The Asian Development Bank said Monday it approved a $300-million loan to support government’s efforts to achieve inclusive growth by improving access to high-quality secondary education that responds to labor market needs.
The multilateral lender said in a statement the Secondary Education Support Program would help 10.6 million students nationwide who are currently enrolled in high school and an additional 2 million grade 7 entrants yearly from 2019 to 2023.
It will help the country boost job opportunities and substantially reduce poverty. The government set a target of lowering poverty incidence to 14 percent by 2022 from the current 21 percent.
“Sustaining the Philippines’ strong growth momentum will require a workforce equipped with the appropriate set of advanced skills and knowledge to allow them to keep in step with the rapid technological changes in the global economy,” ADB senior education specialist for Southeast Asia Lynnette Perez said.
“Continued investments in high-quality education are crucial to attaining the government’s vision of lowering unemployment and poverty rates,” she said.
The ADB said while reforms in the Philippine secondary education system had shown progress, enrollment and graduation rates remained low especially among students from the poorest households.
The government is continuing to address the challenges to quality education by, for example, deploying adequate numbers of specialized teachers, providing sufficient teaching resources and ensuring the alignment of the curriculum to labor market needs.
The results-based Secondary Education Support Program will help the government sustain reforms, particularly in offering the poor greater access to better, affordable education. It will disburse funds to the government based on the achievement of agreed reform targets within a specific period.
The ADB is providing technical assistance to the Education Department to ensure they achieve targeted reforms and priorities which are aligned with the Philippine Development Plan.
The program seeks to improve the performance of students in the National Achievement Test and the national certificate assessment for senior high school technical-vocational-livelihood track specialization.
It will also help strengthen the secondary education curriculum and increase teacher proficiency and career development. Nearly 294,000 public secondary education teachers and additional teachers to be hired until 2023, stand to benefit from improved teaching practices which will lead to better learning outcomes.
The program will also support the Department of Education’s public financial management reforms, including the timely release of secondary schools’ budget for maintenance and operation, tools and equipment.
It will also assess the effectiveness of the Education Service Contracting and the Senior High School Voucher programs.
The Secondary Education Support Program builds on an ongoing ADB assistance under the Senior High School Support Program which is supporting the establishment and rollout of the government’s senior high school program.