BASIC EDUCATION SECTOR REFORM AGENDA (BESRA) is a package of policy reforms that as a whole seeks to systematically improve critical regulatory, institutional, structural, financial, cultural, physical and informational conditions affecting basic education provision, access and delivery on the ground. It aims to create a basic education sector that is capable of attaining the country’s Education for All Objectives by the year 2015. In summary, its objectives are:
1. Universal Adult Functional Literacy;
2. Universal School Participation and Elimination of Drop-outs and Repetition in First Three Grades;
3. Universal Completion of the Full Cycle of Basic Education Schooling with Satisfactory Achievement Levels by All At Every Grade or Year; and
4. Total Community Commitment to Attainment of Basic Education Competencies for All.
In order for the basic education sector to achieve the above listed desired educational outcomes for all Filipinos, the BESRA focuses on specific policy actions within five key reform thrusts (KRT) as follows:
KRT 1: Get all schools to continuously improve.
KRT 2: Enable teachers to further enhance their contribution to learning outcomes.
KRT 3: Increase social support to attainment of desired learning outcomes.
KRT 4: Improve impact on outcomes from complementary early childhood education, alternative learning systems and private sector participation.
KRT 5: Change institutional culture of Dep. Ed to better support these key reform thrusts.
In short, the five key reform thrusts of BESRA are on: schools, teachers, social support to learning, complementary interventions, and Dep.Ed.’s institutional culture.
It is from these concepts that we can get the specific roles that administrators and teachers are expected to perform:
Administrators:
* Administrators must ensure that all schools and cluster of schools is led by a school head