorly in math and science assessment exams.

“Ang kabataang estudyante ay nakakuha ng low scores sa pinakahuling global math and science assessment exams. Ang mababang scores ay salamin ng ‘poor school climate’ sa ating bansa,” Pangilinan said.

“There is a crisis in education which started pre-Covid, but will have been made worse by the pandemic. Listed among the report’s key findings was that more than 80 percent of children do not know what they should know in school,” he added.

“Hindi ko maisip kung ano ang kinabukasan ng bansang Pilipinas at kabataang estudyante kung bibiguin natin sila, kung hindi tayo makakahanap ng solusyon sa mga problemang ito,” he said.

“Umaasa tayo na ang EDCOM II ang magiging hakbang patungo sa pagresolba sa malawakang problema at krisis sa sistema ng edukasyon sa ating bansa,” he added.