MAKATI CITY, September 28, 2026 – The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), represented by Sr. Aileen Bonifacio, SPC, Executive Vice-President of St. Paul University Quezon City, joined government officials, legislators, educators, development partners, and other education stakeholders at The Asia Foundation’s (TAF) Education Governance Forum, “The Next Two Years: Securing the Philippines’ Education Gains,” held on September 28 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City.
The forum focused on a central challenge facing Philippine education: how to ensure that reforms underway today survive political and administrative transitions and become part of the country’s education system beyond 2028.
Organized by TAF with Australian Aid, the forum brought together representatives from government, Congress, schools, civil society, and development organizations to examine how current reform initiatives can be sustained and translated into lasting institutional change.
A key message emerging from the discussions was that education reform must be made bigger than individual administrations and leaders. Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Benitez of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) emphasized the need to embed reforms within institutions so that they can continue even as political leadership changes.
“Presidents change, secretaries change, leaders change. An education must be bigger than any administration,” Benitez said.
He noted that while decades of accumulated structural problems cannot be resolved within the remaining two years of the current reform window, the period can be used to break the cycle of short-term solutions and lay the groundwork for the 10-year National Education and Workforce Development Plan.
A Long-Term View from Congress
The forum also brought a legislative perspective on the challenge of sustaining education reforms across political cycles. Congressman Jude Acidre, Co-Chairperson of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), emphasized the mismatch between the long-term nature of education and the shorter cycles of political leadership.
Acidre pointed out that a child entering kindergarten in 2026 would finish senior high school around 2039- a period that would span several Congresses and presidential administrations.
“Our time in office is short, but the work before us is long. We cannot plan for education the way we plan for a term in office,” Acidre said.
He identified the Congressional Alliance for Philippine Education (CAPE) as one mechanism for promoting continuity within Congress, enabling succeeding lawmakers to build on existing education reform work rather than repeatedly starting over with every new administration or legislative cycle.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of local and community ownership. Participants emphasized the need to give schools and local governments sufficient space to respond to their particular contexts while ensuring that communities and beneficiaries understand and participate in reforms.
This approach recognizes that sustainable reform depends on more than national policy. Effective reforms must eventually become part of the everyday systems, practices, institutions, and communities that carry education forward.
CEAP’s Continuing Engagement
CEAP’s participation in the forum, through Sr. Aileen Bonifacio, SPC, reflects the Association’s continuing engagement in national conversations on education governance, policy reform, and the sustainability of education reforms.
For Catholic education, the discussions are particularly relevant as schools navigate an evolving policy environment while seeking to ensure that national reforms remain responsive to learners, teachers, families, and the diverse contexts of Philippine communities.
The forum concluded with a shared recognition that the next several years will be critical in determining whether current education initiatives are sustained, expanded, and embedded within institutions.
For CEAP, the conversation reinforces the importance of remaining engaged in shaping education reforms that can endure beyond
administrations-reforms that are understood, owned, and sustained by the institutions and communities they are meant to serve.
Photo courtesy of EDCOM2
