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Addressing Policy Gaps in Forest Management / Understanding the K to 12 Program


This Paper outlines the development of the country's policies in forest management and its impact on forest development. Forest resources continuously decline through the years due to a number of inadequate and poorly implemented forestry policies. Forest rehabilitation through natural and artificial means, as initiated by various sectors, has failed to cope with the rate of forest deforestation. In general, present laws and regulations on the utilization and management of forest resources follow the same approaches and strategies formulated decades ago. The set of policies and their IRRs tend to contradict and overlap with each other, and do not effectively serve sectoral development. The issue of fragmented promulgation of forestry policies makes it hard to pin down what the current forestry policy is. The current practice results in varying versions, leading to inconsistencies of policies. In light of increasing environmental pressure, a new law that addresses the many policy gaps and conflicts in the sector is needed. Evaluations of student achievement support claims that basic education in the Philippines is deficient. Filipino students lag behind in math and sciences when tested against their international counterparts. National Achievement Test scores for Grade 6 and Second Year High School have not reached the 75 percent passing mark in the last four years. An overcrowded curriculum has been identified as a major cause of low levels of achievement among students. To address these issues, the National Government seeks to implement the K to 12 Program. The article discusses the reasons for the program, enumerates the proposed legislative measures in support of it, the applicability of the K to 12, as well as its financial implications.


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