Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara has a big task ahead in improving the country's education system, which is plagued by problems of declining quality and chronic lack of classrooms and teaching personnel.
Angara, who replaced Vice President Sara Duterte, has been given a herculean task by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The son of former Senate President Edgardo J. Angara, the new Education secretary was the principal author of two key measures: the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) Act, which gave free tuition to college students in state and local universities and colleges, and the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or the controversial K-12 Act of 2013.
He was the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and one of the co-commissioners of the Second Congressional Council on Education or Edcom 2, which was tasked to create recommendations and laws to further improve the country's education system.
Marcos' orders to Angara were threefold: take care of teachers, improve the teaching of history, and boost the quality of education and raise test scores.
In a recent television interview, Angara admitted that he does not have any experience in running a school although he was once a teacher.
"When we take office, I admit that we will have to learn more, but we are willing to listen and we will listen to the advice of experts and educators," he said.
He promised to shield the Department of Education (DepEd) from politics in a bid to reassure some sectors who wanted a nonpartisan education chief.
Angara believes his lawmaking experience will be beneficial in his stint as Education secretary, especially in the passage of the department's budget every fiscal year.
He said the country's ratings in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a reflection in the education system, and he aims to solve that by making a streamlined curriculum with a focus on foundational skills.
"We will strengthen that as it is the foundation of our educational system...We will see how we can simplify it and improve our quality of teaching," Angara said.
He did not mention if this would entail the continuation of the Matatag basic education curriculum, which was launched by Duterte in August 2023.
Angara said teacher education will also be a focus in his administration through the institutionalization of the Teachers Education Council or TEC.
With the help of private sector partners, he hopes to resolve the lack of classrooms and textbooks.
"From 2018, the budget that was allocated by the legislative branch for textbooks is not being spent well. That would be our focus: the fast preparation and fast procurement and delivery of textbooks to our schools," Angara said.
He also supported calls to increase teachers' salaries.
On the issue of K-12, Angara admitted that there were issues in the implementation of the program, especially in the promise that graduates would get immediate employment.
"That is what we will be pushing; we will fix the curriculum of Grades 11 and 12 where we will teach skills that would give them jobs, and at the same time, on the part of employers, they would hire K-12 graduates," Angara said.
He added that he wants to make history education more conversational and fun.
Angara faces big challenges in his new position, but his legislative experience could be an asset in resolving the ills of the country's education system.