“I think the task of this 20th Congress is really the radical change that is needed in the education sector… I say all of this with passion because I saw it before my eyes — kung ano y’ung successful at ano ang mga dumudurog sa ating sistema. The solution is there but we have to be radical,” Cayetano said on the Senate floor on July 30, 2025.

Cayetano, who chairs the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education and co-chairs the Second Congressional Committee on Education (EDCOM II), made the statement in response to a privilege speech by Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino on basic education, highlighting systemic issues in the K to 12.

He pointed to the 165,000 classroom shortage as something that can be addressed with radical budgetary decisions.

“The 165,000 classroom shortage was mentioned by EDCOM… The Department of Public Works and Highway’s budget is P1 trillion. Do you want to end the lack of classrooms in a year? If per classroom costs P1 million, that accounts to only P165 billion — almost half or two-thirds of the DPWH budget,” Cayetano said.

He also criticized the failed promises of K to 12, such as specialized tracks for high school students and transfer of General Education (GE) subjects from college to high school to shorten college to three years.

“The promise in K to 12, even in first year high school, junior high school, there’s already a track… Another promise is that for the GE subjects, we’ll transfer that to high school so that the colleges are promised to be cut to three years,” he said.

This was not the first time Cayetano opposed the program. In 2013, he was among the few senators who voted against K to 12.

In 2022, he reiterated his stance against the lackluster implementation of the K to 12, saying “we have to either i-suspend ang K to 12 for five to 10 years until we have enough resources, or fund the K to 12 now as it was envisioned.”

Cayetano also emphasized that the root of the education crisis lies in basic education, citing inadequate learning time, lack of facilities, and teacher shortages.

“In Metro Manila and many highly urbanized places, job matching, et cetera is still far away. Why? There are no more classrooms, teachers. Most of them don’t have tablets or Apple computer labs or anything like this. Nag-additional two years ka pa (sa K to 12), pero half day ka naman sa klase. Ano iyon, diba? The problem is really much, much more basic. The bigger part of the problem goes back to pre-K to 12,” he said.

Cayetano also cited the scholarship programs of the City of Taguig where despite full financial support, dropout rates remain high due to out-of-pocket expenses.

“In Taguig, we have a 100 percent scholarship program. If you graduate from high school, we’ll automatically give you P15,000 to enroll, whether it’s for TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) or college. If it’s a center of excellence like UP (University of the Philippines), we’ll give you P50,000. If you’re a teacher or a police officer, we’ll give you P80,000 to P120,000 to enroll for a Masters degree,” he said.

“But check our dropout rates. It’s still comparable to other places. Because our scholarship program and our full scholarship, that’s only 30 percent of the expenses. The out-of-pocket amounts to 70 percent, which is still massive,” he added.

Cayetano called on the Senate to make tough decisions in the 2026 education budget.

“Let’s make the hard decisions and put our money where our mouth is,” he said.

July 30, 2025