Investing in education

THERE ARE developments worth noting in the education scene, at least in the private sector. These include the resolution of an ownership dispute that has hounded the Philippine Women’s University since last year and the acquisition of Roosevelt College by the bigger and better-funded Far Eastern University.

The Benitezes, owners of PWU, ended a P1-billion dispute with the STI Group of Eusebio Tanco by agreeing to give up its properties in Quezon City (site of the Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, or JASMS) and Davao City as payment for its debt. (But some parents of JASMS students are unhappy with this.) The Benitezes will retain ownership of the two PWU campuses in Manila.

FEU, on the other hand, announced that its board had approved the acquisition of up to 99.42 percent of Roosevelt College for P1.25 billion. FEU chair Aurelio Montinola III cited the opportunities in integrating with FEU the 80-year-old college with five Metro Manila campuses and 5,000 students in both the basic and tertiary levels.

The private-education landscape has changed much: Business tycoons are now firmly in the picture. Tobacco and airline magnate Lucio Tan owns the University of the East. Alfonso Yuchengco of the RCBC group controls the 83-year-old Mapua Institute of Technology. The Phinma Group of Ramon del Rosario Jr. has run Araullo University since acquiring it in 2004. Mall tycoon Henry Sy Sr. has been in control of the 108-year-old National University since June 2008. And the heirs of the late Emilio Yap hold shares in Centro Escolar University.

The most recent entrant among big businesses is the Ayala family, which began investing in education only in 2012. Through Ayala Education Inc., it bought in July 2015 a 60-percent stake in the University of Nueva Caceres, one of the leading universities in Bicol with about 7,000 students. The Ayalas also formed a joint venture—Affordable Private Education Center (Apec)—with Pearson, one of the world’s leading learning companies, to build a chain of low-cost secondary schools that would provide quality education for affordable fees. Since it started in 2013, Apec has grown to a total of 23 schools with some 4,000 students across Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite and Batangas.

The private-education sector appears to be running smoothly and is well-funded, which is more than can be said of the public-education sector. A good measure of the success of primary education is the Education for All (EFA) movement, which was launched in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, to “meet the basic learning needs of all” by universalizing primary education and achieving 100-percent coverage by 2015. During the global EFA meeting in Muscat, Oman, in May 2014, the Philippine Department of Education submitted a country report on what had been achieved thus far.

It cited the passage of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 to ensure kindergarten as the mandated first stage of compulsory formal education. Kindergarten education for five-year-olds also made progress in enrollment following the Kindergarten Act that universalized preschool education. Access to elementary and secondary education, the report added, was at 95.92 percent for elementary and 64.3 percent for secondary. The primary school-age participation rate was nearing 100 percent, with 95 percent in 2013. Keeping children in school until they finish basic education, while remaining a challenge, was at 72 percent. The secondary completion rate was 73 percent. Children remaining in school until they reach the final grade or year also improved to 75 percent for elementary and 78 percent for secondary levels.

These figures indicate that public education does not enjoy the priority it deserves. One telling indication is that spending on education has barely increased: 14.08 percent in 2015 from 14 percent in 1999, still below the ideal 20 percent of the national budget. Education’s share in the total economy has likewise remained insignificant, with the latest education expenditure-to-gross domestic product ratio at only 2.45 percent.

The Philippines’ greatest resource is its people, and they deserve quality, affordable education. The country needs more investments from the government and the private sector to have a better educated population.

Better education means wiser choices during elections. Better elected officials mean inclusive economic prosperity. We can only hope that private-sector interest in education will not be discouraged going forward by a new leadership that will be unsupportive of education.