CITING DISMAL PREDICAMENT hounding the education sector, members of the Senate adopted a resolution urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to seriously consider the idea of forming a Cabinet Cluster for Education, if only to ensure a cohesive implementation of education laws, policies, reforms and regulations in all government offices.
In concurring Senate Resolution No. 21 (series of 2025), Senator Loren Legarda in her capacity as principal author, finds it “rather imperative” to come up with a long-term integrated national education and workforce development plan to address the long-standing coordination challenges and gaps in strategic planning across the education sector.
To date, inter-agency bodies facilitate coordination in various education-related issues, but have yet to come up with a unified strategic direction that would strengthen the education system and policy implementation throughout the country.
“For decades, the education system has operated under a ‘fragmented structure’. (This needs to be resolved if we want to upgrade the education of the next and coming generations of Filipinos),” Legarda, pointed out.
“(But) what we (is important) now is (to have) the will to connect them, discipline coordinate efforts and (ensure) commitment to break institutional silos,” she added.
In closing, the former journalist explained that “the proposed Cabinet Cluster (is expected) to correct the gaps in the education sector but will not centralize authority and instead harmonize strategy and hold agencies jointly accountable for results, enabling a truly system-wide response to the education crisis we face.”