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Golez was commenting on the report of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) this morning that the economy expanded by 7.3 percent in 2007, well above the government’s own forecast for the year of only 6.1-6.7 percent.

GDP is the total amount of goods produced and services rendered within an economy in a given period.

The economic growth last year was led by the robust services sector whose output grew 8.7 percent.

Industrial output increased 6.6 percent, while farm production rose 5.1 percent.

Golez said the President would “continuously lead the country until 2010 with a bigger stride in economic growth, surge of more foreign investments, more jobs for our people, strong currency and better delivery of basic services that will also be benefiting the poorest sector of our society.”

The NSCB attributed the economy’s best performance in more than three decades to an environment of benign inflation, low interest rates and a strong peso.

"On the demand side, increased consumer spending, investments in public and private construction, government spending and exports of non-factor services largely contributed to the remarkable performance of the economy," the NSCB added.

Industrial output rose 6.6 percent, while farm production increased by 5.1 percent, NSCB reported.

The gross national product (GNP), boosted by the remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), grew 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 from a year earlier and 7.8 percent in the full year.

GNP includes income from abroad.

Golez added that with the imminent slowing down of the US economy, the government would continue to “invest in people and projects, particularly in areas with the highest multiplier effects and in infrastructure that will upgrade the competitiveness of the Philippines” to sustain the growth momentum.

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• Education is the foundation of economic prosperity and individual liberty, justice and self worth.

• For this reason we issued Executive Order No. 652 creating the Presidential Task Force for Education to assess, plan and monitor the entire educational system. We called this Congress to discuss progress report of the Task Force.

• From the beginning of our Administration we have recognized education as the key to our next generation in order to get ahead and get a good job.

• One of the goals of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to achieve universal primary education by 2015. In the 2001 school year, to increase the chances of children finishing school, the Department of Education minimized the cost of going to school by stopping the collection of miscellaneous fees on enrollment day. That single act brought in almost a million children to school.

• There are voluntary fees for the Parents-Teachers Association, the Red Cross, and the Boy and Girl Scouts. Yesterday I instructed Secretary Lapus that these fees should only be collected starting Grade 5 so that they will not be a reason to keep children away from primary school.

• In 2001 we said that to reduce the time and money spent to actually travel to school, we would build classrooms in far-flung barangays unserved by nearby schools. Within a year, we completed more than one thousand of those schoolbuildings. By 2006 we had achieved our Medium Plan target ratio of one classroom for every 50 grade school students on double shift. In 2007 we added another 15,000 classrooms. This year we will start the construction season for 10,000 classrooms by a series of groundbreaking activities starting Saturday.

• There are a few instances of shortages in classrooms amid the nationwide sufficiency. The most famous of these is the Batasan Elementary School which makes the front page every opening of the school year. The Department of Education, the Quezon City Government and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which owns the adjoining lot, are addressing this exception.

• There was a news photo today of a supposed UNICEF tent classroom in Albay. Per field verification, the classroom project in that school has been completed. The tent is being used as a holding and recreational shed of children of evacuees.

• At day care centers, pre-schools and elementary levels in depressed areas, we initiated the Food for School program which gives a kilo of rice per day to pupils. This program not only increased class attendance, but also helped dramatically cut hunger incidence as well as self-rated food poverty, which is now the lowest in our statistical history. Now we will begin to harmonize day care centers and pre-schools to provide an extra year of basic education.

• As a further and more direct incentive to school attendance, we have launched the Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy program of conditional cash donations to poor households who comply with rules that enhance learning and health. Under our fiscal stimulus program to keep us resilient from the anticipated U.S. slowdown, we are scaling up Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy from P50 million to P5 billion this year.

• To further reduce the time and money spent to travel to school, we now invite the local governments to join us in a Bike for School program similar to Thailand’s program to improve school attendance. Government can provide two siblings whose school is 10 kilometers away with a bicycle, which they will amortize at P1 a day, and which they can ride in tandem to class. That is one tenth the P13,200 which they will have to spend a year for fare.

• In 2001 we said we said that to prepare our youth to be the next generation of knowledge workers, we will upgrade Math and Science teaching. By 2006 we had trained over 100,000 teachers to improve Math and Science instruction. We can now afford P1 billion for teacher training this year, with P500 million going to English training. We want all teachers to have 24 units of English, whether in school or in service.

• In 2001 we said that to improve the quality of education as required by the new economy, we would increase the number of textbooks per student provide textbooks to every public school learner. Within a year we distributed 54 million textbooks to 16 million elementary and high school students up the second year high school. By 2006 we had achieved our initial target of one-to-one textbook-student ratio in priority subjects. Even then in 2007 we distributed almost more than 14 million textbooks, teachers’ manuals and instructional materials. The Department of Education’s governance reforms reduced the average cost per textbook and ensured correct and prompt deliveries, monitored by NGOs including Namfrel and the Boy and Girl Scouts.

• There have been longstanding problems of learning materials with erroneous or inappropriate content. If we cannot even ensure that textbooks are error-free, it would be extremely difficult to get the rest of our education program right. I have therefore instructed the Department of Education to create a high-level textbook review task force to rid learning materials of erroneous or inappropriate content, with guidance and expert assistance from the Presidential Council on Values Formation and leading institutes of education and science and technology.

• In 2001 we said we would hire more teachers. Within a year, we hired 15,000 new teachers compared to 5,000 in 2000 before I became President. We hired more than 50,000 teachers between 2002 and 2007.

• We have installed internet-linked computers in dozens of public high schools. We are now aiming for distance learning and cyber education. We will install at least one linked computer in every public high school in the rural areas, which will become community centers outside school hours. There was great support for this project among the Information Technology Governors of the World Economic Forum, including Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. In fact it was Hewlett Packard who raised it during our roundtable, not me.

• We have a dearth of public high schools but a surfeit of private high schools. We recognize the pivotal role of private schools in national life. That is why instead of building more public high schools, we are expanding high school scholarships through the voucher system and the Government Assistant to Teachers and Students in Private Education or GATSPE.

• Likewise, we raised the number of scholarship grants and loans to give the poor access to tertiary and vocational education. We have increased to P1 billion the allocation for TESDA’s training program and ladderized education.

• We are able to do all this because for the first time in a generation, less of our revenue is being used to service debt and more resources are being directed towards investment in human and physical infrastructure including education, healthcare and training as well as new bridges, roads and ports.

• Also because of the contributions to the classroom building program and computer linkage of program of development-minded citizens and entities, including the chambers of commerce, the corporate foundations, the local governments, and our overseas Filipinos. We thank them for their contribution.

• We are able to do all this also because the Philippine economy has turned around with 28 consecutive quarters of growth, topped off by 7% growth in 2007. Our stock market is up, seven million jobs have been created in seven years, and our currency is one of the strongest in Asia. Investments are surging and many new companies are investing in us – we are one of the best values in Asia right now.

• Poverty alleviation is our overarching goal. We will continue to focus on it. Balancing the budget is just the first step. Over the next few years, we will translate the positive results of our reforms to real benefits for the people.

• We will continue to invest in new school construction at the elementary school level, and to bolster our scholarship program for high schools students and those ready for higher education.

• We ask colleges and universities updating themselves about the current market demands in the local and international market and offering courses fitting their graduates to the skills requirements of available jobs.

• We instruct the Professional Regulatory Commission updating licensure examinations to reflect current technical and scientific requirements of business and industry.

• We ask local government colleges and universities complying with the standards with the standards of CHED.

• Teachers are the backbone of our educational system. Without these selfless men and women, our children would fall short of their dreams and aspirations. We are deeply indebted to the hard work and dedication of all our teachers. Their work is noble and patriotic. They deserve the praise and respect of every Filipino.

• That is why teachers received additional compensation in 2006 and a 10% salary increase in 2007.

• That is why unlike in previous Administrations, teachers now receive at least the same of the increasing bonus that other national government workers receive. In fact, the second installment of the bonus is coming soon to complete P10,000.

• That is why teachers are included in the salary increase provided in our Administration bill for the third round of salary standardization. Let’s all work for Congress to pass the bill.

• Teachers above all, but also every participant here is a stakeholder in the national effort to fight poverty by working towards a relevant and high-quality educational system. Labanan ang kahirapan. Isulong ang karunungan. Thank you.

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