Why I will vote for Noynoy...

Because he is good, among others, for education.

I have a special interest for education. First, I'm an education student, which means that I'll be a future teacher. True, I'll be taking up law soon after I graduate from college. But that doesn't mean I've lost my special interest for education. Who knows, I just might be a professor of law?

Second, I'll be having my own children. Later na. And I don't want them to be victims of our less than impressive educational system.

That is why I want to see our educational system improved. And I think and believe that it will happen if Noynoy Aquino were to be elected President of the Philippines.

As Isagani Cruz argued, "He is the only presidential candidate that has thought through the problems of education in our country. Even if all the candidates say that they regard the deterioration of public education as the most important and pressing issue to be faced by the new government, none of the others have put forward any kind of education reform program that makes sense."

Here is Noynoy's ten-point agenda on education:

1. “I will expand basic education in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration (2016).”


2. “All public school children (and all public schools) will have a full year of pre-schooling as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016.”


3. “I want a full basic education for ALL Muslim Filipino children anywhere in the country.”


4. “I will re-introduce technical-vocational education in our public high schools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.”


5. “By the end of the next administration, every child must be a reader by Grade 1.”


6. “I will rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools so that we can produce more scientists, engineers, technicians, technologists and teachers in our universities so that this country can be more globally competitive in industry and manufacturing.”


7. “I will expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program (GASTPE) to a target of 1 million private HS students every year through education service contracting (ESC) while doing away with the wasteful education voucher system (EVS) of this administration.”


8. “My view on the medium of instruction is larger than just the classroom. We should become tri-lingual as a country: Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country. Retain your dialect and connect to your heritage.”


9. “I will not tolerate poor textbook quality in our schools. Textbooks will be judged by three criteria: quality, better quality, and more quality.”


10. “I will build more schools in areas where there are no public or private schools in a covenant with LGUs so that we can realize genuine education for all.”

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P.S. Didn't I write before that I would vote for Richard Gordon? Of course, I did. Look it up here. But I changed my mind. And I think I'm allowed to do so. Changing one's mind is, of course, not an insult to one's person. It was I think Jose Diokno who said that a man praises himself when he changed his mind. For it only means that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.