Filipino students. Photo grabbed from Buhay Pinoy.

By now, you might have a rough idea as whom you’ll be voting for in the coming May 10 presidential elections.

Already, different groups have defined their criteria for the president that they want our country to have. Environmental advocates may be calling for a president who has on his platform, a strong pro-environment agenda. While church ministers are calling for one who’s pro-life.

Education Nation, a coalition of private companies and education advocates that includes Cebu-based Coalition for Better Education, also identified a 10-point education reform agenda that the group would want the next president to focus on, believing that education should be the priority of government.

The following is 10-point Education Reform Agenda, as defined by Education Nation.

An education President and his/her government must:

1. Promote academic excellence.

We must develop individuals who possess information and communication skills, thinking and problem-solving skills, and interpersonal and self-directional skills acquired through a research-based curriculum that focuses on knowledge relevant to the real world.

To this end, we must develop globally benchmarked standards of performance for both teachers and students on which accountability will be based and establish a credible, reliable, and transparent monitoring, assessment, and evaluation system by an independent and competent institution.

2. Develop community ownership.

Community involvement is a key element of a successful school. We must enable communities to organize themselves to ensure that the school stays focused on its goals and that interventions provided by different organizations are sustained. Community involvement in education unlocks local resources and energies and makes the schools more accountable, creating a better platform for sustainability.

To this end, we must mandate the local DepEd and the schools to recognize and work with their communities and allocate resources for capability-building programs for community groups.

3. Ensure universal access.

We must ensure access to Education for all Filipinos regardless of social class, ethnicity or physical disability. Every Filipino has the right to quality basic education (including pre-school).

To this end:

a)    We must expand proven alternative delivery modes for education such as Project E-Impact that effectively address the challenges of huge class sizes and multi-grade schools.

b)    We must continue and expand the conditional cash transfers program that has proven to hel ensure that the poorest children go to school.

c)    We must address education access concerns of our differently-abled and indigenous brothers and sisters, including the ARMM. The role of non-formal education and alternative learning must be considered.

4. Build transparency and accountability across the system.

Reforms are only possible if education policy and governance are founded on principles of inclusiveness, transparency and accountability.

To this end:

a)    Government deliberations must be conducted openly and all relevant information should be made available to the general public.

b)    The decision-making process must be inclusive and consultative. Local governments and parents must increasingly be involved in school-based planning.

c)    The incentive structure must reward performance and discourage/sanction non-performance.

d)    Local School Boards must be reinvented and made functional to broaden participation and its functions.

e)    Education delivery, administration, governance and accountability must gradually be decentralized to school and community level.

5. Provide adequate resources.

We must provide adequate resources for the necessary inputs to achieve quality education for all.

To this end:

a)    We advocate increasing the national budget for pre-school and basic education to 45 of the GDP to attain the goals of “Education for All” by 2015.

b)    We must all work together to ensure zero tolerance for corruption, waste and political influence in the allocation and disbursement of education resources.

6. Empower teachers

Teacher quality as manifested in professional knowledge, practice and commitment is an indispensable instrument to academic excellence and moral functioning. Teacher welfare and high morale are impetuses to lifelong professional development.

To this end:

a)    We must ensure that every teacher is given the opportunity and the privilege for professional development through competency-based teacher standards in a continuum of pre-service and in-service training and development programs tied up to teachers’ career progression and teacher welfare/incentive schemes.

b)    We must support teacher development and welfare through incentives, increased training, moral fortification, and professionalization of the teaching profession, enabling teachers to dream and make dreams happen.

7. Enhance basic education

Quality basic education is the foundation for vocational and higher learning. We cannot continue tolerating a weak system. We must stop wasting the many years and huge sums invested towards system-wide education reform.

To this end:

a)    We must ensure continuity of the Basic Education Reform Agenda and its key reform thrusts including competency based teacher standards, school based management and mother tongue instruction.

b)    We must establish a universal pre-school system that must include both local government and public-private partnerships.

c)    We must plan and begin the move into the global standard of a 12-year basic education track to address a key obstacle to quality education.

8. Support private education

A healthy education system must include an effective, vibrant and sustainable private school system. Difficulties of the private schools, exacerbated by system-wide deterioration of Philippine education must also be addressed.

To this end:

a)    The establishment of loan programs and grant vehicles such as the Fund for Assistance to Private Education should continue to be supported by Government to make private education at all levels more affordable to more people.

b)    Public-private partnerships to deliver better education must be encouraged and expanded.

9. Strengthen higher education

A level playing field and academic and curricular freedoms are keys to strengthening higher education in the Philippines.

To this end:

a)    We must revisit the original role of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

b)    We must provide more resources for world class centers of excellence and an expanded scholarship voucher system for higher education, rather than continuing subsidies for low quality State Universities and Colleges and Local Universities and Colleges.

c)    We must make available Government scholarships loans, through SSS, GSIS, or the banking system on a “study now, pay when employed” scheme for needy and academically qualified tertiary and technical/vocational education students to enroll in an accredited public and private higher education institutions.

10. Maximize alternative learning

Effective learning has been happening in and outside formal schooling. In ensuring access to education for all, the role of alternative learning system (ALS) must be recognized in the education sector and the world of work.

To this end, we must develop a united platform for convergence of all ALS proponents and sectors to form a multi-stakeholder body for the measurement and assessment of ALS and for the accreditation and recognition of ALS graduates including employability.