SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday urged the next administration, particularly the Department of Education, to focus on improving learners’ skills, fix the K-12 system and uphold the welfare of teachers.

“Hindi na tayo maaaring bumalik sa business as usual kung nais nating tutukan ang krisis sa ating sektor ng edukasyon. Dapat nating ayusin ang programa ng K-12 at tiyaking natututo nang husto ang mga mag-aaral,” the chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture said.

Gatchalian cited the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment that showed that Filipino students ranked last out of 79 countries in reading and second to the last in Mathematics and Science

The Philippines also ranked last out of 58 countries in two other international assessments: the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics and the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics.

Before the pandemic, experts said that the congested K-12 curriculum, which requires too many competencies, prevented learners from mastering basic skills.

Gatchalian said that Filipinos are dissatisfied with the K-12 program.

A December 2019 survey by Pulse Asia revealed that only 38% were satisfied with the K-12 program, while 47% were dissatisfied.

Meanwhile, the senator said that upholding the welfare of teachers should include raising their salaries.

He has proposed to increase the salary of Teacher I from Salary Grade 12 (P25,439) to Salary Grade 13 (P29,798) or Salary Grade 14 (P32,321).

Improving teacher education and training entails ensuring the proper implementation of the Excellence in Teacher Education Act or Republic Act 11713, which Gatchalian authored and sponsored.

The law seeks to revamp the Teacher Education Council by strengthening coordination between the DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education and the Professional Regulation Commission.

Other priorities for DepEd under the new administration should also include increasing local government participation, Gatchalian said.