4As of Education Reform

Being surrounded by 21,000+ strong workforce, I am tempted to succumb to the mistaken belief that we are here or the system operates for them.

The truth is, public education system or any education system for that matter exists for the children - at the core of teaching and learning. They are the primary reason in policies, processes and personnel recruitment and promotion.

Teachers and managers are secondary actors. They exist for the children and not vice versa. It is then unfortunate that many ills permeating the education bureaucracy pertains to conduct of teachers and managers. As we are overwhelmed by the nuances of dealing with teacher's and manager's' issues and problems, we have less and less time for the reason why education exists.

As UNICEF rightly advocated, it is time to bring back the child to the center of attention. We are investing P8 billion pesos annually not just to pay for personnel salaries or fund travels of education managers. This annual investment rightly belongs to the children.

Time to bring back the child's perspective into the consciousness of education planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Time to change and evolve organizational culture to its right child-centric mantra - the core foci of education reforms are the 4A's -

(1) Access - Are the children able to access learning facility? If not, we doing we doing to address absence or poor access to education?

(2) Attendance - Are the children going to school or learning center regularly? If not, we doing we doing to retain them in school or promote their well-being?

(3) Achievement - Are the children learning according to learning standards? If not, we doing we doing to promote their developmental and personal competence?

(4) Accomplishment - Are they able to complete basic schooling? If not, what are we doing to insure it?