The Senate on Tuesday adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21, calling for the creation of a Cabinet Cluster for Education to streamline and harmonize policies across key education agencies, including the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
Sponsored by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the measure seeks to address the country’s worsening learning outcomes and systemic inefficiencies through a high-level inter-agency mechanism that ensures cohesive implementation of education laws, reforms, and workforce development plans.
“This is a critical step in solving the education crisis,” said Gatchalian. “The Cabinet Cluster will ensure that our policies are not only well-intentioned but also well-coordinated and effective.”
The proposal, which had already gained President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s approval in principle in August 2024, also aims to align education outputs with labor market needs and national development goals through a long-term integrated plan.
Senator Loren Legarda, co-sponsor and EDCOM II commissioner, stressed the urgency of fixing fragmentation in the education sector, warning that inefficiencies disproportionately harm the poorest learners.
“When systems remain fragmented, the burden falls heaviest on the most vulnerable,” Legarda said.
Senator Joel Villanueva, also a former TESDA chief and EDCOM II commissioner, pointed to the alarming results of the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, which showed that 5.58 million high school graduates and 19 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 lack functional literacy.
“The numbers are heartbreaking. We cannot afford to keep working in silos, especially with the rising impact of AI on our workforce,” he said.
Gatchalian said the tri-focal education system — established in the 1990s — has created overlapping mandates, fragmented governance, and missed opportunities for synergy, making a centralized cluster both timely and necessary.
