Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone yesterday asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to reduce its programs so it could save money and focus on “the basics to improve the quality of education.”

Evardone, member of the House committee on basic education, said at present DepEd has 54 different programs grouped under the categories of access to basic education, quality and relevance to basic education, teacher competence, school-based management, alternative learning system, health and nutrition, and other programs and projects.         

“I think this is a shotgun approach that must be overhauled because it has failed miserably in ensuring quality education for our children,” he said.        

He said some DepEd programs are either unfunded or overlapping.

He cited the “special program in sports” which the department reintroduced this year offering a four-year secondary curriculum “to identify/discover students with potential sports talents and train them for higher levels of athletic competitions.”

“While I don’t have serious objections to develop students to become athletes, I think sports programs for the youth have been transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission,” Evardone said.

Instead of spending money on sports, the education department should strengthen its programs in the fields of science, mathematics and English, he said.

He called for the review of such programs as barangay education, student technologists and entrepreneurs, understanding by design, physical fitness, music competition for youth artists, “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino,” school-based management, dental-nursing service, tuberculosis prevention and control, applied nutrition, drug education, cardiovascular disease prevention, height and weight taking, and hunger prevention.

He noted that while “some of these programs are laudable, many of them are overlapping and should be consolidated to maximize resources and the impact on pupils.”

“Lack of focus on the part of DepEd on the core subjects of basic education is the main reason why we are uncompetitive,” he said.

He said the department should also concentrate on solving its other problems such as the lack of classrooms, teachers and educational materials.