December 10, 2025 All day
Theme: A Decade of Necessary Reforms 2026–2035
Speaker: Dr. Karol Mark Yee
The INNOTECH Seminar Series on Education, Innovation and Technology in December 2025 featured Dr. Karol Mark Yee, who presented “A Decade of Necessary Reforms 2026–2035” and outlined the Second Congressional Commission on Education’s findings, legislative accomplishments, and priority reforms for the Philippine education system. The presentation highlighted EDCOM 2’s work across early childhood care and development, basic education, teacher quality, technical-vocational education, and higher education, including 37 priority bills filed in the legislative process, 10 laws already enacted, and 114 policy recommendations from its Year 2 Report. It also pointed to continuing challenges such as stunting, classroom shortages, limited access to learning materials, teacher specialization mismatch, learning loss, violence affecting learners, and persistent disadvantages faced by vulnerable groups.
Dr. Yee’s presentation emphasized that the next decade of reform must focus not only on expanding access, but also on improving the quality and continuity of learning. Among the priorities presented were strengthening nutrition interventions during the first 1,000 days, accelerating classroom construction and decongestion, improving textbook and learning-material access, ending practices that encourage mass promotion without mastery, investing in higher-level TVET skills, and tightening quality regulation in teacher education. The presentation also introduced the forthcoming EDCOM Final Report and National Education and Workforce Development Plan, which is intended to synthesize EDCOM 2’s three years of findings and identify the top priorities, targets, reforms, and budgets for 2026 to 2035. Its central message was clear: the Philippines already knows many of the reforms that need to be pursued, but progress will depend on sustained focus, prioritization, and continuity over the next ten years rather than repeatedly restarting reform efforts.
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