objectives of 1987 education reform

• No results found

Background to the 1987 basic education reform in Ghana

Background information and context, 2.3 background to the 1987 basic education reform in ghana.

From the early seventies to the mid eighties, Ghana experienced a serious national economic decline, which affected all social sectors (MoE, 2000b). The education system was deprived of human and material resources, which resulted in poor standards, lower enrolment and retention rates at schools (MoE, 1996). In 1973, the government set up the Dzobo Committee to evaluate the traditional education system and make recommendations for improvement. According to Eshun-Famiyeh (2001), in 1974, the government accepted the report of the Dzobo Committee.

The report was titled, The New Structure and Content of Education for Ghana. Under this report, a new curriculum complete with new syllabuses reflecting new content, to address the identified anomalies, were put in place for Primary One across the country in September 1974. By August 1980 the implementation of the new system had progressed from Primary One through Primary Six. However, in September 1980, when the new system should have continued to Junior Secondary One (JS1) across the country, few experimental schools were established. The Junior Secondary Programme envisaged under the New Structure and Content of Education could not be implemented due to the economic recession of the early seventies to the mid eighties (MoE, 2000b).

In the early eighties, Ghana embarked on a series of structural adjustment programmes with support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As MoE

(2000b) explains the Education Sector Adjustment Credit (EdSAC) was used to revamp the education sector. Under the EdSAC, a review of the Dzobo report was undertaken in 1986, which led to the implementation of the reforms nation-wide in 1987.

2.3.1 Related education policies

A number of education policies were implemented by successive governments before independence to the late eighties. Two of those policies were the Accelerated Development Plan of 1951 and the 1961 Education Act, which brought about free compulsory primary education in Ghana. In 1983, the then military Government enacted the PNDC Law 42 to modify and reinforce among others, the Education Act of 1961. The Government declared that:

Without the provision of basic education for as many of our children for the challenges of this environment, we would only be turning them into misfits and denying ourselves the most essential resources for national development (MoE, 2000b, p. 1).

The MoE (2000b) argued that the Government accepted the challenge to pursue this objective because for sustained and self-reliant economic growth, modern science and technology must be applied to the economy. However, this could not be attained without equipping the potential manpower of the country with the necessary orientation and skills for the task. In fact, the aim could not be achieved in a situation in which about 70% of adult were illiterates and 30% of school-age children were out of school as well as high drop-out rates. The 1987 education reform constituted far- reaching aspiration of the Government and people of Ghana towards diversifying and making education more efficient and productive.

In addition, the 1992 Constitution of the fourth Republic included specific clauses to consolidate the objectives of the educational reforms. Article 38 sub-section 2 of the Constitution states that:

The Government shall within two years after parliament first meets after coming into force of this constitution draw up a programme for the implementation within the following ten years for the provision of a free, compulsory universal basic education (MoEYS, 2004, p. 2).

On assumption of office, the democratically elected Government launched the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme (FCUBE), a 10 year programme (1996-2005) designed to establish the policy framework, strategies and activities to achieve free compulsory universal basic education for all children of school going age (MoE, 2000c; MoEYS, 2004). The implication of this policy as shown later in the discussion is the continual increase in basic school enrolments.

Another relevant policy comes from the Vision 2020 document, considered as Ghana’s road map to achieving middle-income status by the year 2020. According to this document (Vision 2020) the priority for education is:

To ensure that all citizens, regardless of gender or social status, are functionally literate and productive, at the minimum… the education system will have the primary responsibility for providing the means for the population to acquire the necessary skills to cope successfully in an increasingly competitive global economy (MoE, 2000f, p. 1- 2).

However, none of these policies made any special provisions in terms of curricula and assessment approaches for lower attaining pupils in basic schools.

Apart from concerns relating to national needs, education policies in Ghana were also influenced by developments at the international level; for example, the policy of quality education for all as outlined by UNESCO in the Dakar Declaration. As

Chinapah (1996) points out UNESCO’s current basic education policy is targeted towards programmes of expanding access and improving quality and relevant education. The main objectives are:

• to promote access to primary education …for all children, with an emphasis on girls and those difficult to reach; and

• to contribute to the overall improvement of quality of basic education with a view to increasing pupils’ level of learning achievement.

However, in terms of education of children with disabilities, while the international perspective as reflected in the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on SEN (1994) focused on inclusion of all children in regular schools. In Ghana, the trend has remained segregation; the policy is that all school age children without disabilities should have access to quality education in ordinary schools and those with disabilities in special schools (MoE, 2000a; 2004a).

2.3.2 The objectives of the 1987 basic education reform

Some of the principles which formed the basis for the reform were: the importance of education for all, the need for education to be relevant to professional employment opportunities, and the importance of scientific and technological educational to national development. According to the MoE (1996) the objectives of the new Educational Reforms Programme were:

• to expand and make access more equitable;

• to change the structure of the school system, reducing the length of pre-tertiary education from 17 to 12 years;

• to improve pedagogy efficiency and effectiveness;

• to make education more relevant by increasing the attention paid to problem solving, environment concerns, pre-vocational training, manual dexterity and general skills training.

The Education Reforms Programme has, since its implementation in 1987, had a significant impact on the education system. The achievements include, increased access to education, redesigning the curriculum towards greater relevance, improving instructional effectiveness and training of teachers.

However, the MoE (2000d) suggests that wide-ranging reforms in the late 1980s have brought the structure of the education system closer to an American model, aiming to make education more responsive to the nation’s manpower needs rather than purely academic. In the context of assessment, this is problematic because the American education system has been described as the ‘most tested’ in the world (Harlen and Crick, 2003). Whilst in the USA there is specific provision for lower attaining pupils, in Ghana, the objectives of the reforms do not include any provision for lower attaining pupils in classrooms.

• The cognitive, constructivist theories of learning
• Background to the 1987 basic education reform in Ghana (You are here)
• The core curriculum and teaching syllabus
• Issues relating to teacher continuous assessment practice
• Teacher education and professional development in Ghana in relation to lower attainments
• Continuous assessment activities
• Continuous assessment and formative assessment
• Contributing to external examination
• Effects of formative assessment on lower attaining pupils
• Effects of curriculum-based assessment on lower attaining pupils
• Effects of summative assessment on lower attaining pupils
• Approaches for enhancing lower attaining pupils’ performance
• Pupils’ role in continuous assessment
• Background to choice of approach and methods
• Justification for using mixed methods design
• Focus groups of lower attaining pupils
• Ethical issues
• Reliability and validity issues

Related documents

Remembering 1987: The Year in Education

• Share article

President Reagan proposes a $5.5-billion cut in federal education spending--to $14 billion--for FY 1988.

California districts move to take advantage of an unusual new state law allowing them to collect fees on new commercial and residential development.

Fall River, Mass., adopts a student-assignment plan believed to be the first in the nation to desegregate primarily on the basis of language, not race.

The Holmes Group meets for the first time as a membership organization representing more than 90 research universities interested in reforming teacher preparation.

After rising for four years, scores on college-entrance tests remained stable in 1986, the Education Department reports in its “wall chart.”

School employees impaired by infectious diseases are protected from discrimination by federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court decides.

A federal district judge rules that textbooks used in Alabama schools unconstitutionally promote secular humanism.

The National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration calls for a thorough overhaul of the training and licensing of school administrators.

A blue-ribbon panel named by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett recommends a major expansion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The secret to high-quality education is “not in the pocketbook” but in “simple dedication” to basic values, President Reagan tells a conference of educators in Columbia, Mo.

The education-reform movement has been “hijacked” by bureaucrats and special interests, Secretary Bennett charges in a speech in San Francisco.

The achievements of the reform movement may be jeopardized by a return to “benign neglect,” argues a study commissioned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Indiana legislature adopts one of the few major school-reform packages considered by a state in 1987.

A Texas court invalidates the state’s school-finance system.

The Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy establishes the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Iowa lawmakers agree to provide families with income-tax credits and deductions for public- and private-school expenses.

U.S. schools must impart the knowledge needed to support “the ideals of a free society,” a group of prominent Americans, including former Presidents Carter and Ford, declares in a joint statement.

A commission headed by the higher-education leader Clark Kerr urges schools to “keep up with a changing world” by adding a global perspective throughout the curriculum.

The House approves a massive bill reauthorizing 14 federal education programs through 1993.

The U.S. Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a Louisiana law mandating balanced treatment of evolution and creationism in science classes.

Public-school teachers in New York State cannot be forced to take drug tests as a prerequisite to obtaining tenure, the state’s highest court rules.

Nevada creates an autonomous teacher-licensure board dominated by teachers.

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop warns of a future “explosion” in aids cases among teen-agers.

The first “summit meeting” in 20 years of leading groups of English teachers calls for a more “learner centered” approach to instruction.

California adopts an ambitious new curriculum framework for history and social studies.

Gov. George Deukmejian vetoes the extension of California’s bilingual-education act.

Rochester, N.Y., teachers reach agreement with the school district on a contract offering them dramatic salary hikes and a major voice in decisionmaking.

Setbacks for fundamentalist Christian parents: Federal appellate courts overturn the Alabama secular-humanism ruling and a 1986 decision allowing Tennessee students to “opt out” of reading classes.

A political first: Nine Presidential aspirants meet in Chapel Hill, N.C., to debate educational issues.

A broad policy of early intervention is needed to avoid “creating a permanent underclass of young people,” the Committee for Economic Development warns.

American students display a “shameful” lack of knowledge of history and literature, Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn Jr. conclude in What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know?

Pope John Paul II praises and cautions Catholic educators in a New Orleans address.

School desegregation: A federal judge in Kansas City imposes new taxes to finance an integration plan, and an appellate panel returns control of student assignments to the Boston school district.

Schoolchildren across the country participate in activities marking the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

Pension officials say school-employee retirement funds are sound after a record plunge in the stock market on Oct. 19.

The Environmental Protection Agency approves tough new regulations on asbestos in schools.

The decline in minority enrollment in colleges has reached “alarming proportions,” the American Council on Education warns.

The teacher-attrition rate is at a 25-year low but is likely to rise, the rand Corporation reports.

Secretary Bennett stresses sexual abstinence in a booklet on teaching children about aids.

The Council of Chief State School Officers calls on states to “guarantee” school quality for at-risk students.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops sharply criticize school health clinics that dispense contraceptives.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics unveils a new “vision” for the K-12 math curriculum.

The U.S. Supreme Court leaves unresolved the constitutionality of state moment-of-silence laws.

Normed tests are skewed to find most elementary pupils above average, a study concludes.

Ohio State University loses its federal grant to operate the National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

The omnibus education reauthorization bill passes the Senate.

A version of this article appeared in the January 13, 1988 edition of Education Week as Remembering 1987: The Year in Education

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs, sign up & sign in.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

THE EVANS-ANFOM EDUCATIONAL REFORM AND THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN GHANA Background

Related Papers

The World Bank Research Observer

Sahira Jameel

Creative Education

harwati hashim

Hassan M . Ahmed

The study focus on identifying the relationship between Human capital and economic development for Educational Institutions in Mogadishu, using descriptive analysis with view of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of private universities in Mogadishu,. More specifically, this study aims to find out the effect of human capital development and economic development. The target or accessible population of the study was 60 of educated employee or instructors in educational institutions in Mogadishu an which a sample of 49 respondents was drawn using stratified random sampling and proportionate was used to determine sample size for each of the three educational institutions such as plasma university, modern university and university of Somalia, To achieve the objectives of the study, a survey design was employed. The study relied principally on primary data which was collected using questionnaires containing close ended questions for ease of analysis. Data was analyzed using descriptive with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Based on the finding in objective one which indicates the total average mean (3.17), the second objectives which indicates the total average mean (3.031) ,, Based on the findings in objective third and fourth or specific objectives of the study indicates the total average mean (2.95) so that the all objectives indicate a good sign or positive sign,means the overall Skill building and training of the educational institutions are very good While the overall mean of economic development was scored a (3.2 mean of which also indicates a positive sign and shows us the economic development is answered very good means that mostly agreed for my questions and finally for the findings indicate that the presence of positive relationship between Human capital development and economic development. (r =0.890 at the level (α ≤ 0.05) as shown in the table of chapter four indicates, so that the study indicates that human capital development have a significant and strong relationship towards the economic development. The researcher recommends further investigation should be conducted to collect data from other educational institutions such to see whether human capital development are increasing and effecting the economics in the country. The study also recommends that the Expand human capital investment on institutional capacity by strengthening the infrastructure of educational institutions to produce quality manpower to eradicate the level of illiterate and effect the economics of the country

The 5th. World Congress of Research in Education, Rusia, ISBN 0-557-72797-9

Ionela Gabriela Solomon

The concept of capital has been examined in the literature in its various aspects: financial, organizational, structural, social, relational, human, and intellectual. The paper aims to analyze the evolution of the concept of human capital, starting from the definition given at individual level; namely, human capital is closely related to genetics, education, experience and attitudes of a person. Education and training underpin the development of human capital in an organization, whether public or private. Looking at the ensemble education, human capital and welfare in organization, we see that theories of human capital influence the educational system and labour market. Economists call this process, capital formation, in order to improve productivity in the workplace. In the current society based on knowledge, human capital is one of the engines of economic development. Thus, this intangible capital aims to bring added value to an organization, especially at the top and middle management level. However the term human capital is defined not only by the level of education of the individual, but also by the acquired specific knowledge or experience in the previous job. Using literature review, the paper identifies the elements of human capital, following the historical evolution of the concept, as there is no common definition of human capital, most referring to knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals, in order to facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic welfare. Further, through Eurostat database, the work explores the relationship between education and the labour market, both at European Union level and in particular for Romania, using indicators such as: the employment rate, education level, number of graduates with higher education, research and development degree.

International Handbook of Development Economics, Volumes 1 & 2

Simon Marginson

R. Cowen and A. M. Kazamias (eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Education, 633–650. © Springer

Eleni karatzia , Prof. Dr. Haris Lambropoulos

Ivan Trofimov

Nabila Hisham

Foresight and STI Governance

Isak Froumin

Rasheed Azeez

This study examines tertiary education and human capital development: its implication on the national development. A commendable tertiary education will bring about rare, valuable and un-substitutable human capital which will apparently move the economy forward. Having a dwindling growth implies that sustainable development cannot take place if the human capital (skilled person) required to bring about progressive change in the nation is not available. The study employed the ex post facto survey research design. The sample size used in the study was 200 academic staff of Lagos State University selected randomly from four faculties. The hypotheses and data collected were analyzed using the Person product moment correlation coefficient. Two hypotheses were tested and the results showed that tertiary education has a positive and significant relationship with national development and that tertiary education has a positive, strong and significant relationship with human capital development. It concluded by advancing that Nigerian government most especially Lagos State government must bridge the gap that exists between crises saturated university system and the students' who will become the economy developers. Also, it is pertinent for Lagos state government and Nigerian government at large to focus on how to develop and utilize maximally the capacities and capabilities of its valuable assets which are its human resource. Tertiary education must be adequately funded and equipped with the modern learning technologies so the students' can compete in this globalizing world and government needs to take drastic measures to reduce the level of brain-drain in the country.

RELATED PAPERS

Temas Laborales Revista Andaluza De Trabajo Y Bienestar Social

Laura Pérez Ortiz

Grzegorz Labiak

Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan (JMP)

noor miyono

Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies

Peter Burian

Natalia Rosli

Prorgama II Jornadas de Filosofía y Humanidades "(Re)pensar la democracia". Cehycso - TECSA

Débora Fernández

2012 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII)

Yoshiyuki Sankai

Niki Carlan

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition

Khaled Nagaty

Malaria Journal

Pharmacogenomics

Winston Shen

High Performance Computing - Technology, Methods and Applications

Manuel Ujaldon

Revista Alergia México

Hugo Neffen

Silvia Kelm

Springer eBooks

Manuel Santos-Trigo

Silvio Amâncio

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Miyuki Aiba

Dinamika Lingkungan Indonesia

Bintal Amin 19630403 198803 1 003

Arachnology

Seppo Koponen

Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy

Axel Mühlbacher

Aleksander Jakimowicz

Geofocus Revista Internacional De Ciencia Y Tecnologia De La Informacion Geografica

Silvina Manrique

Blucher Design Proceedings

Gerson Lessa

Olubukola (Bukky) Tokede

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

International Review of Public Policy

Home Issues 2:2 Bringing Governance Back into Edu...

Bringing Governance Back into Education Reforms

Educational systems around the world have undergone major reforms since the 1980s, with largely disappointing results. The objective of this paper is to understand the reasons behind the lackluster results with the purpose of devising ways to address them. Analysis in the paper is based on the understanding that the education sector is characterized by distinct functional imperatives that need to be addressed in policy responses that must involve a wide array of actors to be effective. In this view, education policy is fundamentally about establishing a governance structure to ensure that all the essential functions necessary to achieve the chosen policy goals are performed. Accordingly, the paper proposes a governance framework for education comprising political and operational functions, which it then applies to education policy reforms in the Philippines since the 1970s. The analysis finds that the reforms have focused on financing and decentralization issues while overlooking many other critical governance functions. The lackluster results are unsurprising given that the sector has been beset by many problems unrelated to centralized bureaucratic administration and which have been left unattended. The conclusions regarding the importance of comprehensive governance to emerge from this study are relevant not only for understanding education policy reforms in the Philippines and elsewhere but will also help develop a fuller understanding of the functioning of the education sector in general.

Index terms

Keywords: , introduction.

1 Educational systems around the world have undergone major transformations since the 1980s, largely due to the growing recognition of the central role they play as a driver of economic and social development. In developing countries, the Millennium Development Goals, and its successor the Sustainable Development Goals, have played a catalytic role in pushing education reform to the center of development debates. However, most countries have been more successful at quantitative expansion of school places and attendance rather than providing quality education. We can look back to the experience of these countries to draw lessons from their experiences, especially regarding their efforts to implement the policy of universal education.

2 The objective of this paper is to analyze education policy reforms in the Philippines in recent decades, with the purpose of drawing generalizable conclusions about what works, in what combination, and to what extent. It starts by drawing attention to the critical failures that afflict the education sector and then proposing a framework for addressing them. It argues that the purpose of education policy must be to develop a governance framework to ensure that all necessary functions necessary to achieve desired goals are performed. It then applies the framework to the case of education policy reforms in the Philippines. The study finds that the reforms have focused largely on mobilizing additional resources and decentralizing management. While the measures did address some critical governance imperatives, they overlooked many governance arrangements necessary for the reforms to succeed. Given the critical governance deficiencies that remain unattended, Philippine’s mediocre educational performance is hardly surprising.

Education Reform

3 Education systems are one of the most complex systems of organization in the public sector, making reforms and innovations particularly complicated. The very nature of the sector – the variety of stakeholders, differences in time horizons, and unpredictability and immeasurability of results – sets it apart from other services (Cerna, 2014) . Education bureaucracies are typically seen as difficult to reform because they are “multitask, multi-principal, multi-period, near-monopoly organization[s] with vague and poorly observable goals” (Dixit, 2002, p. 719) . Observers have long characterized education systems as ‘loosely coupled systems’ or ‘organized anarchies’ (Weick, 1976) , where “authority and power are distributed among well-defined institutions at different levels” (Kogan, 1975, p. 231) . Such weakly but interdependent connections between units are typically seen as caused by unclear means-end connection and fragmented internal and external environments (Orton & Weick, 1990) , not by conscious strategy but as a product of adaptation to the varying pressures on the organization manifested as ‘organizational foolishness’ (March, 1981) . These characteristics of education systems, including the inherent path dependency associated with its socio-political value in nation-building (Szolár, 2015; Tan & Yang, 2019) and interdependence with other components of the social system (Paterson & Iannelli, 2007) , make education reforms particularly hard to pull off successfully.

4 Policymakers have nonetheless embarked on education policy reforms that either reallocate existing spending to more productive areas of education, introduced financing schemes to fill gaps, and/or re-configured managerial and institutional arrangements (Tiongson, 2005) . These reforms are distinct from the typical curricular reforms or professional development interventions pervasive in the sector because they affect the distributional impact of education by shaping how education services are delivered rather than what is delivered (Egalite, Fusarelli, & Fusarelli, 2017; Wong, 1994) . The types of education reform also vary by the measures implemented: rules, resources and incentives (McDonnell & Elmore, 1987) . Rules and mandates are important in establishing the scope of authority of central administration and their span of control in ensuring that all units adhere to similar standards. It is believed that resource constraints inhibit the ability of education professionals to deliver educational services, supported by adequate classrooms, qualified teachers, and sufficient textbooks that are conducive to learning. Incentives are also equally crucial as studies show policy measures like cash and transfer programs influence household behavior by keeping children in school who would otherwise engage in child labor (Baird, Ferreira, Özler, & Woolcock, 2014) .

5 The wide range of actors involved in education, depicted in Figure 1, complicates efforts to reform it. Education, after all, “is produced by business enterprise and by households, as well as by government; it is partly produced outside the market altogether” (Rivlin, 1973, p. 413) . Governments have attempted to generate information about the actual production process of education services, the characteristics of the product in so far as how learning occurs, and the behavior of different actors involved in the delivery of education (Hannaway & Woodroffe, 2003) . As shown in Figure 1, schools lie at the heart of education service delivery and many countries employ a private-public mix school system. Their relations with the government and households differ depending on school ownership. The government sets standards and regulations for all schools but provides different levels and forms of funding for public and private schools. Households are co-producers of education and pursue their interests by exercising choice between private and public schools. They also make the government accountable, primarily through elections but also increasingly through school management bodies of various sorts.

Figure 1. Actors and Relationships in Education Governance

Source: The Authors

6 Intervening in such a complex policy environment makes for an uncertain policy environment and only limited scope for complete success. Thus, even reforms successful at improving enrolment, attendance and progression do not necessarily lead to improvement in test scores and achievement outcomes (Petrosino, Morgan, Fronius, Tanner-Smith, & Boruch, 2012) . Similarly, decentralization efforts like school-based management (SBM)have been shown to reduce repetition rates and student failures, but evidence is mixed regarding their effects on academic achievement ( Patrinos & Fasih, 2009) . Pious hopes aside, there is no reason to assume that schools will perform the required functions simply because they have been conferred decision authority, as assumed by proponents of decentralization. As Chapman puts it, “[d]ecentralization is not an automatic solution unless decision making reflects a clearly defined division of authority and responsibility between different levels of the system” (Chapman, 2000, p. 302) . The school management needs to be given clear direction, backed by appropriate incentives and rewards, if they are to achieve their objective.

7 What is needed, first of all, is a coherent conceptualization of a comprehensive governance framework for education . Many scholars have rightly called for bringing together the theories of public policy with education policy to fully understand and address the challenges faced by the sector (Grace, 1995; Whitty, 2002) . Yet, there is little theoretical work offering systematic definition of education policy or education system reforms. Education system is often understood to mean anything that pertains to the design and implementation of education – laws, rules, administrative offices, personnel, and instructional materials. In this view, educational policy refers to any intervention that affects the education system, with the notion of ‘policy’ borrowed from policy studies without due understanding of its purpose (Corson, 1986; Ranson, 1995) . These wide-spanning and catch-all conceptualizations have spurred limited theoretical debates about how best education systems should be configured or how education policies should be designed.

8 Traditionally, educational policy interventions were designed to shape how learning occurred in the classroom and often ignored the policy and implementation aspects of education. Early reforms in the US, for example, were inspired by perceptions of a ‘crisis of teaching’ despite the absence of strong empirical evidence supporting this perception (Weis, 1987) . Education policy is not only about “the statements of strategic, organizational and operational values (product) but also the capacity to operationalize values (process)” (Bell & Stevenson, 2006, p. 18) . Thus, from a policy perspective, education reforms can be conceived as the changes in objectives and organization of the education system as well as the capacity to carry out the intended changes (Bowe, Ball, & Gold, 2017) . Since education is inherently multi-dimensional, multi-objective and multi-principal, policy reforms are unavoidably intertwined, with goals and implementation strategies typically layered and woven together (Helgøy & Homme, 2006) . This points to the importance of analyzing the elements of education reform as a whole rather than as discrete strategies or measures. Education reforms are also necessarily political, as they produce winners and losers (Levin, 2001) .

9 From this perspective, education policy is fundamentally about establishing a governance structure to ensure that all the essential functions necessary to achieve the chosen policy goals are performed . This is aligned with the ‘governance turn’ in education, where transformation in systems involves changes in structures, participants, discourse and ‘subjects’ (Ball, 2009) . However, while actors play a huge role in governance, as suggested by existing notions of decentered governance (Bevir & Rhodes, 2003, 2006) or interpretivist governance (Rhodes, 2012) , the choice of the structural relationship between the government and non-government actors – as in legal, market, network or corporatized – is an important determinant of governance effectiveness (Capano, Howlett, & Ramesh, 2015) . Effective governance of education can be designed by examining how these actors can meaningfully work together to address key governance failures (Saguin, 2019) . Education reforms thus involve effecting changes to the governance functions, including funding, provision, ownership and regulation (Dale, 1997) . Using Kooiman’s (2000) framework of distinguishing socio-political interactions based on ‘governing orders’, education reforms inevitably alter the management of day-to-day affairs (operational functions) as well as meta-governance (political) framework for how ‘governors are governed’.

Framework for Understanding Education Reforms

10 While the goals of education are diverse and controversial, the goals of education policy are, at the core, more straightforward, centered on establishing governance processes to guide the key stakeholders’ behavior in a desired manner. Effectively designing education policy involves identifying the necessary governance functions – which may be grouped as political and operational – that must be performed and establishing institutions and processes to ensure they are performed. The specific functions and mechanisms vary across jurisdictions and over time, of course, but they share substantive core conditions. A generic framework, which will be applied subsequently to the case of the Philippines, is outlined in Table 1.

Table 1 Critical Governance Functions in Education

11 A crucial political policy function in education, indeed any sector, is to set the overall strategic direction and goals and the medium- to short-term objectives: what is it that the government seeks to achieve through its policy measures and within what time frame? Is it to provide essential education to all, reduce regional or socio-economic disparities, or train a work-ready workforce, and so on? While these are not necessarily mutually exclusive goals, not all can be pursued simultaneously, at least not easily and not in the medium to short term due to practical difficulties (Mintrom, 2001) . Next, it is important for governments to mobilize the fiscal and political resources necessary to support the measures being taken to achieve the goals.

12 While providing basic education to all children is within the fiscal means of most governments, higher quality education requires better facilities and better paid teachers, which requires additional resources that often must come at the expense of other sectors. Without belaboring the definition of quality, which has been debated and discussed elsewhere (Cheng & Tam, 1997; Harvey & Green, 1993; Hoy, Bayne-Jardine, & Wood, 2000) , the term is taken here to mean the development of a range of socioemotional, technical, and physical skills that allow individuals to be productive and innovative (World Bank, 2018) . Similarly, objectives such as promoting equity or national integration require political will and capacity to counter likely opposition from groups who do not benefit and may even lose out. Finally, governments need to strengthen their links with societal partners and enjoy their trust and support to push through politically difficult measures (Zajda, 2003) . Many reform efforts around the world flounder in the face of opposition from teachers’ unions and apathy from the population (Strunk & Grissom, 2010) . Successful reforms also need the support of business, who can contribute finances as well as labor market information for education. As such, political alliances between the government and civil society are essential for effective education policy reform.

13 Ensuring that the right levels of government are tasked with the appropriate responsibilities is a vital governance function (King & Guerra, 2005) . Strategic direction and goals, for instance, must necessarily come from the highest level of the government, while local governments and service delivery units (i.e. Schools) must set their own operational objectives aligned with overall goals. The overall responsibility for mobilizing fiscal and political resources is similarly the responsibility of the central government, even in situations when education spending is the responsibility of local governments. Without such an arrangement, local governments with weak finances, tenuous political support, or low policy capacity will be left behind. Education, similar to other complex sectors, requires a modicum of collaboration across agencies and with partners that is best undertaken at the local level, whereby families, businesses, and teachers collaborate to achieve goals and objectives (Han & Ye, 2017) .

14 Most operational functions – policy tools, accountability mechanisms, and fiscal and personnel systems – are the responsibility of regional governments, though central and local governments are intricately involved. As such, the regional governments need to be given the responsibility and commensurate financial and other resources to perform the actions .

15 The overwhelming emphasis on across-the-board decentralization in education reforms in many countries has skewed reform efforts and produced unsatisfactory results. Even a decentralized system requires the national government to ‘steer’ the education sector not only through the traditional mechanisms of curriculum, operating procedures, and accountability requirements, but also through performance monitoring and evaluation (Daun, 2007; Karlsen, 2000) . Bardhan (2002) rightfully argued for the national government to take on ‘activist roles’ such as mobilizing citizens and providing technical assistance and coordination of localities to mitigate the negative outcomes from decentralization. A strong measure of central direction is also necessary to mitigate regional disparities and prevent rent-seeking behavior by local governments (Ozga, 2009) . However, performing these activities requires a certain ability to acquire and process information and data to understand where interventions are necessary (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Ouimet et al., 2010) .

16 The intermediate level of government is expected to localize national priorities and direction based on the local setting through consultations and bargaining with other actors such as local politicians and local counterparts of national government agencies. Establishment of field administration is especially critical where tasks and responsibilities are geographically distributed through deconcentration (Fesler, 1968; Rondinelli, 1981) . Those at the intermediate level are typically expected to carry out inspection and monitoring as well as offer pedagogical support, technical advice, capacity building of local staff, and performance evaluation (Daun, 2007) . As an intermediator, units at this level of administration require high levels of analytical capacity to localize policies and standards but only require moderate levels of managerial capacity since intermediate levels are responsible for budgeting but are not delivery units. They should also have medium level of political capacity because of the need to create vertical integration of programs with both the national and local levels and horizontal coordination with other agencies and regional politicians.

17 Once the government has set the political direction and mobilized resources and built support for the reform measures, it needs to put them in operation, which comprises numerous interrelated and intertwined tasks. Significant failures to perform these tasks will trip the reforms and, indeed, it is through failure in this area that reforms often go awry.

18 The first task is to plan the delivery of the new programs and adjust the existing program as necessary. In education, in addition to curriculum issues, there is the vital task of designing the organizational structures and their roles, powers and responsibilities (Altrichter, Heinrich, & Soukup-Altrichter, 2014) . This is perhaps the most important operational task because assigning tasks to wrong agencies or insufficiently clarifying the relationships among them would stymie concerted action. It is in this broader institutional context that SBM needs to be conceptualized, and not as a separate reform, as is commonly the case. Another critical operational task is to design necessary rules, regulations, and standards to control agencies’ and their officials’ behavior, accompanied by appropriate incentives and disincentives to reward and improve performance (Hannaway & Woodroffe, 2003) . Similarly, the concerned agencies need to be allocated the financial and personnel resources necessary to acquit themselves of their responsibilities backed by a robust budgeting and personnel system. Finally, it is critical to establish robust accountability mechanisms for monitoring, reviewing and auditing performance, and meting out rewards and penalties as appropriate. All of the other efforts may come to naught if agencies and their officials realize that there are no penalties for poor performance and no rewards for exceeding expectations.

19 Designing and operating a modern education system is a complex task and involves immense challenges, the overcoming of which requires sophisticated analytical work on the part of policymakers. Designing an appropriate curriculum so that children receive the intended education, for example, requires analyzing vast data and drawing policy-relevant conclusions about them. Effective education policy also requires data and analysis of trends regarding educational achievements, equity, productivity, human resource needs and so on, all of which require elaborate and complex analytical tasks. The vital and growing importance of analytical skills and resources is yet to be fully understood and addressed in most governments.

Research Method

20 Using a single-case study method (Yin, 1981), this paper examines education policy reforms in the Philippines using the framework set out above. Based on archival data and expert interviews, observations are constructed diachronically as a way to tease out within-case variation that may have led to the existing set of education outcomes in the country (Gerring, 2006) . In June 2016, a total of seven (7) elite interviews were conducted with executives of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the central, regional and district offices as well as at a school. The respondents were identified by DepEd based on who can provide the most relevant information about how governance reforms are undertaken in the Department. As the research was largely exploratory, the purpose of the data collection was to help construct an “analytically generalizable” (Yin, 2009) framework to guide future governance reforms in education by other governments.

Education Policy Reforms in the Philippines

21 The Philippines represents a critical case for testing the comprehensive governance framework. Largely understudied in the education literature, the Philippines was an early leader in expanding school education in Asia and indeed the developing world, but it lost the lead during the 1970s and 1980s when social development stagnated along with economic growth and political competition. At the turn of the 20 th century, the Philippines sought to establish universal primary education and by the 1960s was “already ahead of most other colonies in popular education” (Myrdal, 1968, p. 1632) . The end of dictatorship and the onset of democracy in the late 1980s fostered pressure for improving the quality of education for all children. The government responded with broad sets of measures, including decentralization of education administration (De Guzman, 2007) , over successive periods, with mixed results. The country managed to pass key legislation to universalize kindergartens, extend the basic education cycle from 10 to 12 years, and institutionalize mother-tongue based learning. Yet the quality of education remained and remains a concerns, confirmed by the recent OECD-PISA results, which put the country among the lowest of all those covered by the assessment (Schleicher, 2019) .

22 Philippine government leaders have over the decades declared education to be one of their top policy priorities and devoted considerable resources to the sector. However, beyond expressing general commitment to promoting education, the government has offered little clarity about its goals or the means to achieve them. Instead of viewing the sector holistically and addressing the need to perform the diverse governance tasks that must be performed in concert, it has employed decentralization as a multi-purpose and omnipotent tool for achieving its disparate objectives despite pervasive evidence of this approach’s limitations. The singular emphasis on decentralization and neglect of other necessary reforms lie at the root of poor education outcomes in the Philippines, as we will see in this section.

Table 2. Education Indicators, Philippines (1975-2015)

Setting Goals, Directions and Objectives

23 Universal quality education has been the stated goal of successive governments in the Philippines for decades, long before it was enshrined in the constitution in 1987. Yet no government has clearly spelled out a practical vision of how the goal is to be achieved. In fact, the problem of a lack of operational and achievable objectives was recognized as early as the 1970s: “The present objectives prescribed for Philippine education which are really goals of the entire social system, and are, therefore, unachievable aims for the educational system alone” (Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education, 1970, p. 2) .

24 Efforts to clarify basic education policy objectives have proven insufficient despite identification of clearer operational strategies. Defined in the K-12 law of 2012, education policy now seeks to develop a “productive and responsible [citizen] equipped with the essential competencies, skills and values for both life-long learning and employment”. However, the basic education bureaucracy sets itself up to fail when the policy objective reflects the goals of the entire education system (to include vocational and higher education), that is, to bestow functional literacy. Since performance of the basic education sector is typically measured in terms of efficiency (e.g. completion rates) and quality (e.g. achievement rates), what appears to be a more instructive of the problems (i.e. access and quality) basic education policy aims to address are the ones outlined by DepEd’s organizational outcomes: a) Access of every Filipino to a complete quality basic education achieved, and b) Preparedness of every graduate for further education and world of work ensured.

Building Political Support and Collaborative Arrangements

25 Like their East Asian neighbors, Filipinos value education primarily because of the belief that it is the main determinant of better employment and income prospects. Based on the Nielsen Global Survey of Education Aspirations in 2013, 90% of Filipinos correlate quality of education with better opportunities in the workplace, compared to a global average of 75%. In 2016, Social Weather Station (SWS) also found strong support from the public for providing more funds for education. It is therefore unsurprising that education policies feature prominently among legislators’ political agenda, with 44% of the bills filed on the 16 th Congress in the House of Representatives coming from the Committee on Basic Education and Culture.

26 The breadth of support for education has made it easy to mobilize stakeholders to contribute to the attainment of stated goals. The K-12 reform that began in 2010 was necessitated by the need for a calibrated effort on the part of the three education agencies – DepEd, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) – to lead a multi-sectoral advisory group. Curriculum reform required collaboration between the CHED and TESDA to determine what competencies are articulated in basic education from university and vocational education. Identifying competencies needed by industry necessitated working with the labor department and various industry organizations. The actual extension of the education cycle also meant that colleges and universities would almost have zero enrolment for two full years, but associations of private universities remained largely supportive of the initiative. All these arrangements required a macro-level view of how reforms unravel and how stakeholders can be engaged to push it forward.

27 But such ease in building support is only contingent on the ability of the education bureaucracy to coordinate the introduction of reforms. The typical mandated nature of coordination between the different education agencies indicates an environment deficient of regular harmonization of policies and programs. As a result of education tri-focalization, setting up the sub-sector education goals required mobilizing different stakeholders at different levels of the government, prompting various administrations to create special coordinative bodies to ‘harmonize [the] goals and objectives’ of the education system, such as Joseph Estrada’s Presidential Commission on Educational Reform and Gloria Arroyo’s National Coordinating Council for Education (NCCE). Such ad hoc and sporadic efforts undermined the government’s capacity to implement reforms in a coordinated manner.

Mobilizing Resources

28 Early on, the political leaders realized that education objectives can only be achieved with ample supply of fiscal resources. A provision in the 1987 Constitution mandated the government to “assign the highest budgetary priority to education” to guarantee the right to quality education of all citizens at all levels. The provision addresses low spending on education. The share of education spending in total national spending declined from 31.53% in 1957 to 7.61% in 1981, before rising again to 16% in 1987 (Dolan, 1993) . More recently, education spending stayed within the range of 13%-18% of the total budget from 2009-2017.

29 Historically, financing education has posed a major challenge to enacting reforms. Because of unstable national budgeting processes, local governments have been mobilized as supplementary financing for construction and operations of schools since the early 1960s. In 1991, local governments were required to allocate 1% of the real property tax revenues to a Special Education Fund (SEF). This boosted local government spending on education from P0.8 billion in 1991 to P7.9 billion in 1998 (Behrman, Deolalikar, & Soon, 2002) . By 2008, SEF expenditure as a percentage of non-personnel expenditure on education was 41% (Manasan, Cuenca, & Celestino, 2011) , suggesting a significantly larger contribution of local governments on education than originally conceived.

30 Despite this, additional financing was needed to fill in the input gaps, particularly classrooms. Since 2012, the private sector, through public-private partnerships (PPP), has constructed more than 10,000 classrooms, amounting to a monetary value of Php19 billion. International financing institutions also provided loans, such as one of approximately $300 million from the Asian Development Bank in 2011.

Allocating Powers and Responsibilities to Appropriate Levels of Government

31 The history of administrative decentralization of education in the Philippines clearly highlights how decisions about organizational forms, despite good intentions, are often misguided. Allocating powers and responsibilities to different units and levels of government revolved around expanding the scope and depth of decentralization of functions in the hope that local governments will use their autonomy to address access and quality problems in basic education rather than on the basis of assessment of which level is more appropriate for assuming the responsibility. While centralization was critical in meeting the need to quantitatively expand the system during the American occupation and after the Second World War, coordination of public service provision did not keep up with the rapid expansion of the education system, particularly in rural areas (Zamora, 1967) . Because of these constraints, political decentralization has long been identified as a suitable structure to better achieve the qualitative objectives of education (Swanson, 1960; UNESCO, 1949) . Schools were progressively granted some degree of autonomy, formalized only through the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, which assigned functions to each level of education bureaucracy from the national level to the school level.

32 However, different levels of local government have been allocated functions regardless of their capacity or incentive to perform the assigned functions. Schools’ for example’ struggled with the newly conferred financial responsibilities entailed in allocating, spending and liquidating operational expenses, a core principle of School Based Management (SBM). Subsequent recentralization of control over school improvement funds indicates an allocation of roles based on faith rather than actual capacity. Local governments were also brought in to provide local financing to school operations but the special education fund utilization remained very limited, owing to a faulty budgeting process that is both at the mercy of national and local governments (Manasan et al., 2011) .

33 The process of decentralization has also been hijacked by existing officials, leading to sub-optimal allocation of functions. Despite the percolation of political decentralization of education into the earlier organizational forms, the decentralization that eventually occurred was what Brillantes (1987) called a ‘department model’ of administrative decentralization. Policy legacy would have guaranteed the devolution of education to the local governments, but backroom negotiations by the education bureaucracy resulted in the exemption of education from decentralization (Diokno, 2008) . Regional and division offices that are at the mercy of a rigid national budgeting process continue to dominate the process of making decisions that clearly affect school management (De Guzman, 2007) . As a former DepEd senior official lamented, “[r]egional offices…continue to try to control situations making operational decisions that are best left to school divisions” (Luz, 2009, p. 12) .

Designing Policy Tools

34 The lack of acumen in designing and deploying is evident in DepEd’s inability to move away from the traditional command and control tools to use more nimble newer tools for promoting accountability and performance. The criticisms over DepEd’s ‘culture of obeisance’ (Bautista, Bernardo, & Ocampo, 2009) , the ‘no memo, no action attitude’ (Monsod, 2009) and the governance by ‘DepEd memo’ (Luz, 2009) point to the very top-down and heavy-handed approach in getting things done within the education organization. As a result, most of DepEd’s policies have excessively focused on easily measured and controlled activities (Monsod, 2009) as the central office is heavily engaged in directing and guiding the day-to-day affairs of regional and division offices. Such a culture only perpetuates the slow and incremental transformation of reforms into results.

35 Even the introduction of market-based policy instruments by DepEd has been constrained by this culture of obeisance. The education service contracting (ESC) scheme, one of the largest public-private partnership programs in the world ( Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio, & Guáqueta, 2009) , was introduced to democratize and improve access to quality education for ‘poor but deserving’ high school students by providing grants to students to attend private high schools to shift them away from congested public high schools. Recent evaluation studies of the scheme have demonstrated the failure of the scheme to decongest the public secondary school system and provide greater access to needy students (Philippine Comission on Audit, 2018) . The ESC failed to properly align the grants or slots with the distribution of ‘aisle students’ (or those students in excess of the current capacity of schools) (World Bank, 2011) . The main source of the setbacks is the inability of DepEd to construct an institutional arrangement that aligns the interests of the private administrator of ESC (i.e. the Private Education Assistance Committee/PEAC) and the equity objective of the scheme. As pointed out by the World Bank (2011), DepEd exercises almost no supervision over PEAC and is indeed subject to regulatory capture by it. Despite DepEd’s willingness to employ market-based instruments, its lack of capacity to design appropriate policy tools and over-all proclivity for control mechanisms have contributed to the failure of the ESC.

Managing Financial and Human Resources

1 Utilization rate is defined as total disbursement over total obligations.

36 Despite efforts to guarantee sufficiently available resources, managing the largest bureaucracy in the country is not easy, particularly when it comes to expending financial resources and allocating personnel properly. For many years, DepEd has been unable to use its resources optimally, having a consistently low utilization of the budget at year-end. From 2012-2016, average year-end budget utilization rate 1 was only 73%, with the lowest rate recorded in 2013 (57%). According to current and former DepEd officials, much of the underspending is a result of the inability to carry out planned procurements and failure to liquidate expenses at the field level. In 2016, the external audit reports showed gaps in program planning and implementation, particularly in procurement and sub-allotment of the Central Office to the Regional Office, eventually leading to non-utilization of the budget and budget reversals.

37 Chronic underspending is also evident in the schools. In 2008, a total of Php135 millions of school improvement funds were not downloaded to schools despite the thrust to automatically and directly transfers to field offices. The Philippine Commission on Audit report identified the failure of schools to prepare simple administrative documents like a School Improvement Plan and Work Program and financial reports as the primary reasons for the lack of downloading, indicative of many schools’ unpreparedness to properly disburse funds. Many of the cash advances taken by division offices remained unliquidated or unutilized owing to the lack of training on how to correctly manage and record financial accountabilities.

38 Much of this inability to manage resources emanates from a lack of qualified managers at the different levels of the government. Appropriate supervision of schools is also largely absent owing to an insufficient number of division superintendents, with only 61% of divisions led by a duly-appointed superintendent in 2016, down from 80% in 2009. The absence of division leadership has prevented the highly centralized structure from providing technical assistance and advice to its delivery units. The career system has also failed to generate adequately trained school administrators since school leadership is usually given as a token of seniority and not based on managerial potential (Luz, 2009) . Only 65% of elementary schools had either a principal or school head in 2016 (DepEd 2017). With all these issues considered, why SBM failed is unsurprising.

Ensuring Accountability

39 Until recently, there was no clear mechanism to hold the education department accountable for underperformance. DepEd adopted the Quality Assurance and Accountability Framework (QAAF) in 2010, defining accountability as vertical alignment of roles and responsibilities and allocation of principal accountability for certain education outcomes across different levels of the organization. However, implementation remains patchy, and as Ogundele and Laguador (2017) argue, proper assessment and evaluation can only be made after the implementation and roll-out of the quality assurance system. Recent government-wide reforms on improving performance management attempt to establish accountability through a single results-based performance management system (RBPMS), linked with a bonus system based on the performance of delivery units. A survey of perceptions of civil servants revealed that better management, trust and teamwork in DepEd as well as positive effects on teacher recruitment are the key results of the RBPMS (World Bank, 2014) .

40 Driving accountability is challenging because of the situation of extreme scarcity of resources faced by different actors in the organization, particularly schools. Under the QAAF, schools serve as the core unit of quality assurance as they deliver the curriculum and instructions, teaching and facilitation, administration and leadership, learning environment and culture, while school performance is evaluated based on student achievement scores, dropout rates, the liquidation rate of maintaining expenses, and the achievement of other exemplary indicators such as demonstrating initiative and uniqueness under the RBPMS. However, there is widespread opposition to the performance management from the teacher’s union because many teachers and principals see the lack of resources as a failure of the central government to provide support. School performance is thus perceived to be beyond the control of teachers (Torneo, 2016) .

41 More importantly, the lack of trust in performance information exacerbates the performance paradox in basic education due to deep-seated corruption in DepEd (Reyes Jr, 2007; Reyes, 2009) . In 2001, instances of cheating and selling of exams plagued standardized achievement exams, which led to the cancellation of the National Achievement Test (NAT). While the exam has since been reinstated, the same issues arose when an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation revealed widespread cheating in 2011. More recent attempts to improve the integrity of information from DepEd involve systematization of data collection and management through database systems—the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS) and the Learner Information System (LIS)—that primarily provide data and information on schools and learners. The EBEIS covers indicators of input performance such as number of teachers and number of schools, while the LIS uniquely identifies all learners in the education system, including information on gender, and name of guardian, among others. The LIS is envisioned to include information on achievement results and other performance data. The installation of the EBEIS has eventually led to the calculation of public school capacity and determination of aisle students that can be targeted for ESC (World Bank, 2011) .

Designing Appropriate Curriculum

42 The education research generated within DepEd has no doubt directed reforms towards curricular issues; however, while most curriculum issues are known, the implementation of reforms has been dismal. Various educational assessments commissioned by the government have touched on broad issues to include sector governance, but curriculum improvements have been at the center of most reforms. As noted by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (1999) , curriculum design improvements that had been introduced earlier, such as reduction in subjects and reduction of contact hours, provision of inputs and re-design of implementation structure, continued to lag. In fact, much of the design issues, such as overcrowding of topics and overlapping and duplication of contents (Mariñas & Ditapat, 1999) , have been addressed and implemented on a larger scale only recently through the K-12 reform. The principle in curriculum design followed by the reformers was to ensure integrated and seamless learning, whereby lessons are horizontally articulated across subjects (Alonzo, 2015) . These are thought to be the appropriate curriculum designs considering the initial problems faced by the disjuncture in instruction and curriculum between primary and secondary education due to a disjointed organizational structure.

43 One reform where DepEd has shown analytical capacity to design appropriate curriculum is the institutionalization of kindergartens and the introduction of mother-tongue based education. The Kindergarten Act of 2012 (otherwise known as Republic Act No. 10157) institutionalizes pre-elementary schooling as the first phase of mandatory and compulsory formal education, which is a response to years of research linking dropout rates, grade repetition and poor achievement rates to inadequate preparation for elementary education (Magno, 2010) . The existing pre-elementary programs were so lacking in quality that, as the former DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus noted, students need to “‘un-learn’ some of the things they were taught during their preschool year” (Lapus, 2008) . The law also institutionalizes the adoption of a Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), whereby the mother tongue of a child shall be used as the primary medium of instruction in classrooms. This came as a result of various studies employed by DepEd to distill best practices from other countries in improving the curriculum.

44 Over the last few decades, education systems around the world have been the subject of incessant reforms – centred on curriculum, teacher training, budget mobilization, SBM, decentralization, and so on – with varying but largely lacklustre results . In retrospect, the outcomes are unsurprising given that the reforms have focused on specific problematic issues without considering the relationships among them. More significantly, without a comprehensive conception of the sector and the requirements for its effective functioning, the reforms have been either partial or misdirected. This paper sought to overcome the lacunae in both scholarship and practice by proposing a composite framework identifying the key political and operational functions in the management of the sector and assessing the extent to which they are performed. From this perspective, education policy is fundamentally about establishing a governance structure to ensure that all political and operational functions necessary to achieve the chosen policy goals are performed.

45 Application of the framework to the case of the Philippines showed that while the reforms correctly identified and hit some of the targets, they overlooked, neglected or mishandled many more. The government’s overwhelming focus on fiscal mobilization and, especially, decentralization, blindsided it to other vital governance functions. More crucially, the government has been unclear about education policy goals and how to achieve them. Resource mobilization and decentralization measures in the absence of goal clarity understandably produced only limited success. Similarly, political support for education did not realize its full potential due to an absence of clear operational objectives. The problem was compounded by lack of attention to analytical and operational functions that need to be attended to if the sector is to function effectively.

46 While decentralization and SBM reforms have provided much needed relief from the rigidities and unnecessary centralization of the past, they have had only limited impact due to shortcomings along other dimensions of governance. These unremarkable outcomes are hardly surprising given that neither decentralization nor SBM directly address many of the core governance deficiencies in the sector. It is hoped that further research along the lines proposed in this paper will encourage scholars and policymakers to focus more on strengthening governance of the education sector.

Bibliography

Alonzo, R. I. (2015). Understanding the K to 12 Educational Reform. Philippine Social Sciences Review , 67 .

Altrichter, H., Heinrich, M., & Soukup-Altrichter, K. (2014). School decentralization as a process of differentiation, hierarchization and selection. Journal of Education Policy , 29 (5), 675-699.

Baird, S., Ferreira, F. H., Özler, B., & Woolcock, M. (2014). Conditional, unconditional and everything in between: a systematic review of the effects of cash transfer programmes on schooling outcomes. Journal of Development Effectiveness , 6 (1), 1-43.

Ball, S. J. (2009). The governance turn!. Journal of Education Policy , 24 (5), 537-538. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930903239904

Bardhan, P. (2002). Decentralization of governance and development. The Journal of Economic Perspectives , 16 (4), 185-205.

Bautista, M. C. R. B., Bernardo, A. B., & Ocampo, D. (2009). When reforms don't transform: Reflections on institutional reforms in the Department of Education. Human Development Network Discussion Paper Series , 2 .

Behrman, J. R., Deolalikar, A. B., & Soon, L.-Y. (2002). Promoting Effective Schooling through Education Decentralization in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Philippines . ERD Working Paper Series , 23.

Bell, L., & Stevenson, H. (2006). Education policy: Process, themes and impact . New York, NY: Routledge.

Bevir, M., & Rhodes, R. (2003). Interpreting British governance . London: Routledge.

Bevir, M., & Rhodes, R. (2006). Governance Stories . London: Routledge.

Bowe, R., Ball, S. J., & Gold, A. (2017). Reforming Education and Changing Schools: Case studies in policy sociology (10th ed.). London: Routledge.

Brillantes, A. B. J. (1987). Decentralization in the Philippines: An overview. Philippine Journal of Public Administration , XXXI( 2 ).

Capano, G., Howlett, M., & Ramesh, M. (2015). Bringing Governments Back in: Governance and Governing in Comparative Policy Analysis. Institutions and Governance in Comparative Policy Analysis Studies (pp.27-37). London: Taylor & Francis.

Cerna, L. (2014). Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education. Paper presented at the Innovation, Governance, and Reform in Education Conference, Paris, France.

Chapman, D. W. (2000). Trends in educational administration in developing Asia. Educational Administration Quarterly , 36 (2), 283-308.

Cheng, Y. C., & Tam, W. M. (1997). Multi‐models of quality in education. Quality assurance in Education , 5 (1), 22-31.

Cohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly , 35 (1) 128-152.

Corson, D. (1986). Policy in social context: A collapse of holistic planning in education. Journal of Education Policy , 1 (1), 5-22.

Dale, R. (1997). The state and the governance of education: an analysis of the restructuring of the state–education relationship. In A.H Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown & S. Wells (Eds.). Education Culture, Economy, Society . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Daun, H. (2007). Globalization and the Governance of National Education Systems. In H. Daun (Ed.), School Decentralization in the Context of Globalizing Governance: International Comparison of Grassroots Responses (pp. 5-21). Dordrecht: Springer.

De Guzman, A. B. (2007). Chronicling decentralization initiatives in the Philippine basic education sector. International Journal of Educational Development , 27 (6), 613-624.

DepEd (2017). Number of Schools with Principal and Head Teachers . Department of Education

Diokno, B. E. (2008). Decentralization in the Philippines After Ten Years—What Have We Learned? In S. Ichimura & R. Bahl (Eds.), Decentralization Policies in Asian Development (pp. 161-192). Kyoto: World Scientific.

Dixit, A. (2002). Incentives and Organizations in the Public Sector: An Interpretative Review. Journal of Human Resources , 37 (4), 696-727.

Dolan, R. E. (1993). Philippines: A country study . Washington, DC: Federal Research Division.

Egalite, A. J., Fusarelli, L. D., & Fusarelli, B. C. (2017). Will Decentralization Affect Educational Inequity? The Every Student Succeeds Act. Educational Administration Quarterly , 53 (5), 757-781.

Fesler, J. W. (1968). Centralization and decentralization. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences , 2 , 370-379.

Gerring, J. (2006). Case Study Research: Principles and practices . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Grace, G. (1995). School Leadership: Beyond Education Management: An Essay in Policy Scholarship . Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis.

Han, S., & Ye, F. (2017). China’s education policy-making: a policy network perspective. Journal of Education Policy , 32 (4), 389-413.

Hannaway, J., & Woodroffe, N. (2003). Policy instruments in education. Review of Research in Education , 27 (1), 1-24.

Harvey, L., & Green, D. (1993). Defining quality. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 18 (1), 9-34.

Helgøy, I., & Homme, A. (2006). Policy tools and institutional change: Comparing education policies in Norway, Sweden and England. Journal of Public Policy , 26 (2), 141-165.

Hoy, C., Bayne-Jardine, C. C., & Wood, M. (2000). Improving Quality in Education . London: Falmer Press.

Karlsen, G. E. (2000). Decentralized Centralism: Framework for a Better Understanding of Governance in the Field of Education. Journal of Education Policy , 15 (5), 525-538.

King, E. M., & Guerra, S. C. (2005). Education Reforms in East Asia: Policy, Process, and Impact. East Asia Decentralizes: Making Local Government Work , 179-208, World Bank Publication.

Kogan, M., & Bowden, K. (1975). Educational policy-making: A Study of Interest Groups and Parliament . London: Allen & Unwin.

Kooiman, J. (2000). Societal Governance: Levels, Models and Orders of Social-political Interaction. In J. Pierre (Ed.), Debating governance: Authority, steering, and democracy (pp. 138-164). Oxford: OUP.

Lapus, S. J. A. (2008). The Education System Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century. Age , 3 (4), 5.

Levin, B. (2001). Conceptualizing the Process of Education Reform from an International Perspective. Education Policy Analysis Archives , 9 (14).

Luz, J. M. (2009). The Challenge of Governance in a Large Bureaucracy (Department of Education): Linking Governance to Performance in an Under-Performing Sector. HDN Discussion Papers Serie s. Human Development Network, 1 .

Magno, C. (2010). A Brief History of Educational Assessment in the Philippines. Educational Measurement and Evaluation Review , 1 , 140-149.

Manasan, R. G., Cuenca, J. S., & Celestino, A. B. (2011). Mobilizing LGU Support for Basic Education: Focus on the Special Education Fund . Brighton: Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

March, J. G. (1981). Footnotes to Organizational Change. Administrative Science Quarterly , 26( 4 )563-577.

Mariñas, B. O., & Ditapat, M. P. (1999). Philippines: Curriculum Development. In Globalization and Living Toghether: The Challenges for Educational Content in Asia (pp. 112-119). UNESCO- International Bureau of Education and Central Board of Secondary Education (India), Final Report on the Sub-regional Curriculum Development, New Delhi, March 9-17.

McDonnell, L. M., & Elmore, R. F. (1987). Getting the Job done: Alternative policy instruments. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 9 (2), 133-152.

Mintrom, M. (2001). Educational Governance and Democratic Practice. Educational Policy , 15 (5), 615-643.

Monsod, T. C. (2009). The Philippine Bureaucracy: Incentive Structures and Implications for Performance. Human Development Network Discussion Paper Series , PHDR.

Myrdal, G. (1968). Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations . New York, NY: Twentieth Century Fund.

Ogundele, M. O., & Laguador, J. M. (2017). Quality Assurance Mechanismsfor Sustainable Development of Nigerian and Philippine Education. Ghana and the Philippines: School Environment in Nigeria.

Orton, J. D., & Weick, K. E. (1990). Loosely Coupled Systems: A reconceptualization. Academy of Management Review , 15 (2), 203-223.

Ouimet, M., Bédard, P.-O., Turgeon, J., Lavis, J. N., Gélineau, F., Gagnon, F., & Dallaire, C. (2010). Correlates of consulting research evidence among policy analysts in government ministries: a cross-sectional survey. Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice , 6 (4), 433-460.

Ozga, J. (2009). Governing Education Through Data in England: From Regulation to Self‐Evaluation. Journal of Education Policy , 24 (2), 149-162.

Paterson, L., & Iannelli, C. (2007). Social Class and Educational Attainment: A comparative study of England, Wales, and Scotland . Sociology of Education , 80 ( 4 ), 330-358.

Patrinos, H. A., Barrera-Osorio, F., & Guáqueta, J. (2009). The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education . World Bank.

Patrinos, H. A., & Fasih, T. (2009). Decentralized Decision-Making in Schools: The Theory and Evidence on School-Based Management . World Bank.

Petrosino, A., Morgan, C., Fronius, T., Tanner-Smith, E., & Boruch, R. (2012). Interventions in Developing Nations for Improving Primary and Secondary School Enrollment of Children: A Systematic Review. Campbell Systematic Reviews , 8 (19).

Philippines Comission on Audit. (2018). Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE): DepEd Promoted Greater Choice for Filipino Students Through the GASTPE Program but it Needs to Strengthen its Administrative Controls to Ensure Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Program Implementation. Retrieved from https://www.coa.gov.ph/index.php/gastpe-program?download=36165:government-assistance-to-students-and-teachers-in-private-education-gastpe-program-pao-2018-02

Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education. (1970). Education for National Development, New Patterns, New Directions . Philippines: Rizal.

Ranson, S. (1995). Theorizing Education Policy. Journal of Education Policy , 10( 4 ), 427-448.

Reyes Jr, V. C. (2007). Corruption and policy implementation in the Philippines: A comparative analysis of the teacher training and textbook delivery programmes. Asian Journal of Political Science , 15 (1), 97-125.

Reyes, V. C. (2009). Case study of implementation amidst corruption linkages: the National Textbook Delivery Program (TDP) of the Philippine Department of Education. Journal of Education Policy , 24 (4), 515-535.

Rhodes, R. A.W. (2012). Waves of governance. In D. Levi-Faur (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Governance (pp. 33-48). Oxford: OUP.

Rivlin, A. M. (1973). Measuring performance in education. In The Measurement of Economic and Social Performance (pp. 411-437). NBER: NBER Book Series Studies in Income and Wealth.

Rondinelli, D. A. (1981). Government Decentralization in Comparative Perspective Theory and Practice in Developing Countries. International Review of Administrative Sciences , 47 (2), 133-145.

Saguin, K. I. (2019). Designing effective governance of education. Policy Design and Practice , 2 (2), 182-197.

Schleicher, A. (2019). PISA 2018: Insights and Interpretations . OECD Publishing.

Strunk, K. O., & Grissom, J. A. (2010). Do Strong Unions Shape District Policies? Collective Bargaining, Teacher Contract Restrictiveness, and the Political Power of Teachers’ Unions. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 32 (3), 389-406.

Swanson, J. C. (1960). A Survey of the Public Schools of the Philippines-1960 . Washington, DC: Clearinghouse.

Szolár, É. (2015). Change, Continuity And Path-Dependency in Hungarian Public Education. European Educational Research Journal , 14 (3-4), 331-346.

Tan, C., & Yang, J. (2019). Path-Dependency or Path-Shaping? An Analysis of The Policy to Target Exam-Orientation in South Korea. Critical Studies in Education , 1-16.

Tiongson, E. R. (2005). Education policy reforms . In A. Coudouel & S. Paternostro (Eds.), Analyzing the Distributional Impact of Reforms (Vol. 1, pp. 261-294). The World Bank.

Torneo, A. (2016). Preliminary Assessment of the Impacts of the Performance Based Incentive System (PBIS) on the Philippine Department of Education: A Case Study of Employee Response to Policy Reform . Paper presented at the 2016 KAPS Autumn and International Conference, Olympic Parktel, Seoul, South Korea.

UNESCO. (1949). Report of the Mission to the Philippines . Paris: UNESCO.

Weick, K. E. (1976). Educational Organizations as Loosely Coupled Systems. Administrative Science Quarterly , 21 , 1-19.

Weis, L. (1987). Introduction to "The Crisis in Teaching". Educational Policy , 1 (1), 3-8.

Whitty, G. (2002). Making sense of education policy: Studies in the sociology and politics of education . London: PCP.

Wong, K. K. (1994). Linking governance reform to schooling opportunities for the disadvantaged. Educational Administration Quarterly , 30 (2), 153-177.

World Bank. (2011). Philippines Private Provision, Public Purpose: A Review of the Government’s Education Service Contracting Program . Retrieved from https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/486651468092652040/philippines-private-provision-public-purpose-a-review-of-the-governments-education-service-contracting-program

World Bank. (2014). Assessment of the Performance-based Bonus Scheme. Retrieved from : https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/762401468057360902/philippines-improving-bureaucratic-performance-assessment-of-the-performance-based-bonus-scheme

World Bank. (2018). World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education's Promise . Retrieved from : https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018

World Bank, & Asian Development Bank. (1999). Philippine education for the 21st century: the 1998 Philippines Education Sector Study . Manila: Asian Development Bank.

Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.). Los Angeles and London: SAGE.

Zajda, J. (2003). Educational Reform and Transformation in Russia: Why Education Reforms Fail. European Education , 35 (1), 58-88.

Zamora, M. D. (1967). Political History, Autonomy, and Change: The case of the Barrio Charter. Asian Studies , 5 (1).

List of illustrations

Bibliographical reference.

Kidjie Ian Saguin and M. Ramesh , “ Bringing Governance Back into Education Reforms ” ,  International Review of Public Policy , 2:2 | 2020, 159-177.

Electronic reference

Kidjie Ian Saguin and M. Ramesh , “ Bringing Governance Back into Education Reforms ” ,  International Review of Public Policy [Online], 2:2 | 2020, Online since 01 September 2020 , connection on 13 May 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/irpp/1057; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.1057

About the authors

Kidjie ian saguin.

National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7658-6568

UNESCO Chair of Social Policy Design in Asia, National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. [email protected]

The text only may be used under licence CC BY 4.0 . All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

Open issues

Full text issues.

• 2023 5:1  | 5:2
• 2022 4:1  | 4:2  | 4:3
• 2021 3:1  | 3:2  | 3.3
• 2020 2:1  | 2:2  | 2:3
• 2019 1:1  | 1:2

The Journal

• About the Journal
• Information for Authors
• Information for Reviewers
• Publication Ethics and Malpractice statement
• IRPP Publishing Agreement

Informations

• Website credits
• Publishing policies

Newsletters

• OpenEdition Newsletter

In collaboration with

• Journal supported by the Institut des sciences humaines et sociales (InSHS) of the CNRS, 2023-2024

Electronic ISSN 2706-6274

Read detailed presentation  

Site map  – Contact  – Website credits  – Syndication

Privacy Policy  – About Cookies  – Report a problem

OpenEdition member  – Published with Lodel  – Administration only

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search

The Ghana Education Reform Agenda

The Government of Ghana initiated some key education reforms to transform teaching and learning and improve educational outcomes under the Education Strategic Plan (ESP 2018-2030) which was approved by cabinet in November 2018. These reforms are expected to contribute to the goals of the ESP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4) and lead to the improvement of learning outcomes, especially at the pre-tertiary levels. The three main priorities of the education reforms are: Improved learning outcomes, enhanced accountability and equity at all levels of the education sector.

The main objective for embarking on these key reforms is to make our educational system relevant to changing national development priorities and renewed goals and aspirations.  It is also to ensure that our educational system adjusts to context and time; as well as advancement in technologies, industry, creativity and knowledge economy. These new reform initiatives exist to provide clear performance standards to guide teaching, learning, assessment and grading of students. The reforms will professionalize teaching and ensure standards. 

The Ministry of Education is coordinating the implementation of these reform initiatives through the National Education Reform Secretariat to ensure alignment and coordination of reforms within the framework of the Education Strategic Plan. The secretariat is also to ensure accountability for each reform owner, build capacity of reform owners and identify and resolve blockages, obstacles and bottlenecks to the implementation of the reforms.

Empowering The Next Generation

National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

National Teaching Council

The 12 key Education Reform areas are:

Policy on Teacher Education Reforms led by the NCTE through T-TEL

  Leads to the conversion of the Colleges of Education into University Colleges and the rollout of a new Bachelor of Education teacher education curriculum to improve the quality of new teachers for the basic education sector.

Pre-Tertiary Curriculum Reform through NaCCA Leads to the design and implementation of a new pre-tertiary education curriculum with Standards and Assessment frameworks.

Legal, Institutional and Regulatory Reforms Leads to the creation of a new agency that combines the functions of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE). Tertiary Education Reform Leads to the conversion of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) into one University; and the consolidation of the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education Winneba and a few existing COEs into a Technical Teacher Training University, in addition to other governance and regulatory reforms. Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reforms Realignment of all Technical and Vocational Institutions (TVIs) to be under MOE and creates a Technical and Vocational Education Service (TVES) to govern them. Operationalization of Pre-Tertiary Teacher Professional and Management Development Framework through NTC Leads to the establishment of a teacher licensing and registration system in Ghana, and a framework for teacher career progression based on the acquisition of skills and competencies.

Introduction of a new school supervision and inspection system through NIB Leads to the establishment of a new inspection framework, inspection tools and revised inspection protocols, in partnership with Education Development and OFSTED. Basic Education Decentralisation Reform Leads to the devolution of Basic Education to District Assemblies, impacting the functions of the GES, NTC, NaCCA and NIB. Ghana Partnership School Leads to MOE and GES partnering with non-state actors to manage and deliver effective education service in public senior high schools.

GES Institutional and Human Resource Reform Leads to the streamlining of GES’s operations to increase efficiency and reduce the redundancies resulting from Basic Education decentralisation, and a comprehensive reform of HR systems.

ICT in Education Reforms Seeks to develop early desire and competences in children to use ICT, equip pre-tertiary learners with ICT skills, infuse ICTs into education management, and transform teacher development and tertiary education through technology-based training. Secondary Education Reform (4 Pillars) With the Free SHS Programme, MOE seeks to absorb all fees paid at the senior high school level, and additionally to expand physical infrastructure, improve quality, and promote skill development and equity.

These reforms are aligned to the Education Strategic Plan (2018-2030), and are designed to strengthen the sector institutions to overcome their capacity gaps, and accomplish the goals outlined in the Education Sector Plan. The end goals of these reforms are “ to deliver quality education service at all levels that will equip learners in educational institutions with the skills, competencies and awareness that would make them functional citizens who can contribute to the attainment of the national development goals.” 

The Ministry of Education intends to deliver these reform initiatives through a coordinated approach and is expected to create linkages and co-dependencies between the different sub-sectors for the successful implementation of the ESP.  The National Education Reform Secretariat (NERS) was therefore set up and charged with the mandate to ensure that these reforms are not just delivered at a national level (through the production of a curriculum or legal and policy documents) but that they are effectively implemented throughout the system so that they have a positive impact on learning outcomes in schools.

• Reform Agenda
• 12 Key Reforms
• Establishment
• Reform Secretariat

Delivery Approach

• Delivery Approach Routines
• Communication Support
• Technical Assistance(TA) Gaps
• Accounting to the Ministers

Establishment/Functions of Reform Secretariat

Coordination: Alignment and coordination of reforms within the Framework of the ESP to ensure synergies and linkages

Accountability: Clear ownership and accountability for each reform through a named reform owner working with RS (Performance Reporting through Performance Management Framework)

Capacity Building: Each Reform Owner (RO) is able to access to capacity development and advice facilitated by the Reform Secretariat to support implementation

Problem-Solving: Identification and resolution of bottlenecks, obstacles to implement priority reforms and learning outcomes

Reform Secretariat Funding

Grant agreement signed between GoG and DFID in the sum of £2,682,700.00 to support Education Beyond Aid (EBA)-Ghana as follows:

Complementary Basic Education- £1,100,00.00

Reform Secretariat-£1,582,700.00

Secretariat Inaugurated in Dec 2018

Governance Structure

1.reform steering committee (rsc), reform steering committee (rsc).

• Chaired by the Minister of Education
• Provides the highest level of accountability to drive reforms
• Meets quarterly to review progress against each of initiatives
• Committee will receive and discuss reports
• Reform Coordinator is the secretary and provides progress reports and analysis

2. National Education Reform Secretariat (NERS)

National education reform secretariat (ners).

• Led by National Reform Coordinator
• NERS reports directly to the Minister of Education
• Responsible for organizing RSC meetings
• NERS ensure that ROs develop roadmaps, with SMART KPIs, milestones, clear activities and targets

3. Reform Technical Working Group (TWG)

Reform technical working group (twg).

• TWG is composed of all Reform Owners and agencies
• Coordinated and Chaired by National Reform Coordinator
• TWG meets monthly to oversee and coordinate all technical activities for each Reform Initiative
• Flags and address areas of concern
• Discuss mitigation measures and plan for action

4. Reform Owners

• Reform Owners are the agencies responsible for the implementation of Reform Initiative
• Develop roadmap on prioritized KPIs
• Implement roadmap
• Work closely with NERS to address implementation gaps
• Collect data to evidence performance
• Receive Technical support from NERS

Prioritization and Resourcing

Prioritize deliverables in the ESP based on resources, time, capacity and relevance:

• Priority Level I:  Minister’s Result Framework
• Priority Level II:  Key Reform Initiatives
• Roadmaps:  2-6 KPIs

Data, Information & Routines

Develop good data and metrics to measure what matters:

• Monitoring plan:  Collect regular and reliable data
• Report Template:  Monthly reporting, Analyse data
• Feedback Mechanism:  Feedback to trigger discussion and inform decision

Analysis of data to mitigate challenges and risks:

Analysis and Understanding of Delivery Issues

• Stakeholders actively engaged in analysing delivery issues and owning outcomes.
• TWG:  Monthly technical working meetings, Quarterly
• Accounting to Minister:  Accounting to Minister Forums
• Collaboration and Harmonization Meetings

Accountability for performance

• Accounting to Minister forum:  Quarterly face-to-face with the Hon. Minister
• Performance Agreement:  Mid and End of year Performance Evaluation
• Learning and improving:  lessons learned and course correct Strike the right balance between planning and delivery, recognizing which areas can achieve rapid results and others where it may take a longer time.

Accounting to the Minister

Further comments and feedback should be sent to:.

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

From Reform to Restructuring of Education

Cite this chapter.

• Stewart Ranson  

Part of the book series: Government Beyond the Centre ((GBC))

27 Accesses

1 Citations

The present phase of the Conservative Government’s movement to reform education has taken a decisive turn. Under the mask of continuing the changes begun in 1988 the legislative proposals of 1992–93 in fact mark a final break with the postwar values of universalism in favour of an earlier tradition, never eliminated, of private and selective education. At the centre of the new programme lies an attack upon the public and democratic foundations of education and upon the equal opportunities they strive to constitute.

This chapter draws on Ranson, ‘Public Education and Local Democracy’, in H. Tomlinson (ed.), Education and Training 14–19: Continuity and Diversity in the Cirriculum (Longman, 1993) and ‘Markets or Democracy for Education’, British Journal of Educational Studies , vol. 41 no. 4 (1993). I would like to thank the editors for their comments on an earlier draft.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

Notes and references

See DES, National Curriculum From Policy to Practice (HMSO, 1989) Section 2–1.

Google Scholar  

H. Thomas, ‘Pupils as Vouchers’, The Times Educational Supplement (2 November 1988 ).

See K. Jones, Right Turn: The Conservative Revolution in Education (Hutchinson Radius, 1989 ).

S. Sexton, Our Schools — A Radical Policy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1987 ).

Hillgate Group, Whose Schools? A Radical Manifesto (Hillgate Group, 1987).

See S. Ranson, ‘Education’, in F. Terry (ed.), Public Domain : 1991 (Public Finance Foundation, 1992 ) pp. 133–43;

Cf. Coopers & Lybrand, Local Management of Schools (DES, 1988 )

Sir Ron Dearing, The National Curriculum and Assessment.’ Interim Report (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 1993)

DES, Education and Training for the 21st Century (HMSO, 1991).

A. Green, ‘Post-16 Qualification Reform’, Forum , vol. 35, no. 1 (1993) pp. 13–15.

S. Ranson, ‘Towards a Tertiary Tripartism: New Codes of Control and the 17+’, in P. Broadfoot (ed.), Selection, Certification and Control: Social Issues in Educational Assessment (Falmer, 1984 ).

See M. Adler, A. Petch and J.Tweedie, Parental Choice and Educational Policy (Edinburgh University, 1989 )

R. Morris, E. Reid and J. Fowler, Education Act 93: A Critical Guide (Association of Metropolitan Authorities, 1993 ).

See R. Morris and J. Fowler, Beyond Clause Zero: The Education Bill 1992–93 (Association of Metropolitan Authorities, 1993 ).

R. Morris, ‘The New Governance of Education: New Magistracies’, paper to an INLOGOV Conference, 4 July 1989

White Paper, Choice and Diversity (HMSO, 1992) p. 32.

A. McPherson and C. Raab, ‘Centralisation and After’, The Times Educational Supplement (27 May 1988 ).

J. Chubb and T. Moe, Politics, Markets and America’s Schools (Brookings Institute, 1990).

J. Chubb and T. Moe, ‘Classroom Revolution’ (The Sunday Times Magazine , 9 February 1992 ).

J. Tooley, ‘The Prisoners’ Dilemma and Educational Provision: A reply to Ruth Jonathan’, British Journal of Educational Studies , vol, 40, no. 2 (1992) pp. 118–33

Article   Google Scholar  

J. Dunn (ed.), Democracy: The Unfinished Journey , 508 BC to AD 1993 (Oxford University Press, 1992 ).

S. Ranson, Towards the Learning Society (Cassell, 1994 )

Download references

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV), University of Birmingham, UK

John Stewart ( Professor of Local Government and Administration ) ( Professor of Local Government and Administration )

University of Strathclyde, UK

Gerry Stoker ( Professor of Politics ) ( Professor of Politics )

Copyright information

© 1995 Stewart Ranson

About this chapter

Ranson, S. (1995). From Reform to Restructuring of Education. In: Stewart, J., Stoker, G. (eds) Local Government in the 1990s. Government Beyond the Centre. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23815-6_7

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23815-6_7

Publisher Name : Palgrave, London

Print ISBN : 978-0-333-61684-0

Online ISBN : 978-1-349-23815-6

eBook Packages : Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Licence or Product Purchase Required

You have reached the limit of premium articles you can view for free. 

Already have an account? Login here

Get expert, on-the-ground insights into the latest business and economic trends in more than 30 high-growth global markets. Produced by a dedicated team of in-country analysts, our research provides the in-depth business intelligence you need to evaluate, enter and excel in these exciting markets.

View licence options

Suitable for

• Executives and entrepreneurs
• Bankers and hedge fund managers
• Journalists and communications professionals
• Consultants and advisors of all kinds
• Academics and students
• Government and policy-research delegations
• Diplomats and expatriates

This article also features in The Report: The Philippines 2017 . Read more about this report and view purchase options in our online store.

Education reform in the Philippines aims for better quality and more access

The Philippines | Education

The Philippine education system has evolved over hundreds of years of colonial occupation, first by Spain and then by the US, through martial law and the people’s power revolution that brought democracy to the sprawling archipelago. The education sector’s development has mirrored the changes in the country’s administration. Today the focus is on expanding access and ensuring more Filipinos receive a decent basic education, as a means of reducing poverty and improving national competitiveness. The World Bank notes that in other countries such initiatives have brought “large economic benefits”. The K-12 reform was introduced in 2016 and funding was increased, easing concerns that its implementation would be hindered by limited resources and winning over new President Rodrigo Duterte, who was initially sceptical about the plan.

Despite these successes and President Duterte’s commitment to socio-economic issues as his policy priorities, the education system continues to struggle with deep inequalities. Quality also remains a concern. Addressing these problems will require a continued commitment to increased funding for education, and an efficient mechanism to ensure the money is spent in the most effective manner.

The Philippines has a vibrant and diverse education system, with the government, assisted by the private sector, providing a wide range of education from early years up to college and university across the archipelago. The Department of Education (DepEd) oversees the provision of basic education. The private sector includes kindergartens, international schools and religious schools. In 2015/16 there were 14.9m children enrolled at primary school and 6.01m at secondary level.

Today’s system has been shaped by the Philippines’ colonial and post-war history. Under the Spanish, education was largely provided by missionaries and the study of religion was compulsory, but most Filipinos were not included. It was only in the 19th century that they were able to attend the universities that had been established two centuries earlier, and it was only when the US took control of the Philippines in 1898 that consideration was given to non-religious education, English-language teaching and free primary school education for all.

The country was ill-prepared for the sudden expansion of education and did not have enough teachers to meet the new demand, so the colonial authorities established a teacher-training school and brought in 1000 teachers from the US to provide training. An emphasis on vocational and adult education was introduced in the early 20th century, while bilingual teaching – with maths, science and literature taught in English – was introduced under Ferdinand Marcos in 1974. The commitment to a bilingual education and universal access was enshrined in the 1987 constitution.

K-12 Implementation

Three years since the Enhanced Basic Education Act (EBEA, known as the K-12 law) was signed, the Philippines has finally embarked on its most ground-breaking change to the schooling system in decades, the K-12 reform.

K-12 extends compulsory schooling to grades 11 and 12, adding two years to secondary school, and makes secondary education compulsory. Prior to its implementation, the Philippines was the only country in Asia, and one of only a few in the world, to have a basic education system of just 10 years. The EBEA also mandated kindergarten as the start of compulsory formal education, while the Kindergarten Act of 2012 made pre-school free. In August 2016, 1.5m Filipino children attended 11th grade, with senior school students choosing between four tracks through the system: academic, technical-vocational, sports or the arts. Much of the opposition to the initiative, which triggered five separate petitions to the Supreme Court, centred on whether the country’s teachers, schools and administration were in a position to implement the reform. President Duterte expressed scepticism about the programme before he was elected, but changed his mind in May 2016 after a delegation from DepEd told him that the change was necessary, as Filipino students were falling behind their neighbours.

Indeed, increased spending on basic education – including an expanded Alternative Learning System (ALS) – is a centrepiece of the new president’s 10-point socio-economic agenda. President Duterte insists that the development of the Philippines’ human capital is a priority of his administration. Building on existing programmes, the education secretary, Leonor Briones, said that the Duterte administration’s education policy intends to ensure that the country provides a quality education that is accessible to all and relevant to the needs of the nation. Filipinos should also find education “truly liberating” through the development of critical thinking skills and an appreciation of culture and the arts.

10-Point Plan

The shift to K-12 began under President Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who approached education as an investment in Filipinos, and offered a 10-point plan for improving education as part of his election campaign. As well as K-12, the 10 fixes included pre-schooling for all, technical-vocational training as an alternative in senior high school, working with local governments to build new schools, proficiency in science and maths, and working with private schools as “essential partners” in basic education. The plan is to expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education, supporting as many as 1m students at private high schools through the Education Service Contracting Scheme.

Education For All

In 2015 the Education for All (EFA) initiative included provisions to ensure all Filipinos were able to achieve what UNESCO calls “functional literacy”, the ability to read, write and do calculations at a level that is sufficient for the country in which a particular person lives. Further supporting the K-12 reform, the government set four key objectives for the EFA initiative: providing education options for all out-of-school adults and young people; eliminating drop-outs and repetition during the first three years of school; encouraging the completion of a full cycle of basic schooling to a satisfactory level at every grade by all Filipino children; and committing to the attainment of basic education competencies for everyone.

In fact, recognition of the need to move towards K-12 was evident much earlier. In 2005 the government promised, under the Basic Education Reform Agenda, to remove all hurdles limiting access to and delivery of basic education, whether regulatory, structural, financial or institutional. The policy involved five key thrusts: school-based management; the development of teacher education; national learning strategies; quality assurance and accountability; and changes to the administration of DepEd, using the latest technology to ensure more effective use of resources, whether staff or funds.

World Bank Assessment

In June 2016 the World Bank published its assessment on the Philippines reform of basic education, “Assessing Basic Education Service Delivery”, noting that reforms were now backed with a substantial increase in funding, after years of underinvestment exacerbated by average population growth in excess of 2%.

The World Bank estimates that public spending increased by 60% in real terms between 2010 and 2015, helping finance infrastructure improvements and provide the means to hire more teachers. As a result, between 2010 and 2013 the student-to-teacher ratio in public high schools fell from 38:1 to 29:1, while the student-to-classroom ratio dropped from 64:1 to 47:1. However, “despite impressive recent increases, the Philippines still spends less on education than many neighbouring and middle-income countries,” the study noted. “Recent analysis has confirmed the need for more spending to meet national education norms and standards.”

The World Bank study was commissioned by DepEd to assess how the public budget was being used, in order for funds to be allocated more efficiently and effectively. It tracked 80% of the government’s national education budget, as well as spending by local authorities, in the last quarter of 2014.

In a separate report looking at the EFA initiative, UNESCO noted that even though the largest portion of the Philippine budget had consistently been devoted to education, in percentage terms this fell short of international standards, with the state spending only 2.6% of GDP on the sector in 2011.

That figure has risen over the past few years to an expected 3.5% in 2017, but the Philippines continues to spend far less on education as a proportion of GDP than many of its neighbours. Both Vietnam and South Korea, which have some of the world’s best-performing schools according to international benchmarks, spend 5% of GDP on education.

Early Encouragement

DepEd itself assessed the implementation of K-12 at a January 2017 conference with stakeholders including government officials, school administrators and teachers.

Among the encouraging news, it found that the situation in kindergartens had improved, with a more localised curriculum, the construction of clean, safe and child-friendly classrooms, and closer cooperation with the community. Children were developing a love of reading, while teachers’ skills had been enhanced via use of technology and the adoption of more effective teaching strategies.

For grades one to six, best practice included a curriculum more suited to the needs of Christian and Muslim pupils, closer cooperation with indigenous communities, the provision of self-paced learning materials, catch-up programmes at all levels and the introduction of Learning Action Cell sessions for teachers’ professional development. DepEd noted that in schools that had adopted these practices enrolment rose and the drop-out rate fell. Minority groups were also more confident, with Muslim children having the opportunity to learn Arabic.

Junior high schools also focused on programmes to reduce the drop-out rate and nurture continued learning, including the use of ALS through a virtual classroom, a basic literacy programme for adults, and scholarships for adult learners and students with special needs. Schools reported increased enrolment and participation, along with rising community awareness. Teacher competency also improved with training in new learning strategies focused on real-world application.

In senior high schools, where the full roll-out of grade 12 is now taking place, DepEd said that the policy has been largely successful, noting the transfer of junior high school teachers to fill vacancies, and improved cooperation both between local and national government, and with the private sector on the provision of facilities, including classrooms and dormitories for pupils living in remote areas. A large percentage of those enrolled in private schools received vouchers, with scholarships also available.

Raising Standards

Much of the official discussion on K-12 centres on the need to raise standards, improve teacher quality and encourage completion of basic schooling. The drop-out rate has remained high, and data from the “Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey” produced by the Philippine Statistics Authority, shows that around 4m children and young people were out of school in 2013, while as of April 2016, 16.6m Filipinos – or 39% of the workforce – had not completed basic education. The World Bank noted continuing problems with access and inequality. The report found that only 53% of the poorest 20% of households sent their children to high school, while 81% of the wealthiest families did so. To address the problem, the government aims to incentivise attendance, extend school feeding programmes and expand programmes under the ALS, a “second chance” designed to ensure more Filipinos complete their basic education. President Duterte has indicated that an enhanced ALS – better targeted with wider coverage, more partnerships and approaches that meet learners’ needs – will be one of his administration’s major legacies.

Regional Inequalities

The World Bank also found differences in allocations to education in different regions at the level of both national and local government. While both have responsibility for funding education, the World Bank estimates the local contribution, which is funded by property taxes, has been declining since 2006. Currently, more than 90% of school funding originates from the national government, with the proposed allocation to DepEd at P569.1bn ($12bn) in 2017, compared with P431.5bn ($9.1bn) in 2016. Most goes towards teachers’ salaries, but a significant amount funds financial assistance programmes for children from low-income families. Regional disparities in funding levels do not necessarily correspond directly with outcomes. The report found that although city schools received higher funding, their pupils tended to do less well in national tests than their rural peers. The report cited insufficient infrastructure to cope with the larger student bodies at urban schools and higher rates of teacher absences as reasons for this.

“Many schools, particularly in urban areas, have insufficient and poor quality facilities and a shortage of teachers,” the report said. “Operational funding still falls short of the amounts that schools need to pay bills, undertake basic repairs, and provide the day-to-day materials their students need. And there is rarely anything left over to fund school-level initiatives to improve student learning achievement.”

Allocation Of Funds

More effective targeting of funds to the areas of greatest need is therefore a priority alongside an overall increase in budget allocations. Briones told the Education Summit in November 2016 there is “a need for a drastic improvement in absorptive capacity”. The Duterte administration is planning to introduce a series of financial management reforms to improve education outcomes, including: enhanced leadership supervision and oversight over finance, administration and procurement; the creation of an education programme delivery unit to monitor budget execution and intervene to ensure funds move smoothly to where they are needed; a financial management information system to track budget spending in real time; and a more proactive approach to spending.

Teaching Standards

In recent years DepEd has introduced a number of measures to improve the standard of teaching, revising professional benchmarks and providing more on-the-job training. It has also made a concerted effort to attract the brightest and the best by raising compensation and making the selection process more competitive. In the past, teaching was poorly paid and often seen as the fall-back course for university applicants who did not get onto their preferred course. Studies found teacher knowledge in both elementary and high school was low, and that the professional development programmes were insufficient.

Civil society is also helping. Non-profit organisation Philippine Business for Education launched the Scholarships in Teacher Education Programme to Upgrade Teacher Quality in the Philippines (STEPUP), which is funded by Australian Aid, in 2015. The idea is to encourage the country’s best-performing college graduates and professionals to join the profession, with the aim of producing 1000 high-quality teachers for the public school system by 2019. Accepting candidates up to the age of 45, STEPUP covers full tuition fees and offers a range of benefits for participants. In return, successful applicants must work with DepEd for three years. The organisation offers a similar scheme to encourage the best high school seniors to pursue degrees in education, majoring in subjects including maths and English. The Philippines has not participated in an international survey of school performance since a 2003 study showed only one-third of children in elementary and secondary school were able to reach the lowest international benchmark in maths. It also revealed stark differences in performance between children from low-and high-income families. While that makes it hard to get a sense of how well the country’s children are doing relative to their peers in region, results in national tests remain patchy. At elementary school, the average score rose to 69.97% in 2013/14, but slipped back to 69.1% in 2014/15. The government targeted a score of 77% in 2016. A similar trend is evident at the secondary level, where the average score edged up to 53.77% in 2013/14 before dropping back to 49.48% in 2014/15. In 2016 the target was 65%. National results also show that pupils in urban schools do not perform as well as those in rural areas, according to the World Bank. The average score in the 2014 grade six exam was 66% in city schools and 75% in those outside urban areas, even though the former tended to have larger revenues.

Meeting National Needs

The government insists that the education system must be more appropriate to the needs of the country, including its economy. The aim is to improve students’ abilities in science and technology, and nurture critical thinking, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, as well as to encourage them to support the wider community, especially those on the margins. Sex education, along with awareness of the issues surrounding teenage pregnancy and the dangers of drugs (from grade four), will be strengthened, and there will be a special emphasis on the environment, climate change and disaster preparedness in a country that has frequently endured earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and severe weather. To achieve these goals, the government is overhauling the curriculum to establish a “spiral” approach, which is designed to challenge and stimulate pupils so that they develop critical thinking skills. DepEd consulted industry during the development of the new curriculum, although the final design was the work of DepEd alone. Those learning science under the spiral approach, for example, learn general science, biology, chemistry and physics on a per quarter basis. The basics are taught in grade seven, with more complicated theories added as pupils progress through subsequent grades.

Higher Education

The Philippines is one of the few countries where the number of private higher education institutions and students enrolled there is greater than in the state sector. Leading private universities, such as the University of Santo Tomas, were established hundreds of years before their public sector counterparts – although Filipinos were not allowed to attend until the 19th century – while the University of the Philippines, the archipelago’s leading state university, was set up in 1908, when the country was under US control.

National government spending on the tertiary education segment has risen in recent years, but at 12.2% of the sector budget, spending remains below the international benchmark of 15-20%. The 2017 allocation reflects a government decision to scrap tuition fees at all state universities and colleges. However, students will still need to pay their living expenses with grants and other forms of aid available to those from low-income families.

“In the short term, this will incrementally improve enrolment rates, and will help free up financial resources for other college expenses and needs of the students,” Patricia Licuanan, chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), said in a statement after the budget was passed in December. “From a wider perspective, this amount will eventually increase the available income of families.”

The Philippine higher education system is managed by CHED and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). The country’s 228 state universities and colleges, which had 1.88m students in the 2015/16 academic year, are operated and subsidised by the government, with each university run by a board of regents and a board of trustees supervised by the chair of CHED. Local government units can also establish local universities. The state universities and colleges have a total of 454 satellite campuses, according to CHED.

The 1706 private universities and colleges, which have a total of 2.22m students, are generally much smaller, are governed under the Corporation Code and can be non-profit religious institutions or for-profit secular colleges. The greatest density of higher education institutions is in the south of the largest island of Luzon, including Manila. In 2015/16, 26% of students (1.07m) were enrolled in business-related courses, followed by 19% (791,000) studying education and teaching, and 13% (517,000) on courses in engineering and technology.

Quality Of Instruction

Despite the size of the higher education sector, the quality of instruction remains low, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In professional board examinations, for instance, median pass rates between 2005 and 2015 ranged from 34% to 43%. The ADB also noted a “worrisome preponderance” within both the state and private sector of institutions with a pass rate of zero, “indicative of a large number of low-quality higher education institutions.”

“CHED has instituted a vertical/horizontal typology approach to assess the quality of higher educational institutions,” Caroline Marian Enriquez, president of Our Lady of Fatima University, told OBG. “However, given that the current university landscape is composed of over 2000 institutions of very uneven quality, some of the standards may be too stringent or not applicable to the core competencies of certain institutions.”

The government has been trying to rationalise the state sector by putting a halt to the establishment of new course programmes by state universities and local colleges that do not meet the standards set by CHED, by encouraging rationalisation and hopefully reducing course duplication. It is also trying to raise standards through the introduction of quality institutional sustainability assessment.

“For the government to truly improve the quality assurance system of education, it should provide strong data on the performance of schools. Once analysis is provided on the 10 best- or worst-performing schools, the market will be able to decide based on this information,” Chito Salazar, president and CEO of Phinma Education, told OBG PHILIPPINE QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK: In addition, the government has enhanced the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF) to put it in line with the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework and ensure academic programmes meet international standards. “The PQF can significantly reduce jobs-skills mismatch. It can also boost international confidence among Filipino workers by making them more competitive and employable,” Senator Joel Villanueva, a former TESDA director-general, said in August 2016 (see analysis). The government is committed to creating a system that is more aligned to 21st century needs, positioning higher education as an accelerator for innovation and inclusive development. It is encouraging cooperation between academia and industry, supporting the professional development of teaching and research staff who want to complete their doctorate, and promoting research cooperation between institutions and across borders. Already, courses in subjects including meteorology, business analytics and naval architecture have been developed with industry, and a degree in health informatics is under development.

Research Partnerships

Research and development (R&D) has also been a focus in areas such as food security, the environment and natural disasters, biodiversity and health systems in order to support the Duterte administration’s socio-economic objectives. As part of the push for reform, the government is keen to encourage increased private investment and internationalisation in higher education.

Some institutions already partner with overseas universities on select courses, while the Philippine-California Advanced Research Institute (PCARI) was initiated in 2013 by the scientific community and academics to boost the country’s research capacity by supporting post-doctoral scholars and R&D proposals with the potential to address the Philippines’ developmental issues.

The PCARI’s R&D projects involve 15 private institutions working with partners at the University of California, and include work on traffic management in urban areas, the development of affordable solar energy systems for remote areas, and improving local capacity to design and develop medical devices.

The Philippines has embarked on education reforms that it considers crucial to its economic development, bringing its school system into line with international standards and seeking to open up its higher education sector to more people, while supporting R&D that will raise its academic profile and bring lasting benefits to the country.

The government had to overcome substantial opposition to introduce K-12, a sign of its determination to bring lasting change, but sustained funding to support the increased demand on resources will be crucial if these bold reforms are to be a success.

Request Reuse or Reprint of Article

Read More from OBG

In Philippines

The Philippine roadmap for inclusive, balanced, long-term growth is aligned with environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In Education

Patented innovation: Developments in higher education aim to boost patent filing In terms of the filing of international patents, 2022 was a record-breaking year, with higher education playing a significant role in driving innovation and expanding international practices regarding intellectual property (IP). The UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) reported in February 2023 that 278,100 international patents had been filed under its Patent Cooperation Treaty globally in 2022, a 0.3% increase from 2021 and representing the 13th consecutive year of…

Mexico's Texistepec industrial complex to help strengthen global supply chains   Once fully operational, the 300-km-long Interoceanic Corridor across Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec is expected to complement the Panama Canal and transport goods representing 1% of global GDP. One of the largest of the industrial complexes, the 500-ha Centro ProIstmo at Texistepec, will add value to the raw materials and electronic components produced in Mexico and abroad, helping make the corridor one of the most important trading nodes in the Western Hemisphere. …

Register for free Economic News Updates on Asia

“high-level discussions are under way to identify how we can restructure funding for health care services”, related content.

Featured Sectors in Philippines

• Asia Agriculture
• Asia Banking
• Asia Construction
• Asia Cybersecurity
• Asia Digital Economy
• Asia Economy
• Asia Education
• Asia Energy
• Asia Environment
• Asia Financial Services
• Asia Health
• Asia Industry
• Asia Insurance
• Asia Legal Framework
• Asia Logistics
• Asia Media & Advertising
• Asia Real Estate
• Asia Retail
• Asia Safety and Security
• Asia Saftey and ecurity
• Asia Tourism
• Asia Transport

Featured Countries in Education

• Indonesia Education
• Malaysia Education
• Myanmar Education
• Papua New Guinea Education

Popular Sectors in Philippines

• The Philippines Agriculture
• The Philippines Construction
• The Philippines Economy
• The Philippines Financial Services
• The Philippines ICT
• The Philippines Industry

Popular Countries in Education

• Djibouti Education
• Nigeria Education
• Brunei Darussalam Education
• The Philippines Education
• Qatar Education
• UAE: Abu Dhabi Education

Featured Reports in The Philippines

Recent Reports in The Philippines

• The Report: Philippines 2021
• The Report: Philippines 2019
• The Report: Philippines 2018
• The Report: The Philippines 2017
• The Report: The Philippines 2016
• The Report: The Philippines 2015

Privacy Overview