Education according to Angara

No sooner had lawyer Edgardo Angara stepped into halls echoing with words of sages and professors than he was labeled as a builder of institutions.

"Mr. Education," as he is still fondly called, first displayed sterling performance as president of the University of the Philippines (1981-1987), when he saved the state university from financial difficulties. He mined an untapped treasure trove of resources and fiscal support from its alumni donors to the tune of more than a hundred million pesos - a figure unheard of at the time.

It was an effort simultaneous with his defense of the university's academic freedom, and the rights and privileges teachers and instructors had long been denied.

As the resources poured in, he immediately made headway in increasing the wages of the faculty and improving the facilities over and beyond the expectations of his detractors, eventually making the university what it is today - in a class of its own.

This was quite a leap from his modest beginnings in far - flung Baler in Aurora Province where he grew up as a young boy who used to spend his days by the sea and sierra. In the soothing breeze as fresh as it was crisp with the scent of raw produce, he was introduced to life in the countryside - to farmers plowing the ground, to fishermen harvesting the sea for daily meals, and to young, undernourished indigents whose only hope for a good education was unremitting government support.

It was in this light, as a first-time senator from 1987 to 1992, that he built his legislative agenda on educational reforms.

At the time, the public campus was suffering from the usual dearth of teachers, classrooms, desks and chairs, science equipment, textbooks and other necessities important to learning. Without these requirements, regardless of the hefty slice of the national budget allotted to education, it was impossible to draw excellence from the student population.

Statistics have shown that approximately 92% of Filipino children go to public elementary schools while 79% attend public high schools. Hence, these pressing needs, to Ed Angara, were non-negotiable, in view of the growing number of students seeking formal education every year.

As it is imperative that government, according to the Constitution, must provide quality education to its constituents, it must also be understood that creating the proper climate and opportunities for learning is the first step toward the realization of that goal.

Providing good education is simple enough, according to Sen. Angara. In order to build a pool of good students, the country must first enrich the educational background of its teachers at the basic level. Bills had to be drafted and laws passed that would push for reform within the academe.

No doubt Senator Edong Angara was best suited for the job, having finished law in 1958 at the University of the Philippines, and completing his Master of Laws at the University of Michigan as a DeWitt Fellow. As a young lawyer during the martial law years, Angara helped set up the Angara, Concepcion, Cruz, Regala and Abello Law Offices, better known today as ACCRA Law, the most prestigious law firm in the country.

For starters, he opened ground-breaking opportunities for the training and retraining of teachers in all subjects, with priority effort on math and the sciences. The objective was to give Filipino educators the chance to stand side by side with their counterparts abroad.

As head of the Congressional Commission on Education, he launched the restructuring of the educational system by introducing the bill on GASTPE or Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education. In 2004, he upgraded the minimum salary grade level of teachers through the Expanded GASTPE Act (UP Charter of 2004).

He also underscored the need to subdivide the system for better direction of talent and resources: elementary and high schools under the Department of Education; colleges and universities under CHED; and for those who could not enter college but needed the skills to be employable locally and internationally, there was TESDA.

Among the other laws Ed Angara sponsored were: Public School Teachers' Dependents Benefits; Computer Education Program Integration in Educational System; Special Program for Employment of Students; School Building Program Act of 2005; and the Student Fare Discount Act.

The halls of the Senate have become Angara's second home, where he finds fulfillment in the drafting of laws that seek to enhance an educational system that has scarcely seen better days - until now. And while the work of streamlining and reform demands the weight and passing of time, the Filipino public can rest assured in the continuing effort of Edgardo Angara to hold education as a primary requisite in nation - building.

Clearly, Sen. Angara has clung to the old yet wise adage that the future of this country belongs to the youth.