The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), together with teachers and educators from public schools and state universities and colleges (SUCs) nationwide, is launching Nationalist Education Day today to assert the importance of an education rooted in the interests of the Filipino people amid growing foreign intervention, resource extraction, environmental destruction, and attacks on critical learning in Philippine schools.
With the Philippines engaging in the US-led Pax Silica initiative, preparing to host the ASEAN Summit, and facing the threat of a strong El Niño, ACT stressed the need for education that equips students to understand the forces shaping the country’s future and the lives of its people.
“Students deserve an education that teaches them to ask who benefits from the use of our country’s resources, who bears the costs of environmental destruction, and whose interests our economic policies serve,” said Ruby Bernardo, ACT Chairperson.
ACT warned that initiatives involving critical minerals, advanced technology, and strategic supply chains must be examined in the context of Philippine sovereignty and national development.
“As El Niño threatens water supplies, agricultural production, food security, and the livelihoods of ordinary Filipinos, students must be equipped to understand the social and economic roots of environmental problems, including destructive resource extraction, deforestation, and development policies that place corporate interests above the welfare of communities,” Bernardo asserted.
ACT also raised concerns over changes to the curriculum that have reduced opportunities for students to study Philippine history and the humanities. The group maintained that learning about history, culture, society, and political economy is essential to developing critical thought and understanding the roots of the country’s persistent problems, including poverty, inequality, foreign dependence, and environmental degradation.
ACT likewise challenged DepEd to uphold its own recognition of education as essential to climate resilience, questioning why teachers face restrictions when they bring pressing social, political, and environmental issues into the classroom.
“Did DepEd itself not say that climate resilience starts with quality education, and that when we train children and give them the right information, education becomes key to addressing our challenges? Now that teachers are taking the initiative to integrate these issues into their lessons, we are told that we need clearance and prior authorization because we are supposedly discussing ‘sensitive matters.’ What, then, is the purpose of being teachers if we cannot help our students understand the realities shaping their lives?” said Ruby Bernardo, ACT Chairperson.
ACT reminded DepEd to uphold academic freedom, stressing that schools must be more than spaces for learning facts and must instead nurture critical thinking and empower students to live out the core values of makatao, makabayan, at makakalikasan.
Through Nationalist Education Day, ACT reaffirmed its call for an education system that advances Philippine sovereignty, protects the environment, promotes critical inquiry, and serves the needs of the Filipino people. The group urged educators to make classrooms spaces where students can understand the country’s realities and contribute to building a just, independent, and sustainable future.#
