With the appointment of Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara as Secretary of the Department of Education, expectations are high that he would be sensitive to the needs of teachers and those of students in crafting regulations and programs for the education sector.
Already, Angara has been getting congratulatory messages, including from Representative Kristine Alexie Tutor (Bohol, 3rd district) who chairs the committee on civil service and professional regulations who expects him to unload the teachers of their non-teaching burdens, which forced them to be less effective in teaching their students.
"As Chairperson of the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation, I congratulate Secretary Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on being chosen as the new Secretary of the Department of Education. I am optimistic we can work well with the new Secretary on addressing the challenges the large DepEd bureaucracy faces and the plight of the over 900,000 licensed professional teachers in all the DepEd schools," she said in a press statement.
Angara, she added, can swiftly remove the burdens of teachers by letting the Departments of Health, Social Welfare and Development and the barangay health centers carry the greater burdens on school health and nutrition.
Another quick way to lighten the workload of teachers is to outsource the administrative and ancillary tasks to professional service providers via Expanded BOT contracts because DepEd does not enough administrative and support personnel.
In his 18 years as legislator—first as Aurora Province representative from 2004 to 2013, and then as Senator from 2013 to the present. Senator Sonny has authored such landmark legislation as the Free College Law, the Free Kindergarten Law, the Universal Healthcare Act, the expanded Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act, the Kasambahay Law, the OWWA Charter, the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and incentives Act, and the National Sports Academy Act.
Angara is a graduate of Xavier School, the London School of Economics, the University of the Philippines College of Law, and Harvard Law School. He has been a regular newspaper columnist, and a professor of Law. He is the co-team captain of the Senate Defenders, the official basketball team of the Senate.
Photo Courtesy: Presidential Communications Office FB Page
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