Student Leader Chronicles: Dialogue with Sen Bam Aquino

The Dean of OSS on his Opening Remarks

The Council of Student Organizaions,last October 25, 2016 (Tuesday), invited 100 selected Lasallian student leaders were invited to have a dialogue with Sen. Bam Aquino. It was a short affair but it was engaging and spontaneous. I honestly learned a lot more about the current educational reforms and policies implemented in the country. 

1.) The Education Budget

According to the Senator, who is also the chairman of the Senate Eduction Committee, the budget this year for education was a whopping PHP 566 billion, which is also the largest budget of the year. Most of the budget for education goes to building facilities such as schools and classrooms in rural lands. He noted that apart from classrooms, most rural areas ask for better internet connections as well, showing just how much technology is needed even in education.

2.) K to 12: What is it and How does it work?

In the recent years, the government implemented K to 12 in the hopes to be at par with other nations surrounding the Philippines. This programs, according to Senator Aquino was pattern of that of Singapore and Germanys's educational system. And here's how it works,

Senator Bam Aquino on different education
reforms of government

By Grade 11, students will be required to choose a "track" which are Academics, Technical-Vocation Livelihood, Sports, or Arts and Design. This four tracks are further subdivided into more specifics tracks for students to choose. So if a student is aiming to go to college he will most likely pick the Academics track. I also discovered that Gr 11 and 12 students will also under go a mandatory OJT depending on the chosen field (which I think is awesome)

Why was it implemented? What were the expectations?

The main reason K to 12 was implements was not only to keep up with other nations but, most importantly, to make sure that after Grade 12, a student is already EMPLOYABLE. This means that they already have the necessary skills needed by companies that will allow them to be employed right after graduating. Sen. Aquino also said that because of this, it was expected that most students will pursue the Tech-Voc tracks rather than go to college. Classrooms were being built and teachers were being trained to be able to cater to the new system. Youth entrepreneurship in all levels will also be implemented where they will be teaching about financial literacy and the value of money. This are two things I am most excited about!

Issue:

But here's the thing, the government grossly underestimated the numbers. A lot of the students chose the academics track. They were expecting a big dropout but 92% of students chose to enter grade 11. The underestimation was mainly due to the negativity of the people before the start of the implementation.

3.) Free tuition for State Colleges and Universities Bill

Although this was yet to be passed, this will surely make a positive change in the country. This will allow less fortunate filipinos a chance to go to college and pursue a degree. I'm personally looking forward to this.

Dialogue

After stressing his key points, students were then given a chance to ask him some questions regarding the reforms

A Psychology student asked him about current special education budgets to which the senator said was pretty low. 

Senator Bam Aquino on his Dialogue with student leaders

A political Science student also asked to confirm the budget cut for the National Commission of Culture and the Arts which might ultimately cut budgets for programs such as arts and dance, that which the senator also confirmed. 

A Filipino major student petitioned to give the Filipino language more importance in the K to 12 system 

and lastly, when another Education  student asked him to justify the k to 12 system, Sen. Bam said that ultimately he believes that this is the step to be able to address, unemployment and job mismatch issues and that, over the long run, this is enable Filipinos to get jobs quicker.

Experience:
In the end, I am proud to say that I was part of the organizing committee for this event and though it was quite rushed, the students were able to get better insights about what to government is doing as we speak. Sen. Bam was friendly and engaging and was trying to insert as much laughs as he could while in the dialogue. He also encouraged the students to maximize their use of social media and to stay connected with the government as much as possible. He hopes that we will be sending our suggestions of what we thinks will be a good reform or law and they might possibly bring those suggestions forward -- you'll never know until you try!



That's all for today, see you guys next Tuesday!