Philippine Government

The Philippines is an archipelago composed of over 7,000 islands, and 17 regions distributed in three bigger islands Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It is projected to be one among the dynamic dragon economies in the whole of Southeast Asia. According to UNDP, Philippines is one of the world’s largest archipelago nations rich in biodiversity, cultural diversity and human capital. Despite being a developing country – which is defined by the World Bank as “having far less money, with far fewer basic public services with largely rural and poorly-equipped cities” – the Philippine economy has outpaced the growth of its neighboring Asian countries with 6.6% growth rate according to the Human Development Index (HDI). The country’s capital is the city

It is composed of three interdependent branches which are the executive, legislative and judicial branches, each with its own checks and balances. The executive branch is headed by the President (elected to a 6-year term) and assisted by a cabinet that comprises secretaries of various departments such as the Department of Education. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the Senate (also called the Upper House), and the House of Representatives (or the lower house) whose functions aside from legislation include taxing and spending powers. They are a decision-making organization, usually associated with national government that has the power to enact, amend, and repeal laws. They observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. Every administration has to have a list of PDPs of Philippine Development Plans. Every six years, these plans change alongside the changes in government leaders. These plans are composed of policy agenda based on emerging concerns on account of official statistics and other relevant data. The current government -- the Aquino administration –takes pride on its high budget allocation for basic education, health, conditional cash transfer or CCTs for the poor, and other social spending programs which include

74, following the secularized and free public school system implemented during the American rule. In 1902, the implementation of the high school system followed and in 1908, the Philippine Legislature approved Act No. 1870, created the first state university in the Philippines. After a long history of growth and development, a formal and more structured form of instruction was introduced in the country which gave birth to a more organized academic system. At present, the Philippine education system is composed of formal and non-formal education. Formal education is a sequential progression of academic schooling at three levels namely elementary, secondary and tertiary education. Elementary or primary education covers the pre-school education (consists of preparatory courses and kindergarten schooling) starting at age 3 or 4, nursery school at age 5, followed by the start of elementary education at grade 1. This level is followed by the secondary education which is composed of four years in high school; a student is expected to enter this stage at age 12. Just very recently in 2015, the K to 12 basic education program commenced in the country which covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education instead of having just 10 years. The so-called K to 12 curriculum is “standards-and-competency-based” which means that it is built around