Secretary, Department of Education, The Philippines
24 January 2017, Pearl Hall, Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Center for Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-INNOTECH), Quezon City
Excellencies, honored guests, fellow warriors against corruption in education: good morning!
For the next three days, we will be sharing information, exchanging views on common concerns, identifying challenges in our fight against corruption not only in education, but in our respective countries and regions as well, and expressing frustration. I am sure all of us who serve our people and our governments feel that at one time or another.
As keynote speaker, allow me to comment on the objectives of this forum, which Suzanne introduced, and for which you travelled very long distances and endured long hours in traffic to come and share with us.
The first two objectives are closely related. The first is the overview of the case studies from six countries, as well as, summary reports from Africa and Latin America; the second objective which is related to the first is to discuss the main findings from these studies and perhaps learn from these various experiences.
I noticed that the studies tend to compare government strategies, actions, processes, procedures for improving transparency and accountability in government, particularly in education, with initiatives from civil society. The conclusion is drawn in some cases that civil society and the private sector would be much more effective in achieving these objectives of effectiveness, as well as, in exacting accountability. Actually, both are complementary and I'm sure we know and appreciate that, in a sense, they are interdependent and interconnected. At the same time, they are separate―composed of separate people, separate groups, separate objectives―but also their work is closely related.
Government―from our ministries of education, down to the school level―will generally provide the basic data: movements in enrollment, gender, income status, ages, and so on. As far as these basic data are concerned, when I was in the other side―the civil society side―we used to be very, very critical about the timeliness and the accuracy of such data, even as now we in government claim that we use technology to get the latest information and make them available.
On the other hand, civil society uses these data as building blocks for analyzing problems, for mobilizing communities, undertaking action, and successfully or unsuccessfully impelling government to take action. In certain cases, they are not only impelled, but maybe they can be driven out!
So, government ensures accountability to the administration of the day; imposes sanctions or rewards based on existing rules, on laws, regulations, files cases, and so on. At present, our President is very, very sensitive to graft and corruption. And he tells his officials, "just a whiff of corruption in any government agency, and out you go!" So for the past one and a half years, we witnessed the exit of a number of Cabinet members and heads of agencies. Fortunately, the Department of Education has not been subjected to these summary dismissals, as of now.
While government demands accountability according to laws, regulations, and audits; citizens' groups demand accountability to the community, to the people, to the learners, to the parents, and the stakeholders.
Government implements recommendations from civil society by issuing laws, regulations, announcements, adjustments, and so forth. And if government does not act on the recommendations―on the demands―of the civil society and the public, then they take themselves the lead in formulating solutions to existing problems. This has happened many times in the Philippines, and I suppose in other countries as well. I speak as one who has been moving from civil society to government to civil society and back to government. Ideally, it should be a partnership; but of course, it could be a love-hate relationship as well. But at the end of the day, the objective of both government and civil society is really to exact accountability.
So the case studies are very important because each case is different and distinct one from the other and is shaped by the political environment, the social, and the economic situation of the country involved.
The third objective of this forum is to identify the conditions for success. This is where the comparative approach is being utilized, and is very useful and will elicit, I hope, really exciting debates. Because what works in one country may not necessarily work in another. I believe―and I'm sure you'll all agree as you are responsible researchers and advocates―that we have to take into consideration the political, the social, the economic, and cultural features of each country. There will be periods in a particular administration certain things would work; and there will also be periods when other strategies have to be worked out. In countries where there are very vigorous debates on issues bigger than education, and of which education is only part of, then solutions will have to be examined from this kind of perspective, as compared perhaps to stable economies and to stable political systems. Also, what is very important especially in debates at the school level is management of schools, accountability, and so on. Likewise, the comprehensiveness and the accuracy of the data has to be taken into consideration. And I'm very, very glad that one of your topics, this is the last topic, is for you to consider and debate the risks involved in open school data and information. Because interested groups and institutions can always look for the data they want and focus on it and perhaps forget the larger picture. This happens very often.
Also, another consideration is the level of the advancement of technology in a country and the speed with which information is provided. In the Philippines―of course as you know, we are composed of more than 7,100 islands and―there are places where we don't have advanced technology, where we don't have electricity, where people have to travel by boat, would have to cross streams and climb mountains, and also would get information from crowded urban areas. I believe big countries with huge populations and huge urban as well as rural populations would have this kind of challenge because the levels of technology and advancement of knowledge might tilt access to data to those who have it.
For a very long time, I had been convenor of Social Watch Philippines, which has a special interest in education. We are very involved in the long campaign, which finally culminated in 2006, in really, truly, making the education budget the number one budget item of Philippine Expenditure Program. There was a time that the military got more than education. It was a very, very long campaign, bruising, as well as, noisy, and at certain times, threatening.
Times are also changing as well as access to knowledge and information. Out of 7,100 islands, more than 40,000 schools and nearly 700,000 teachers, every day we get reports on what is happening. We are monitoring the behavior of Mayon Volcano right now. In one month's time, I have been to places which cannot be reached by ordinary transportation like planes or cars. I have to fly by helicopter and so on to see these places which are already far removed from our impressions of sophistication and advancement which we see in the huge urban centers. This range of conditions in our different schools, as well as many languages and different orientations impacts on the effectiveness of open school data. I always tell those who are in my generation that we were taught in a certain way. But now, we have to teach perhaps in different ways to keep with technology and to keep up with change and deal with it.
The fourth objective of this policy forum is, not only to look at the case studies, to look at the lessons and the experiences; whether they differ and whether there are exciting possibilities, but also to consider key policy orientations.
Speaking from the experience of the Philippines, I know that there are many policies, not only in education but in many aspects of development, that have been formulated and pushed to the limits by the work of the civil society organizations and the public. Government has to listen and to introduce the reforms that are demanded. So in these case studies, the key policy orientations―the recommendations―are very, very important; but as I said, taking into consideration the individual differences, the unique histories, the difference in culture, and the status of the political environment.
I also noticed that the case studies, which you are going to tackle, and the topics which you are going to discussed, are focused primarily on school-based management. I am aware that we are all interested in how schools are managed. We want to train our principals, our supervisors, and superintendents to manage the schools independently. But if we are looking at the aspects of corruption, accountability, and financial problems, then you have to look to the Central Office. Because in many countries I know, the funds―the budgets of ministries of education, like ours―are centralized and regionalized. Much of expenditure programs are directed, managed, released, downloaded from Central Office to the Regional Offices, and finally to the schools. I hope you will be expanding the scope of our interest and your research, not only looking at school-based management alone. It will not give us a full picture of the extent of the problem of accountability in education.
Why is this so? This is because, for example, the building of schools in many countries―the planning, the budgeting, the bidding, the purchasing―are done usually at the national then down to regional then down to the school level. So much of the control is at the Central Office and to the regional offices. Computers are purchased at national and regional levels. School buildings are built. Laboratory equipment and other necessities are bid at Central Office levels.
In the Department of Education alone (my own department), when I came in, the usual size number of Bids and Awards Committee would be two to three. Now, because I know the size of the financial resources, which are controlled at the level of the Central Office, I have increased the number of Bids and Awards Committee to six; and I will increase it further if it is necessary so that we can speed up the work of downloading, of purchasing and so on. And this is particularly challenging in countries which are subjected to natural disasters, as well as, political challenges as clearly indicated in the experience of the Philippines.
So corruption can be, and if that is our focus in education, a much greater and pervasive at the higher levels. Because what do schools get? In our case, it is the management and operational funds―and that is operating funds. But infrastructure and the capital expenditures are decided at the central level. And this is why it is very important to look at school-based management in relation to the totality of the financial management system, the organizational system, and how Central Office relates to the region and region down to the district level.
Finally, a final comment which you may want to consider, the cases are excellent. I stayed up to 3:00 in the morning for two nights reading because I was reading the cases not only as an academic and a scholar but as one who is directly involved in the challenges of education. And we are always looking for possible experiences which we can we might be able to replicate in the Philippines, or errors which we should also avoid.
I would like to suggest that aside from the two models or the two approaches, which is the government (meaning school management at the school level) vis-à-vis civil society actions (parents' associations), there are other initiatives also which in a sense improve transparency and exact accountability in a very quick manner.
For example, in the Philippines, we have the―what we describe as the―8888 Citizen Complaint Hotline. This is a hotline number where any citizen―learner, teacher, community leader, or any Filipino―can communicate directly to the Office of the President and report whatever they find is wrong with their community, or with their school, and so on. And normally, the 8888 Hotline is quite successful because the response is very quick. Complaints are immediately routed and brought to the attention of the ministries involved. We are aware in the Philippines that a number of Cabinet members and heads of agencies have been summarily dismissed without going to the usual legal procedures.
And then you also have the Presidential Action Center, again at the level of the President and the Cabinet Secretary. People write directly to the President, because they think the President is their own, is the father of their country. They write directly and make reports and usually these complaints are immediately passed on to the agencies involved. And action has to be undertaken, answers have to be given.
We also have the Civil Service Commission, which is a traditional body, which sets out policies for civil servants, salaries, expected behaviors, and so on and so forth. They also do their own monitoring. One time, I received a letter―a friendly letter―saying that they were shocked and surprised that of all the complaints against government, the Department of Education had the most number. My answer is that, it so happens that we have, at that time, more than 600 billion pesos budget, 700,000 teachers, 26.6 million learners and 40,000 schools. So in proportion to an agency with 20 billion pesos and 2,000 employees, the complaints easily could appear to be more. But if you take into consideration the relativity, and so on and so forth, then perhaps the picture will change. Because by sheer size of the budget, education really stands out.
And so, also I think researchers have probably have noticed that local governments are also closely monitored. Because local governments are where the schools are. And local government units are required to post bulletin boards in conspicuous places every year where they report not only on the budget of the local government, their expenditures but also statistics on education―students, state of health, and so on and so forth. And so this is a way also by which the public is able to access data.
A while ago, I mentioned that the level of technological advancement in a country can influence the effectiveness of the systems that we are looking at. And so I'm fascinated with the example of India, where there this People's Information System in addition to all that is put on the computer, they have the bulletin boards. This is done also in local governments here in the Philippines. This is required and it is one of the criteria for rewarding efficiency, effectiveness, and good housekeeping. Local governments are given awards for the extent of the information that they make available.
In closing, I’d like to wish all of us an exciting three days (before we face the traffic again and the long hours of waiting in airports) and we look forward to exchanging information with you on what works and what does not work. Perhaps the researchers also may want to update their cases because in developing countries like ours in Asia, changes happen very fast and there are current trends and actions which have been undertaken. A very serious point of attention, for example, of this administration are the local governments. Local governments are very involved in education because part of the real property tax which is collected by local governments goes to education. Important levels of accountabilities are established in national departments as well as regional offices.
Thank you very much. I apologize that I read the cases ahead of you. That is the advantage of being the host country, and certainly the different experiences will be useful not just for academic consumption, not just for putting in the libraries, but really for transforming them into policies, which will be monitored. Hopefully, it might just work and reduce the level of corruption and enhance further accountability
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