Modest proposals
Raymond Palatino, national president and 1st nominee
March 1, 2007
visit his blog
I met with political science students last Thursday and I shared some of our legislative proposals. Here is an excerpt of my speech….
Thank you very much for this invitation. Kabataan Partylist does not have a representative in Philippine Congress today, but it aims to succeed in the coming elections, and hopefully, a youth representative will have a seat in the Philippine Congress this July.
So let me now highlight our legislative platform. Our vision and mission statement; and our general program of action can be accessed in our website, www.kabataanparty.com. I want to be more specific in discussing our election agenda.
For obvious reasons, our platform is all about promoting youth welfare. Education will be our main thrust. We will look into the issue of access, equity, quality and relevance. What are our proposals?
1. Funding allocation for education. We are not asking for the whole national budget. We want to increase the funding for education. Make it 6 percent of our GDP, or 20 percent of our national budget. This is the minimum requirement prescribed by the UNESCO. We have to catch up with other Asian countries in terms of investment for education. There is an automatic appropriation for foreign debt servicing. Why not an automatic appropriation for social services or education? Why not require a certain percentage of each lawmaker’s pork barrel to be earmarked for education purposes?
2. Initially, we want to review the higher education policy of the government since it is geared towards the phasing out of state universities or the reduction of subsidies for public higher education institutions. Then later on we realized that it is already time to have a comprehensive review of the education sector. The last time this was made was in 1992 through the Education Commission. We have to review our education policies:
Tumaas ba ang investment for education tulad ng minungkahi ng Edcom noong 1992?
Nakatulong ba ang paghahati ng sektor ng edukasyon sa tatlong ahensiya: Deped, Ched at Tesda? O nangangailangan ba ng isang ahensiya ng gobyerno na mangangasiwa sa buong larangan ng pag-aaral?
Nakatulong ba ang Restructured Basic Education Curriculum (RBEC) sa pagtatataas ng kalidad ng karunungan?
I think Senator Angara also has this proposal.
3. Our higher education is dominated by the private sector. We have to regulate tuition collection in the country. Ched insists it has no power to run after profiteering schools. Ched claims it cannot stop schools from collecting exorbitant fees. So why not review the law which created Ched and arm it with more authority? Amend Section 42 of Education Act of 1982 which gives schools the freedom to impose the fees they want to charge.
4. We have a market-driven education. Schools offer courses which are popular since employment in other countries is guaranteed. These courses are not necessarily what our domestic economy requires. We are an agricultural nation, we are on the pacific ring of fire, we have the best marine biodiversity in the world. We have to prioritize in our curriculum the advancement of agriculture, science and technology, engineering, marine and geological sciences. Sadly, most of our private schools do not offer these courses. The most popular course today is…nursing.
5. Which brings me to our next proposal. How do encourage our skilled professionals to stay? To be more particular, how do we address the exodus of our health workers? We cannot prevent our people from leaving the country. It is their right. We can only delay their departure. We have to do something drastic, and perhaps implement unpopular measures, about the rising number of migrating health workers. We have a large number of nursing students and fewer young people who want to enter medicine.
Review medical education in the country. Make it more affordable, responsive to community health needs and we support Sen. Ralph Recto’s proposal: Create more PMAs or Philippine Medical Academy.
We support the proposal requiring graduates from public medical and nursing schools to render a compulsory service before leaving the country. The Indonesian model can be adopted. Those who serve in remote villages will be required to stay in the country for one to two years only.
6. Let me cite a few other proposals: include climate change in the curriculum, native language should remain as the medium of instruction, ban junk foods in schools. The Congress wants to ban computer shops near schools. Our position: strike a deal with these shops to augment the lack of computers in our public schools.
We want to review the SK law. We do not want it abolished. I remember a conversation I had with the National Youth Commission chairman and he said there was a proposal to introduce a partylist-like system in the SK. Community youth organizations will be tapped. We need to do more. Integrate the SK members not only in government offices but also among NGOs and other civic groups. Review the monetary compensation of SK officials. Do these young people really need a salary to serve the community?
I cannot articulate all the problems of our society. One day is not enough to cover all these issues. Please help us improve our agenda. We want to hear your proposals. Please visit our website, email us and blog about us.