We thought the Philippine education crisis could hardly get worse\u2014schools short of classrooms and basic resources, students trapped in a deepening learning crisis, and teachers overworked and underpaid\u2014until a disturbing wave of violence started entering the very spaces meant to keep children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Marcos Jr government is quick to wash its hands of State responsibility by shifting the entire blame on parents and teachers across both public and private schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro\u2019s remark in response to the latest shooting incident at Ateneo de Zamboanga \u2013 that teachers themselves teach bad manners \u2013 was not only an attempt to absolve the government of responsibility but also a demeaning attack on a profession already carrying the weight of a broken education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of addressing the education crisis, the Marcos Jr government is simply fixated on mass-producing a labor force tailored to the needs of the global market. In the process, it sidelines the broader aims of education to cultivate critical thinking, values formation, and social responsibility. The government itself is part of the crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unchanged subservience<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as the Philippines is expected to build the infrastructure needed for the United States (US) Pax Silica initiative and its envisioned artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, the education system is being tasked with preparing the fitted workforce for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) reveals how the Philippine education system continues to be shaped to serve the US interest in regaining technological dominance and global hegemony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EDCOM II is backed by financial and technical assistance from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Its National Education and Workforce Development Plan streamlines subject areas, prioritizing language, science, and math proficiency, while devaluing social studies and the humanities. Ultimately, the goal is to groom pupils who can be easily absorbed into five core corporate sectors: advanced manufacturing, digital technology, financial services, healthcare, and tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Bank has provided a US$600-million loan under the Project for Learning Upgrade Support and Decentralization (PLUS-D). This massive project targets foundational literacy and math outcomes for 21 million K-10 students and 770,000 teachers, providing heavily standardized learning materials and specialized training across 11,100 schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has partnered with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its vocational education arm, UNEVOC, and the HP Foundation. This collaboration expands free access to digital skills and AI training, ensuring that even vocational paths are closely aligned with the demands of the global tech economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of this is new, however. The Philippines’ long-standing reliance on foreign capital and US-backed studies has directly shaped the country’s education policies and curriculum reforms across administrations. Since 1965, the country has accumulated a staggering US$9.6 billion in loans for education, which consistently came tied to policy impositions aimed at tailoring the school system to the global market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This pattern took firm root under Marcos Sr. In 1969, his administration created the Philippine Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) to assess how well the school system was meeting human resource goals. Unsurprisingly, the commission concluded that Philippine education needed a complete redesign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1972, the Marcos dictatorship institutionalized this shift by issuing Presidential Decree (PD) No. 6-A (the Education Development Decree), which established a Ten-Year Educational Development Plan overseen by a specialized task force (Educational Development Projects Implementing Task Force or EDPITAF). However, because the plan\u2019s Php500 million target amount exceeded local budgets, PD 6-A explicitly amended the Foreign Borrowing Act to clear the path for extensive foreign funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few years later, in exchange for a critical World Bank loan, the dictatorship rolled out the New Elementary School Curriculum (NESC) of 1983, complete with World Bank-funded textbooks. The new curriculum heavily emphasized vocational and technical training while sweeping aside social sciences and humanities. Conveniently, sidelining these subjects also helped erode the fierce nationalist and social consciousness that had surged during the massive student protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, this economic blueprint outlived the dictatorship. Even after the fall of Marcos Sr, the Cory Aquino administration\u2019s education commission designed the New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) in 1989 to seamlessly align with the previous regime’s reforms for elementary schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1998, the World Bank and the ADB published a joint study titled Philippine Education for the 21st Century: The 1998 Philippine Education Sector Study (PESS). The PESS explicitly recommended streamlining the curriculum and collapsing subjects that weren’t deemed \u201crelevant\u201d to the business needs of transnational corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, the PESS study became the go-to reference for subsequent administrations. The Estrada administration used it to recommend budget cuts for higher education. The Arroyo administration weaponized it to build the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC), which completely abolished Values Education and compressed the entire basic education program into just five core areas: English, Filipino, Math, Science, and Makabayan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decades of structural trimming ultimately culminated in the Benigno Aquino III administration\u2019s failed K-12 program, which was explicitly designed to pump job-ready high school graduates straight into the workforce without the need for a college degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enabling private gains<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s reliance on foreign capital, whether for the economy or for social sectors such as education, ultimately shapes national policy, curriculum reforms, as well as the government\u2019s spending priorities. The Marcos Jr administration, for instance, visibly introduces austerity measures to prioritize debt servicing and infrastructure spending over social services. This trend has ultimately commercialized education, enabling private providers to profit from what should be a basic human right and State responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent budget cuts in the education sector are glaring, falling 9% from Php1.4 trillion this year to Php1.2 trillion for 2027. Funding for basic education facilities has been slashed from Php85.4 billion to Php30.5 billion. If at least Php2 million is needed per unit, the budget can only build around 15,275 classrooms, just 9.2% of the existing backlog of 165,445 classrooms. Considering that another 2.5 million classrooms need major repairs and replacement, the allocation can cover only 0.5% of the backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the government defaults on its responsibility to provide education, it not only opens the sector to commercialization but also turns it into a source of political patronage and corruption. The Department of Education (DepEd) is authorized to enter into infrastructure agreements with local government units (LGUs) and private entities. While framed as efficiency, this does little to disrupt the traditional patron-client system, where school building construction serves as a lucrative project for local politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aggravating this, EDCOM II strongly recommends revitalizing DepEd\u2019s Adopt-a-School Program, wherein private corporations are invited to build classrooms and provide learning materials. In return, the State rewards these businesses with lucrative tax incentives, further cementing an education model reliant on corporate business rather than robust public funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The largest spike in the 2027 education budget goes to the Contingent Fund under Special Purpose Funds, increasing staggeringly from Php26 million to Php1.2 billion. It is a standby emergency reserve set aside in the national budget to pay for urgent, unexpected expenses that arise during the year. The allocation of which is subject only to the approval of the executive branch, leaving so much room for patronage and corruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, the Bagong Pilipinas Merit Scholarship Program sees a massive boost, from Php634 million this year to Php1.5 billion in 2027. Scholarship grants go through the approval of politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ironically, there is no money allotted for the Child Protection Policy under DepEd Order No. 40, series of 2012, which mandates the DepEd to establish a learning environment that has zero tolerance for violence, abuse, exploitation, bullying, and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staggering government neglect<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the government\u2019s attraction of foreign investment, private sector intervention, and aggressive curriculum changes, real progress inside the classroom remains non-existent. Instead, these neoliberal policies have only deepened conditions that are unconducive to genuine learning and guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality on the ground is stark. Over 5.1 million students are currently classified as “aisle learners” \u2013 a term referring to the extreme lack of learning spaces in overcrowded public school classrooms. Congestion has reached critical levels in specific divisions. Some schools are forced to cram as many as 75 to 250 students into a single classroom, while 2,233 public schools have resorted to double or triple shifts just to accommodate the overwhelming demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The physical infrastructure is literally crumbling. Out of 327,772 existing classrooms, only 30% (96,985 units) are in good condition. According to EDCOM II data, an estimated 165,445 classrooms are currently in desperate need of decongestion, replacement, or repair \u2013 a number projected to surge to 219,000 by 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, out of roughly 330,000 school buildings nationwide, around 123,000 are more than 25 years old, and nearly 24,000 have crossed the 50-year mark. Using DepEd\u2019s planning standards, where a single four-story building typically holds 20 classrooms, the aging infrastructure represents a massive deficit of roughly 2.5 million classroom equivalents that will require systematic rehabilitation or complete replacement over the long term. This is over and above the existing classroom backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Access to basic sanitation and utilities is severely lagging. The latest DepEd estimates show that 3,861 schools still lack access to potable water. The EDCOM II highlights that the Last Mile Schools (LMS), which serve 1.6 million pupils among the most vulnerable learners, lack almost all basic amenities. Out of 9,000 identified LMS, 1,500 operate without electricity and 1,000 completely lack toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, 39,335 schools nationwide desperately need electrical upgrades to support modern education technology. Yet, the government\u2019s track record on this is slow: out of 974 target school sites slated for electrification between 2018 and 2024, only 260 projects were accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crisis extends to basic learning resources. Since the introduction of the K-12 curriculum, the government has only managed to successfully procure a full set of textbooks for Grades 5 and 6. While 82.3 million textbooks were delivered last year, that is equivalent to a mere three books per student for the 26 million learners enrolled in school year 2026-2027. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) reports that teachers still lack readily available learning materials in class, forcing them to shoulder the out-of-pocket costs to produce their own supplementary lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Educators also lack access to technology. There is only one government-issued laptop for every 30 public school teachers, forcing educators to buy personal laptops with their own money to handle daily administrative and teaching tasks. The ratio is better for students, with one laptop for every nine learners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the human resource deficit is staggering. There are currently 51,127 unfilled teaching positions across the country, and the student-to-counselor ratio sits at a shocking 14,000 to 1. This deficit raises urgent, terrifying concerns about the system\u2019s total inability to address the diverse mental health and guidance needs of students, demanding immediate, targeted intervention rather than more empty policy reforms, or worse, blaming teachers for teaching \u201cbad manners\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have we been raised well?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The African proverb, \u201cIt takes a village to raise a child,\u201d is a reminder that the entire education and development of children is a collective social responsibility, enabling them to thrive in society so they would eventually realize the society\u2019s aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government has a central role in this collective care: prioritizing nationhood over foreign interests, social well-being over private profit, and the formation of critical minds capable of building our collective future. The government is accountable for ensuring that the curriculum serves national goals, instead of turning students into robots for foreign and private corporations, or worse, into killing machines serving global hegemonic interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But when public officials like Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez (after the shooting incident at San Jose National High School in Tacloban) insist that such care is not the government\u2019s responsibility, as though the State is not part of the collective, they expose a deeper crisis. A government that bends to foreign and corporate interests while abandoning its duty to children is not merely failing them; it is helping create the very conditions that put them at risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A government that abandons its responsibility to its citizens in the name of neoliberalism is not merely a teacher of bad manners \u2013 it is a model of bad governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instead of addressing the education crisis, the Marcos Jr government is simply fixated on mass-producing a labor force tailored to the needs of the global market. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":19111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2048,3],"tags":[4453,4454,318,2747,2825,2972,156,126],"class_list":["post-19098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacies","category-banner","category-features","tag-2027-budget","tag-2027-budget-mispriorities","tag-education","tag-education-budget","tag-foreign-capital","tag-marcos-jr-administration","tag-philippine-education","tag-world-bank","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-27 10:03:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19098"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19110,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19098\/revisions\/19110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}