The Department of Education (DepEd for short) is the executive department of the Philippines government responsible for ensuring access to, promoting, and improving equity in education. It is the leading institution tasked with administering and using the Philippine basic education system (Department of Education). It is the principal policy-making body for the Philippines in education and is responsible for the functioning of the Philippine system of primary and secondary education.
The country’s colonial history heavily influenced the Philippines’ educational system. This history includes periods of Spanish, American, and Japanese rule and occupation. The most important and lasting contribution was made during the American occupation of the country, which began in 1898. Therefore, the English language was introduced as the primary language of instruction, and the public education system was first established during this period. Similar to the United States, the Philippine nation has an extensive and inclusive education system, including higher education. Today, the United States continues to influence the education system in the Philippines, with many of the country’s faculty and professors earning degrees from United States universities.
Although the Philippine education system has long served as a model for other countries in Southeast Asia, it has deteriorated in recent years. This is especially true when considering more remote and poorer regions of the Philippines. While Manila, the capital and largest city in the Philippines, has a primary school completion rate of almost 100 percent, other parts, including Mindanao and the Eastern Visayas, have a very low primary school completion rate (Meniano, 2018). Unsurprisingly, students who hail from Philippine urban areas tend to score higher in subjects such as math and science than students in more rural areas of the country. In addition, public and private schools, colleges, universities, and technical and vocational institutions provide education in the Philippines. Essentially, funding for public education comes from the national government. DepEd sets general educational standards and authorizes standardized tests for the primary education system at the basic level of education.
Significantly, there are major differences in educational attainment across various social groups. Socio-economically disadvantaged students otherwise referred to as students, who are members of high-income and low-income families, have incredibly high dropout rates at the primary level. There is a problematic and clear social divide regarding educational opportunities in the country. Most modern societies are faced with an equalizing effect on the subject of education. As mentioned earlier in the social system, this gap forces education to become part of the institutional mechanism that creates divisions between the poor and the rich.
In terms of secondary education, all children between the ages of twelve and fifteen strive to complete each year with satisfactory levels of achievement. One of the most critical development prospects is improving the quality of education in all cities in the Philippines, with particular attention to Mindanao and the Eastern Visayas. The second issue facing the Philippine educational system is the education budget. Therefore, the Department of Education must increase funding in order to improve the education level in the Philippines. To summarize, the main action for the development of the Department of Education is to provide essential competencies for everyone and to achieve functional literacy for everyone. Ensuring that every Filipino has basic skills is equivalent to providing all Filipinos with basic learning needs or being functionally literate.
References
Department of Education. GOVPH. Web.
Meniano, S. (2018). DepEd bares education challenges in Eastern Visayas. Gov.Ph. Web.