The BESRA and

Education For All

by
RON S. TRIMILLOS
March 5, 2011
The The BESRA is an acronym which
stands for Basic Education
B Sector Reform Agenda.
It is a package of policy reforms
E
pursued by the DepEd to build
S upon the efforts of the School
First Initiative (SFI) and to
R create a basic education sector
that is capable of achieving
A
Education For All (EFA)
objectives by 2015.
DepEd is pursuing a package of policy reforms that as a whole
seeks to systematically improve critical regulatory,
institutional, structural, financial, cultural, physical and
informational conditions affecting basic education provision,
access and delivery on the ground.
These policy reforms are
expected to create critical
changes necessary to
further accelerate,
broaden, deepen and
sustain the improved
education effort already
being started by the
Schools First Initiative.
OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF BESRA

1. Universal Adult 3. Universal School

Functional Literacy Participation and
2. Universal Completion of Elimination of Drop-outs
the Full Cycle of Basic and Repetition in First
Education Schooling Three Grades
with Satisfactory 4. Total Community
Achievement Levels by Commitment to
All At Every Grade or Attainment of Basic
Year Education Competencies
for All
FIVE KEY REFORM THRUSTS (KRTS)

KRT 1: Get all schools to KRT 4: Improve impact on

continuously improve. outcomes from
KRT 2: Enable teachers to complementary early
further enhance their childhood education,
contribution to learning alternative learning
outcomes. systems and private sector
participation.
KRT 3: Increase social
KRT 5: Change institutional
support to attainment of
culture of DepEd to better
desired learning
support these key reform
outcomes.
thrusts.
In short, the five key reform thrusts of BESRA are on:
schools, teachers, social support to learning,
complementary interventions, and DepEd’s
institutional culture.
 The Education For All (EFA)

Info Bits:
The Education For All is a  from Jomtien to Dakar
movement which took off at
 Year 1990
the World Conference on
Education for All in 1990. Since  155 countries
then, governments, non-  150 organizations
governmental organizations,  Year 2000
civil society, bilateral and  World Declaration on
multilateral donor agencies Education For All
and the media have taken  Mid-Decade Conference
up the cause of providing
 Amman, Jordan
basic education for all
children, youth and adults.  The World Education Forum
2000
Its culmination adopted the Dakar Framework for Action
Education for All: Meeting Our Collective
Commitments. This document commits governments to
achieving quality basic education for all by 2015, with
particular emphasis on girls' schooling and a pledge
from donor countries and institutions that "no country
seriously committed to basic education will be thwarted
in the achievement of this goal by lack of resources”.
The biggest review on education in history, The Dakar
Framework for Action, draws on the results of the global
EFA Assessment 2000. This global exercise was the
most comprehensive study ever made of basic
education.
Preliminary results were debated at five regional preparatory
conferences and a special gathering of the nine high-
population countries (E9) between December 1999 and
February 2000 (in Johannesburg, South Africa; Bangkok,
Thailand; Cairo, Egypt; Recife, Brazil; Warsaw, Poland;
and Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic). National
assessments were complemented by fourteen thematic
studies on educational issues of global concern, surveys
on learning achievement and the conditions of teaching
and learning, as well as twenty case-studies.
The findings: The assessment revealed a mixed scorecard.
1. The number of children in school soared (from 599m
in 1990 to 681m in 1998) and many countries were
approaching full primary school enrolment for the first
time.
2. However, some 113 million children were out of
school, discrimination against girls was widespread and
nearly a billion adults – mostly women – were illiterate.
3. The lack of qualified teachers and learning materials
was the reality for too many schools.
4. The donor community was criticized for dwindling
aid commitment.
The findings: The assessment revealed a mixed scorecard.
5. Disparities in quality were also widespread.
6. Over-conservative systems were out of touch with
young people’s needs, in sharp contrast with the plethora
of initiatives that successfully adapted learning to local
needs or reached out to marginalized populations.
7. For some African countries, education absorbs up to a
third of the national budget, although several of them
spend as much on debt repayment as on health and basic
education combined.
8. New media and virtual networks had also started to
shake the dust off education systems.
Looking ahead. There are daunting challenges ahead:
1. How to reach out with education to HIV/AIDS orphans in
regions such as Africa where the pandemic is wreaking havoc;
2. How to offer education to the ever-increasing number of
refugees and displaced people;
3. How to help teachers acquire a new understanding of their
role and how to harness the new technologies to benefit the
poor, and;
4. And probably the most daunting challenge of all – in a
world with 700 million people living in forty-two highly
indebted countries – how to help education overcome poverty
and give millions of children a chance to realize their full
potential.
Education For All is a global movement led by
UNESCO, aiming to meet the learning needs
of all children, youth and adults by 2015.
UNESCO has been mandated to lead the
movement and coordinate the international
efforts to reach Education for All.
Governments, development agencies, civil
society, non-government organizations and the
media are but some of the partners working
toward reaching these goals.
 Why is EFA Important?

Achieving the Education Simultaneously, achieving

for All goals is critical for the other MDGs, such as
attaining all 8 MDGs—in improved health, access
part due to the direct to clean drinking water,
impact of education on decreased poverty, and
child and reproductive environmental
health, as well as the fact sustainability, are critical
that EFA has created a to achieving the
body of experience in education MDGs.
multi-partner
collaboration toward the
2015 targets.
 PHILIPPINE EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA)

WHAT IS EFA 2015 PLAN?

 The Philippine Education For All (EFA) 2015 is a

vision and a holistic program of reforms that aims
at improving the quality of basic education for
every Filipino by 2015.
 PHILIPPINE EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA)

REAL DIMENSIONS OF PHILIPPINE EFA 2015

1. Universal coverage of Out of School Youth (OSY) and

adults in the provision of basic learning needs;
2. Universal school participation and elimination of drop
outs and repetition in first three grades;
3. Universal completion of full cycle of basic education
schooling with satisfactory achievement levels by all
at every grade or year;
4. Total community commitment to attainment of basic
education competencies for all.
 Nine Urgent and Critical Tasks
1. Make every school
continuously improve its
performance.
2. Expand early childhood
care and development
coverage to yield more EFA
benefits.
3. Transform existing non-
formal and informal
learning options into a truly
viable alternative learning
system yielding more EFA
benefits;
Nine Urgent and Critical Tasks

4. Get all teachers to

continuously improve
their teaching practices.
5. Increase the cycle of
schooling to reach 12
years of formal basic
education.
6. Continue enrichment of
curriculum development
in the context of pillars of
new functional literacy;
Nine Urgent and Critical Tasks

7. Provide adequate and

stable public funding for
country-wide attainment
of EFA goals;
8. Create network of
community- based
groups for local
attainment of EFA goals;
9. Monitor progress in
effort towards
attainment of EFA goals.
In 2000, the Philippines, as a reaffirmation of the vision set in the
1990 World Declaration, committed itself to the following EFA
2015 Goals at the World Education Forum in Dakar:
Goal 1: Expand and improve comprehensive early
childhood care and education, especially for the most
vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
Goal 2: Ensure that by 2015, all children, particularly girls,
children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to
ethnic minorities, have access to complete free and
compulsory primary education of good quality;
Goal 3: Ensure that the learning needs of all young people
and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate
learning and life skills programs;
In 2000, the Philippines, as a reaffirmation of the vision set in the
1990 World Declaration, committed itself to the following EFA
2015 Goals at the World Education Forum in Dakar:
Goal 4: Achieve a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult
literacy by 2105, especially for women and equitable access to
basic and continuing education for all adults;
Goal 5: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2015, with focus on ensuring girls full and equal
access to and achievement in basic education of good quality;
and
Goal 6: Improve every aspect of the quality of education, and
ensure their excellence so that recognized and measurable
learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy,
numeracy and essential life skills.
 Policies, Programs and Projects to
achieve EFA Targets
1. The Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001
(Republic Act 9155) provides the legal basis for the
decentralization of basic education management
and governance to the level closest to the learners –
the school and community.
2. Projects were also implemented to build the
capacities of the different levels, particularly the
schools and the division offices. DepEd
implemented the Third Elementary Education
Project (TEEP) and the Secondary Education
Development and Improvement Project.
 Policies, Programs and Projects to
achieve EFA Targets
3. DepEd’s current policy is for the Schools
Division Superintendents to decide whether to
release the budget to elementary schools either
in cash or in kind.
4. Regional offices were not included when the
TEEP started in the mid-90s, because at that
time there was no clear policy on the specific
roles of the regional offices insofar as
decentralization is concerned.
 Policies, Programs and Projects to
achieve EFA Targets
5. In terms of financing EFA, worth noting is the
substantial contributions of other basic
education stakeholders in implementing various
basic education programs/projects/initiatives.
The Special Education Fund of the LGUs and the
resources of the private sector through the
Adopt-A-School Program are making a
difference in terms of improving learning
outcomes in selected schools.
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA
TARGETS

Early Childhood Education

The increasing gross enrolment rate in early
childhood education programs by both public
and private schools in recent years can be
attributed to the implementation of the Early
Childhood Care and Development Act or
Republic Act No. 8980.
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA
TARGETS

Formal Basic Education

To increase access to quality, relevant and
efficient formal primary education, the country
has introduced and implemented innovations
and reforms in the curriculum, testing and
assessment, teacher development, school
improvement and alternative delivery modes.
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA
TARGETS

Alternative Learning Systems

The Medium Term Philippine Development Plan
2001-2004 guided the implementation of
alternative learning systems in the country to
allow flexible entry of learners in both formal
and non-formal/informal streams of basic
education and ensure their upward social
mobility. More importantly, it is expected to
demonstrate the social and economic viability
of non-school-based learning channels.
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA
TARGETS

Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning is a learning progression
beginning at birth and ending only with death
which encompasses both the formal and
alternative learning systems. Together with the
UNESCO advocated concept of life skills, the
Philippine notion of functional literacy now
approximates the idea of “real life literacy.”
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND
PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA TARGETS
In summary, the country was not able to attain its 2005
targets in almost all key outcome indicators in Early
Childhood Education, Formal Basic Education and
Alternative Learning System. Most of the regions have
performance classified as “falling further behind” or
with performance lower than the national level in 2002
and continued to decline in 2005. While substantial
investments were poured into the establishment of basic
education
POLICIES, PROGRAMS AND
PROJECTS TO ACHIEVE EFA TARGETS
While there are pockets of excellence in some areas, the
overall performance of the country is declining and
disparity among regions, against learners in rural
schools (especially in terms of access and completion)
and against male children is widening. For the country
to achieve its targets in 2010 and move ahead towards
attaining its 2015 targets, the various basic education
stakeholders should focus their efforts and resources in
assisting the regions, divisions, schools or groups of
learners who are lagging behind in key outcome
indicators.