Lapus seeks changes in laws on education By Jerry E.

Esplanada Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 21:56:00 03/07/2008 Filed Under: Education, Laws MANILA, Philippines -- The basic education reform agenda of the Arroyo administration will not prosper "if certain provisions of existing laws that infringe on the sector are not changed," Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus warned. In a Department of Education report titled ?Issues, Challenges and Reforms in Basic Education,? Lapus asserted that legislation must be dynamic and must be reviewed and updated to respond to realities. Lapus said the DepEd "does not lose sight of the need to institute amendments to existing legislation to deepen current improvements, as well as attain future conditions that can yield better outcomes in the long term." "The students who are in our system now -- all 20 million of them -- will be the country's workforce till 2060. Any delay, therefore, in upgrading the quality of basic education will have serious consequences in the future makeup of our country's future state," Lapus warned. Lapus said the DepEd is particularly pushing for amendments to Republic Act No. 4670, otherwise known as the "Magna Carta for Public School Teachers" and Republic Act No. 7880, or "Fair and Equitable Allocation of the DepEd Budget for Capital Outlay." The DepEd is specifically concerned about a number of obsolete provisions in RA 4670 such as teachers' additional compensation, step increments, hardship allowance and overtime pay. Lapus said the proposed amendments to RA 4670 also aim to "address the perennial problem of teacher deployments." According to Lapus, the proposed amendments to RA 7880 aim to give the DepEd the flexibility to periodically adjust or modify its budget allocation based on its actual needs instead of the school population. DepEd also supports a pending bill which seeks to "amend the law on teachers' licensure examinations and at the same time, restore the attractiveness of the teaching profession." "We want a three-stage examination based on performance and competency," said Lapus. The DepEd is also pushing for the expansion of the education service contracting scheme which is currently used only in pre-schools, secondary schools and alternative learning

programs to include elementary education and make pre-schools a part of the basic education cycle. "In this manner, we can compel parents to send their five-year old children to both public and private schools," said Lapus. The DepEd also wants the Government Service Insurance System to streamline its services for the teaching and non-teaching personnel of the DepEd, which account for about 50 percent of the entire GSIS membership. The agency is also pushing for a special land registration act for school sites to address the DepEd's land titling problems. According to DepEd records, nearly 40,000 public school sites nationwide remain untitled. "The present process of acquiring land titles is not only tedious but also costly. It has become a heavy burden for school authorities.... The proposed law calls for the summary titling of all lands currently being utilized as school sites and their registration under the name of the DepEd," said Lapus.
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