Question & AnswerQ&A (BATAS PAMBANSA BLG. 232)
The title of Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 is the Education Act of 1982.
The Act covers and governs both formal and non-formal systems in public and private schools at all levels of the entire educational system.
The State aims to establish and maintain a complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to national development goals, ensuring equality of access and promoting cultural diversity and national unity.
The objectives include providing broad general education to help individual development, training middle-level skilled manpower, developing professions for national leadership, and responding to changing national needs through educational planning and evaluation.
The educational community includes parents or guardians, students, pupils, teaching or academic staff, school administrators, academic non-teaching personnel, and non-academic personnel associated with educational institutions.
Students have rights to quality education, free choice of field of study, guidance services, access to school records, issuance of certificates within 30 days, freedom of expression, forming and joining organizations, and freedom from involuntary contributions except approved ones.
School personnel have rights to free expression and communication within the school, free legal service when charged for lawful professional duties, establishing or joining labor or professional organizations, and freedom from involuntary contributions except those imposed by their own organizations.
Parents must help carry out educational objectives, ensure their children obtain elementary education and strive for secondary and higher education, and cooperate with schools in implementing curricular and co-curricular programs.
Any person convicted shall face a fine between P2,000 to P10,000 or imprisonment up to two years, or both. If committed by a school corporation, the school head and responsible persons are equally liable.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports may impose administrative sanctions for causes such as mismanagement, inefficiency, fraud in applications, failure to comply with requirements, and unauthorized operations.
The Ministry is vested with the administration, supervision, and regulation of the educational system, including policy formulation, program implementation, coordination of cultural agencies, and recommending legislation.
Formal education is a hierarchically structured and graded learning organized by the school system requiring certification for progression through levels including elementary, secondary, and tertiary education.
The recognized levels are elementary education (basic education, usually six or seven grades including preschool), secondary education (usually four years of high school), and tertiary education (post-secondary leading to a professional degree).
Elementary education aims to provide essential knowledge and skills, increase awareness of social demands, promote national identity and love for the country, and develop work orientation and creativity.
Incentives include tax assessments at 15% on educational real property with proceeds to special private education funds, tax exemptions for gifts or donations to recognized schools, exemption of income from scholarship funds, and provisions for school dispersal programs.