ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED TEACHERS
2/F Teachers’ Center, Mines St. cor. Dipolog St. , Bgy. VASRA, Quezon City , Philippines
Telefax  453-9116  Mobile 0920-9220817 Email  act_philippines@ yahoo.com Website  www.actphils. com
Member, Education International
January 31, 2008

NEWS RELEASE
Reference: Antonio L. Tinio (0920-9220817)
      ACT Chairperson

Teachers, students hold demonstration at Arroyo’s education summit

Around 200 teachers and students held a demonstration in front of the Manila Hotel today as Pres. Gloria Arroyo delivered the keynote address marking the opening of the two-day education summit organized by Malacañang.

The protest action was led by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, the National Union of Students of the Philippines , the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines , and the Kabataan Party.

“We’re here to hold Pres. Arroyo accountable for the further worsening of the education crisis under her watch. Her neoliberal, market-oriented policies have pushed millions of youth out of schools, eroded the economic status and working conditions of teachers, and brought down the quality of education to new lows,” said ACT chairperson Antonio Tinio.

“The Arroyo administration has also been aggressive in subordinating the educational system to the demands of the world market, emphasizing its role in producing cheap skilled labor for export as well as supplying graduates for the service industries,” added Tinio.

The two-day summit, dubbed as a “National Consultation on Philippine Education and Progress Report of the Presidential Task Force for Education,” brings together the country’s top education bureaucrats, owners and administrators of leading private education institutions, various leaders of industry, and representatives from so-called civil society.

It is convened by the Presidential Task Force on Education (PTFE). Formed by Pres. Arroyo in August 2007, the PTFE is chaired by Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., and co-chaired by Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri. It organized the upcoming education summit as a venue for presenting its progress report on education, consulting with education “stakeholders” on various issues and concerns, and formulating an action plan to be submitted to Pres. Arroyo.

The protesters criticized the exclusion of progressive teacher, student, youth groups as well as representatives from labor, the urban poor, and the peasantry at the summit. “The elitist composition of the participants, carefully chosen by Malacañang, indicates that this administration is not willing to listen to alternative views and solutions regarding the education crisis. We therefore expect more of the same bad medicine to come out of the summit—more of the same market-oriented prescriptions such as greater privatization and deregulation in the education sector,” said Tinio.

ACT and a number of progressive youth and student organizations are pushing for their own 8-point agenda for education reform. #