Philippine Education For All 2015: Implementation and Challenges

I. General Introduction 1. Filipinos have deep regard to for education. Education occupies a central place in Philippine political, economic social and cultural life. It has always been strongly viewed as a pillar of national development and a primary avenue for social and economic mobility. 2. A clear evidence of the value placed on education is the proportion of the national government budget going to the sector. The Department of Education (DepEd), the country’s biggest bureaucracy 1 , is given the highest budget allocation among government agencies each year as required by the 1987 Philippine Constitution.2 3. The 1987 Constitution likewise guarantees the right to education of every Filipino. It provided that, “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all.” . 4. The right of every Filipino to quality basic education is further emphasized in Republic Act 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001. Along with Republic Act 6655 or the Free Secondary Education Act, these laws reaffirm the policy of the State to protect and promote the rights of all Filipinos by providing children free and compulsory education in the elementary and high school level. This pertains to six years of free tuition fees for children aged 6 to 11, and free four years of secondary schooling for those aged 12 to 15. 5. Along with “Education for All”, the Philippines is also committed to pursue eight timebound and specific targets under the Millennium Declaration which it signed on September 2000. The Declaration, in general, aims to reduce poverty by half in 2015 (22.65 percent proportion of the population below poverty incidence and 12.15 percent below subsistence incidence by 2015). With the