Save 20% off! Join our newsletter and get 20% off right away!

Briones’ education objectives: Further enrich basic education curriculum, expand ALS

333
PASIG CITY, Philippines – Department of Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones is looking to further enrich basic education by strengthening the drug component in science and health, reinforcing lessons on gender and equity in sex education, and emphasizing environment and disaster risk reduction awareness. Also among the priorities of the new administration is the expansion of Alternative Learning System (ALS) at regional, national, and international levels.
This important program seeking to reintegrate out-of-school youths or basic education dropouts in the school system—has seen almost 600,000 passers of the Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Program, all of whom were certified as eligible for either high school or higher education.
However, Briones sees this number as meager against the number of learners who are eligible or who have potential for ALS. The Secretary also plans on making ALS accessible for those in drug rehabilitation centers, those in geographically challenging locations, and for those who are illegal migrants in countries and do not have access to formal education.
Furthermore, Briones wants to enhance the complementary relationship between private and public education institutions by encouraging dialogue, collaboration in pedagogy and learning methods, and faculty exchange. Briones sees that by 2022, the end of her term as Secretary, these education reforms will have been fully implemented, enriched, enhanced and expanded. The emphasis is on institutionalizing effective governance, financial management, delivery systems, and monitoring mechanisms.

Criselda Cabangon David, a happy mother of two kids, is a full-time Sociologist at the City Government of Lucena, Quezon Province. She is currently the Managing Editor of Ang Diaryo Natin Sunday News, a weekly local community newspaper in the Philippines and an active member of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.