President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the General Appropriations Act for 2025 despite the contentious budget proceedings including protests over alleged blank portions in the document. The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, particularly the Kabataan Partylist, reported budget cuts on state universities and colleges (SUCs), raising negative reactions. After all, the fiscal operations of...
Tag: education
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Safe-space classrooms, where trust begins, are still a privilege in Philippine education
In some classrooms at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, students are encouraged not simply to answer but also to ask questions, the purpose being to perceive learning as a reflective, relational, and deeply personal concept. But outside the campus and in many public schools across the Philippines, classroom conditions are far from ensuring...
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Will reforming the K-to-12 program mean backtracking from the global standard?
As more Filipinos express dissatisfaction with the K-to-12 program, Rep. Roman Romulo is dangling an option for Grade 10 students: to leapfrog senior high school straight into college. But there’s a hitch: Tenth graders must pass an “honors” examination to land into a college of their choice. Otherwise, they need to complete Grades 11 and...
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Filipino students’ functional illiteracy is a ‘real and widespread learning crisis’
A stone’s throw from the House of Representatives’ sprawling complex in Quezon City is a congested public elementary school literally crawling with thousands of students, including a great number struggling with their ABC. When he took over as principal at the President Corazon C. Aquino Elementary School in 2024, Gerry Isip made a startling discovery:...
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Sen. Risa Hontiveros: ‘Teen pregnancy is an ongoing national and social emergency’
It is a trying time for Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the principal author of Senate Bill No. 1979 which aims “to educate, support and protect our children and students against early pregnancy” through such means as comprehensive sexuality education. Hontiveros has introduced last-minute changes to the measure in an effort to bring more clarity to it...
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How a high school org in Benguet preps students for life
In 2017 when Jonathan Supsupin of La Trinidad, Benguet, had to get on track for senior high school, he chose Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL). It was the first year of K-to-12 implementation and the middle child whose father is a vegetable picker at the trading post and whose mother works at a local hospital’s linen department was...
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‘First Day Rage’ stirs UP campuses
Learning comes with militancy at the University of the Philippines (UP) right from the start of academic classes at UP Diliman and other campuses. In what was dubbed “First Day Rage,” students, faculty members, workers, community residents and other sectors assembled on Jan. 21, the first day of classes for the second semester of academic...
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TIP strengthens academic excellence with latest institutional assessment
The Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) is now the third higher education institution in the country to pass the Asean University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) Institutional Assessment. Overall, TIP is the 10th educational institution in Southeast Asia to garner this assessment, the engineering and technological school said in a statement. AUN-QA is among the top...
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Timely and necessary conversations
To write our literary and intellectual history is a significant undertaking, one that scholars of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) have embraced with dedication. Building on the successes of conferences honoring the late Edel Garcellano in 2018, 2019, and 2023, we organized a fourth iteration aimed at preserving his legacy as PUP’s foremost...
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UP admin and University Council still at odds on UP-AFP accord
Editor’s Note: This report, originally run on Sept. 26, 2024, has been updated with interviews with the UP president and vice president for academic affairs. More than a month since the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) signed a “declaration of cooperation” (DOC) to conduct joint strategic research,...