President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday said the country’s education system was in need of revision to produce higher quality graduates.

In his inauguration speech, Marcos Jr. said he trusted Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, his education secretary, to fulfill this job.

“What we teach in our schools the materials used must be rethought,” Marcos Jr. said.

“I am not talking about history. I’m talking about the basics, the sciences, sharpening theoretical aptitude and imparting vocational skills such as in the German example, alongside the national language with equal emphasis and facility in a global language, which we had and lost,” he added.

Marcos Jr. said he envisioned an education system that would prepare coming generations for more and better jobs.

“Our teachers from elementary up are our heroes fighting ignorance with poor paper weapons. We are condemning the future of our race to menial occupations abroad, then they are exploited by traffickers,” he said.

The Department of Education is expecting schools to have a full implementation of F2F classes next school year.

Earlier this year, the NEDA said the country lost P22 trillion because of the restrictions implemented on F2F classes due to the pandemic.

Resuming full F2F classes would add P12 billion to the economy weekly, it added. John Ezekiel J. Hirro