Act now

Recently, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he was looking forward to major developments in education. He sponsored the law creating Edcom 2, Republic Act 11899, in the previous Congress, and he now heads the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.

Referring to Edcom 2, he said in a statement, “This national assessment will recommend transformative, concrete and targeted reforms to make the Philippines globally competitive in both education and labor markets. It will also recommend specific, targeted and time-bound solutions to enable education agencies to improve their performance vis-à-vis measurable indicators and deliver accessible, inclusive and quality education that is at par with world standards.”

That sounds great. But it should be noted that Edcom 2’s work will take years to complete. Meanwhile, lawmakers should initiate some improvements now. After all, many of the problems mentioned in education circles have been debated for years. Lawmakers should not wait for Edcom 2 to validate all of them.

Fortunately, Senator Gatchalian and Representative Go know the urgency of the situation. Hopefully, they can sway others to act now to arrest the opportunity losses that impact present and many future generations.