Solution found to restore P10B DepEd cut – Angara
EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara said over the weekend that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had found a way to restore the P10 billion peso fund that was removed from the 2025 budget for the Department of Education's (DepEd's) computerization program. In an interview over state-run PTV-4 on Friday, Angara said that when the president heard about the P10 billion cut in the DepEd's computerization program, he texted him at 3 a.m. because he felt "sleepless" when he heard about the cut. "He said, 'Let's find a solution to this. Let's talk with Budget Secretary Mina, and let's find a solution to that,'" Angara said in Filipino, quoting the president. Later on, the president met with Angara and the economic team led by Pangandaman, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, and Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go on how to restore the DepEd's computerization funds, as well as the budget for the hiring of new teachers worth P1 billion and the P1.5 billion for the new classrooms. Angara did not specify the "solution" but only said the programs would continue this year despite the funding cut. He said about 800,000 gadgets would be procured this year after the economic managers restored the P10 billion funding for DepEd's digitization program, noting that the program would also involve the department's tie-up with Khan Academy to aid students in their learning through the Khanmigo application. "In this world, even if you are not a college graduate, if you are an expert in computers, there will be available jobs and with a few short courses or micro-credentials that our president is referring to, we can easily get a job, but you have to have a foundation of digital skills," Angara said. He also said that the department was gearing up for the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment or PISA exam, which involves evaluating the achievement tests of students in public schools to determine if it is nearly equivalent to the competencies that would be covered in the PISA test, which will cover science. "This is going to be a good opportunity to reform our system of testing and assessing our students. Sometimes we test memory work, but we want our students ... to be good in analyzing and critical thinking," Angara said.
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara said over the weekend that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had found a way to restore the P10 billion peso fund that was removed from the 2025 budget for the Department of Education's (DepEd's) computerization program.
In an interview over state-run PTV-4 on Friday, Angara said that when the president heard about the P10 billion cut in the DepEd's computerization program, he texted him at 3 a.m. because he felt "sleepless" when he heard about the cut.
"He said, 'Let's find a solution to this. Let's talk with Budget Secretary Mina, and let's find a solution to that,'" Angara said in Filipino, quoting the president.
Later on, the president met with Angara and the economic team led by Pangandaman, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, and Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go on how to restore the DepEd's computerization funds, as well as the budget for the hiring of new teachers worth P1 billion and the P1.5 billion for the new classrooms.
Angara did not specify the "solution" but only said the programs would continue this year despite the funding cut.
He said about 800,000 gadgets would be procured this year after the economic managers restored the P10 billion funding for DepEd's digitization program, noting that the program would also involve the department's tie-up with Khan Academy to aid students in their learning through the Khanmigo application.
"In this world, even if you are not a college graduate, if you are an expert in computers, there will be available jobs and with a few short courses or micro-credentials that our president is referring to, we can easily get a job, but you have to have a foundation of digital skills," Angara said.
He also said that the department was gearing up for the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment or PISA exam, which involves evaluating the achievement tests of students in public schools to determine if it is nearly equivalent to the competencies that would be covered in the PISA test, which will cover science.
"This is going to be a good opportunity to reform our system of testing and assessing our students. Sometimes we test memory work, but we want our students ... to be good in analyzing and critical thinking," Angara said.
