Bill creating education council filed at the Senate

A BILL that will create a National Education Council to harmonize policies of agencies handling the primary and tertiary levels as well as technical-vocational training has been filed at the Senate.

Senate Bill 2017 seeks to establish a system of national coordination, planning, monitoring, evaluation, and management among the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

“Through our proposal to form a National Council for Education, we will be able to strengthen relations with various government offices to raise the quality of education in our country,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Basic Education Committee, said in Filipino in a statement on Thursday.

The bill’s passage will mandate the formulation of a national education agenda, which will include a strategic vision for education, long- and medium-term goals, strategies for a coordinated and coherent implementation, and recommendations on the corresponding investments and appropriations.

The Philippine president will chair the council, while the heads of the DepEd, CHED and TESDA will serve as co-chairpersons. Other members include the heads of Congress and selected Cabinet members.

The bill states that the national education agenda will cover a minimum of five years, to be updated annually and reviewed periodically by the council. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan