Source: http://ph.politicalarena.

com/richard-gordon/questions/how-do-you-intend-to-improve-the-
literacy-of-our-children-in-the-public-schools

How do you intend to improve the literacy of our children in the public schools?

We see a real link between poverty and the level of education and literacy of our people. Almost
all of the problems our countrymen face are rooted in poverty. We are poor, not because of a
lack of money but because we lack choices and the ability to create choices for ourselves.
Education and literacy are preeminently vital to helping our countrymen create choices for
themselves.

To raise the quality of public education and literacy, we are pursuing the enactment of the Health
and Education Acceleration Program or HEAP bill which we filed last year. We must BE ABLE to
fulfill the Constitution's mandate to invest a heap of money in education in order to make a LEAP
from being a poor country, to a nation where all its citizens are enabled, ennobled, and free.

Every year, our public education system faces critical shortages in everything from classrooms,
chairs, and books to teachers, lab equipment, and computers. Our public school students also
face serious problems with health and nutrition, factors that hamper their mental development
and sometimes from prevent them going to school all together. Our teachers are historically
underpaid and under-trained.

HEAP will generate over P70 Billion in additional funds that is needed to build the classrooms
lacked by our public schools, provide for chairs, books, computers, and science labs; provide for
teachers' training; and provide additional funds to raise the salaries of teachers and principals.

In addition to uplifting the level of public education, it will provide for a year round feeding
program (not just noodles but real meals), it will provide for vaccinations, free dental care and free
medicines.

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/29/10/gordons-promise-p40000-salary-teachers
Current teacher's salaries, Gordon explained, are around P12,000 to P15,000 a month, compared
to P122,000 a month for teachers in Singapore.

"Gusto ko, P40,000 ang suweldo ng teacher kaagad in the next 6 years. (I want to raise teacher's
salaries to P40,000 in the next 6 years)," Gordon said.

Raising teacher's salaries, he said, will attract skilled graduates to teach in schools.

Skilled teachers can raise students' academic performance even at the kindergarten or
elementary grade levels, Gordon added.

He also mapped out a plan to fund a $1.7 billion (or P85 billion) project to give 17 million students
a Kindle electronic book reader.

"You can get an electronic book where you can put in the entire curriculum of the school from
grade school to college," the senator said.

Kindle, released by online book retailer Amazon.com, is a device that allows people to read digital
versions of books. Gordon said it is priced at $100 wholesale.

To fund the Kindle project, Gordon said plans to cut down on corruption, which amounts to about
300 billion pesos.

If this does not work, he plans to improve mining, an industry reportedly worth $1-trillion, to give
additional funding for the free e-book reader project.
If both do not work, Gordon said the quickest way to raise funds is through a "text for education"
campaign, where P0.50 from every 2 billion text messages will be used to fund teacher's salaries
and the Kindle project.

Source: http://richardgordon.blogspot.com/2010/01/e-books-for-pinoy-studes.html

"The UN said education poverty rates among the poor are four times the national average. Our
Constitution mandates that education must be given priority. But in the budget, No. 1 is debt
servicing, No. 2 is the IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) for local governments, while education is
only at No. 3. We should be spending 6% of GDP or P444 billion on our education," Gordon said.

Source: http://richardgordon.blogspot.com/2009/07/transcript-10th-fvr-rpdev-lecture-with.html

Education is a priority. Like I said, tignan nyo na lang yung teacher, the teacher in our country
makes P12,000 a month, in the next four years they’ll go up to P18,000. Malaysia already pays
P17,000; Japan pays P77,000; Singapore pays P129,000 per month per teacher.

That’s why Johnny cannot speak English or Juan dela Cruz cannot pass Math or Science, in the
same manner that our counterparts in Taiwan, in Hong Kong and in Singapore can. That is why
we have to invest in education. Fifty seven thousand classrooms are needed. Where are you
going to get the money? I’m suggesting, we have two billion text messages a day, we levy 200
million of those text messages from the Globe and Smart people who have earned a windfall, and
we levy that without any pass on, which will come out with P73 billion a year. We can, at the
same time, pump prime the economy. At 57,000 thousand classrooms times P500,000 or a
million if you want to put computers, plus food, address malnutrition, and you can invest and send
teachers to better, better training and in the process, get education up in track. I’m only asking
this for five years. Next year, you can have another P73 billion again, this time you can provide
more scholarships, you could provide better opportunities.

When the Constitution says number one ang education, it is not just nominal. You can have
number one budget in education, which is P158 billion, and yet kulang pa rin yun. It is important
that you have a holistic approach that would provide you better teachers, laboratories, information
technology, the ability to go out and go to other countries and participate in contests and more
particularly in sports. I would also like to restore ROTC. I think that there is an opportunity for
ourselves that we have forgotten. Our officer corps cannot just come from the Philippine Military
Academy. There’s got to be a historical background here, meaning to say, that when you join the
ROTC, you know how to participate. Leadership is something that is thrust upon ourselves at
times by present challenges. It is important that we prepare the youth for national responsibility. It
is important that hindi lang rights ang ibibigay sa inyo. You have the duty. I would sponsor and
make sure that you have chances to join and participate not just in the kabataang barangay. I
think it’s more important to have extra-curricular activities such as the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts
and Girl Scouts in grade school, and all the way training for better citizenship.