During the Education and Manpower Development Subcommittee Meeting, Dr. Demetrio P. Anduyan, Chairperson of Education and Manpower Development, emphasized the need to address various issues and concerns in the education sector.

He stated, “We must collaborate to address the concerns of our region. TESDA, CHED, and DepEd may strengthen school-based feeding programs such as TROPA ti SiGA (Training in Organic Agriculture Production among Teacher- Implementers of School In a Garden)”.This is a training program for teachers, students, and other stakeholders on organic agriculture production with the goal of establishing an organic vegetable garden in schools which will eventually become primary sources of food for their school-based feeding programs.
Furthermore, on concerns vis-a-vis access to sanitary toilets, Anduyan said, “I call on TESDA to initiate a Training Cum Production(Carpentry and Masonry) on the construction of the needed facilities with the assistance of HEIs offering Architecture and Engineering programs and the Local Government Units”.
On the report about an increased number of mortality rates, “I call on our Higher Education Institutions, especially those offering Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery, and other allied health science programs, to help address the increasing number of Neonatal, Infant, and Maternal Mortality in the region through your extension programs.”, he stated.
Dr. Anduyan also highlighted the concern that some learners are not yet grade school ready, and suggested revisiting the curriculum to ensure that teachers are equipped to strengthen the 3Rs of our learners “A study has pointed out that some learners do not possess the competencies that correspond to their grade level; I am inviting DepEd to present to us the data of our region so we can sit together and revisit the curricula of our Teacher Education programs. Our teachers must be equipped on how to assist our learners master the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic.”