Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) launched

“It is crucial that education for everyone in such a large and rapidly growing population must first be made real and possible in the midst of a few before it can become concrete and present in the lives of all” – Philippine Education for All Plan 2015

Former Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz presented dismal statistics on Philippine Education. Some of these are:

• 97% of high school students failed in the last National Achievement Test;
• Out of five students that enter Grade 1, only three will finish Grade 6;
• Only two out of five finish high school; and
• Only 10% of students will finish college

As for teachers and facilities:

• 70% of high-school physics teachers are not trained on the subject;
• Recent tests show that teachers teaching higher elementary and high school only have the competency to teach Grade 4 subjects.
• There is a shortage of 42,000 teachers, as well as 4 million desks and chairs.

To intervene in this declining quality of education, the country’s leading business personalities have formed the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) with the aim to push for reforms in the education system.

Ramon R. del Rosario, Jr. said, “We cannot just stand by and watch the continuing decline of the system, we cannot allow paralysis to take over, we cannot not do anything.”

PBEd’s founding board member and PHINMA’s CEO, Ramon R. del Rosario Jr.

Del Rosario, who is the president and CEO of PHINMA, is also the founding board member of PBEd. Other members of the board are: Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II of the Ayala group, Jose L. Cuisia Jr. of the AIG group, Monico V. Jacob of STI, Oscar M. Lopez of the Lopez group, Bank of the Philippine Islands president Aurelio Montinola III, former Trade Secretary Rizalino S. Navarro, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. chair Manuel V. Pangilinan, SGV and Co. founder Washington Z. SyCip, Jollibee Food Corp. chief executive Tony Tan Caktiong and McDonald’s Philippines’ chair George T. Yang.

Some of the country’s foremost business leaders during the PBEd board meeting: Washington Sycip, Ramon R. del Rosario Jr., Jose Cuisia, Jose Pardo

PBEd is the business community’s response to the need for consensus and sustained advocacy in education reform. The purposes of PBEd will be to nurture consensus on key directions in education reform and to initiate and lead the actions towards those directions. The organizations objectives are:

1. To identify best opportunities for pursuing desired strategic actions that can most effectively direct, accelerate, broaden or sustain education reform
2. To inform consideration of such strategic actions with the best available knowledge and information
3. To mobilize commitment in support of consensus on the specific nature of desired strategic actions