Senator calls for higher education policy reform

A SENATOR on Monday backed calls to reform the tertiary education charter to update decades-old policies to address current needs.

In a press statement, Senator Loren Regina B. Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education, stressed the need to modernize education policies, noting that charter reforms are long overdue.

“The fundamental problem is institutional. CHED’s (Commission on Higher Education) legal mandate has not kept pace with the sector’s growth, diversification, or the policy commitments the Philippine government has made in subsequent decades,” she said.

Ms. Legarda, also the co-chair of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), pushed for the expansion of scholarship programs for Filipino students.

At an April 23 hearing, the committee tackled six Senate bills on higher education reforms, where EDCOM II Executive Director Karol Mark R. Yee flagged 36 overlapping policies between the CHED, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Professional Regulatory Commission. He said this could be restrictive for tertiary education bodies should they wish to push for curriculum changes.

The committee covered bills on the strengthening of the CHED Charter, TESDA Modernization Act, Local Universities and Colleges Governance Act, Presidential Merit Scholarship Program Act, Strengthening State Universities and Colleges Governance Act, and the Philippine Professional Standards and Quality Assurance System Act. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel