PHILIPPINE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (PCCI) 49th Philippine Business Conference and Expo (PBC & E) The Manila Hotel, Ermita, Manila

Education has always been a catalyst for sustained economic growth. In an increasingly interconnected global landscape, the quality of education provided to the Filipino youth plays a crucial role in shaping both their individual futures and the progress we make as a society.

In striving for a first world economy, we need to invest in upgrading education towards first world standards. Quality education is the foundation for the development of human capital – our country’s greatest resource. So with the vision of producing Filipinos who are resilient, globally competitive and contributors to nation-building, the Department of Education launched the MATATAG Agenda called Basic Education Development.

MATATAG stands for: MA – Make the curriculum relevant to produce job-ready, active, and responsible citizens. TA - Take steps to accelerate the delivery of basic education services and provision of facilities. TA – Take good care of learners by promoting learner well-being, inclusive education, and a positive learning environment. G - Give support for teachers to teach better.

Covering core areas such as the curriculum, infrastructure, learning resources, and teacher welfare, this serves as our roadmap in upgrading the quality of basic education towards First World standards.

Guided by the MATATAG Agenda, we have taken initiatives to address the various challenges confronting basic education today.

For our gathering this afternoon, I will be providing four — one is the Curriculum, Teacher Welfare, Infrastructure, and Technology.

Curriculum At the heart of any education system is its curriculum. Recognizing the importance of adapting our basic education system to the needs of the 21st century, we launched the MATATAG K-10 Curriculum last August 2023. Placing emphasis on holistic development, the MATATAG Curriculum encompasses critical life skills, values education, and learner support. This decongested, streamlined and recalibrated curriculum is now being piloted in 35 schools, located in 7 regions across the country. We expect to gain valuable lessons from these pilot schools who will also undergo assessments during the pilot, to prepare us for the nationwide phased-implementation come school year 2024-2025.

Simultaneous to this pilot is the ongoing review and revision of the Senior High School curriculum, the Grades 11 and 12. I would like to take this opportunity to invite the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and all its members to participate in the review, and provide valuable insights on skills-matching in order to boost employability for our graduates.

We need all the help we can get from the experts. From you.

Technology Today's learners grow up in a digital era, and it is critical that we adapt our teaching methodologies to engage and prepare them for the future. The adoption of digital literacy, e-learning platforms, and interactive classroom environments must be integrated into the educational process.

To this end, we are unveiling the DepEd Digital Education 2028 or DepEd Digi-Ed.

The backbone of technology lies in connectivity. We are aggressively taking steps to provide School-Wide Wi-Fi across the country. We have been negotiating with the likes of Starlink, PLDT, Converge, Globe and other service providers to make this a reality. 25 schools have initially been chosen for Starlink’s proof of concept, while 2,000 other schools are currently being given satellites for internet connectivity.

Imagine multiple libraries in the palm of your hand. In the palm of our students in public schools. Digitization of learning resources is at the top of our agenda. We are looking to procure digital textbooks, as well as supplementary learning resources that will be made available to learners and teachers, be it online or offline. We have been holding regular discussions with publishers, both big and small, to procure digital resources as early as 2024.

To complement these digital resources, we are currently developing the MATATAG Portal. This will serve as a platform for learners to have instant access to their lessons, resources, modules, activity sheets and assessments with a unique log-in key.

Further, we are currently procuring Digi-Ed Learning Carts. These computer-labs-on-wheels, are each composed of 46 laptops, hard drives, a charging cart and a smart TV. We are on track to provide our schools with E-Learning carts in the coming months.

In embracing technology, we envision an environment of borderless classrooms and learning without disruptions.

Infrastructure Even with advances in technology, however, we must still acknowledge the pivotal role that sufficient and resilient school infrastructure plays in fostering a conducive learning environment.

We have created a strand under the Department of Education dedicated for the School Infrastructure and Facilities (SIF). This strand is dedicated to accelerating the delivery of school buildings and other basic educations facilities.

We will continue to build more classrooms. So far, the construction of 2,201 new classrooms have now been completed.

We have also recently held the simultaneous inauguration of 15 last mile schools, with 45 more last mile sites scheduled to be turned over within the year.

In view of the usual fiscal restrictions of the national budget, funding from the private sector plays a vital role. At present, the Department is looking at obtaining financing from the World Bank through the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools project. This facility will address the repair and rehabilitation of disaster-affected schools.

We are also exploring partnerships with other government agencies such as PAGCOR and the private sector to supplement our School Buildings Program.

More importantly, we remain committed to transparency and accountability. As such, we are currently procuring a developer for the School Infrastructure Transparency Website. This will provide instant access for the general public to see real-time progress on schools and classrooms being built nationwide.

Teacher Quality Finally, we firmly believe that teachers are the cornerstone of effective education. Aside from exploring additional benefits and strengthening our professional development programs, we want our teachers to do what they do best — go back to the classrooms and teach.

We will bring our teachers back to the classrooms by removing the various administrative tasks that they are burdened with. Currently, we are tracking interim guidelines to reduce the 50 administrative tasks to 10 — those with legal basis only.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we may have lofty goals, but they are not unattainable. Upgrading the basic education system to meet 1st World standards is not a mere aspiration – it is imperative if we are to create a future where every child has the opportunity to succeed.

While we have taken significant strides, there is so much left to do. And as we have always maintained, DepEd cannot do this alone. The improvement of Basic Education is a continuous journey that requires a whole-of-nation approach. It involves an unwavering collaboration and commitment from all stakeholders – including the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Together, we will produce future leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators that are capable of meeting the demands of the fast-changing job market.

Together, we will work to improve the Philippine educational landscape, one learner at a time.

Mga kabababayan, patuloy tayong maging MATATAG tungo sa pagtaguyod ng isang Bansang Makabata at Batang Makabansa.

Lahat para sa Diyos, Bayan at Pamilyang Pilipino.

Shukran.