Gatchalian’s Senate Bill No. 476, or the Equitable Access to Math and Science Education Act, seeks to provide equitable access to quality education in the pure and applied sciences, mathematics, and technology for all Filipinos to nurture future generations of scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and other professionals who will serve the nation as catalysts for scientific, technological, and industrial progress.
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, assured that the enabling legislation affirms that investment in human capital will pay dividends, citing data from the Unesco Institute of Statistics, which revealed that the Philippines only has 186 researchers per million inhabitants, one of the lowest among Asean countries.
He recalled that in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study , the Philippines also came in last out of 58 countries in Mathematics and Science, adding that the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics 2019 also showed that only 17 percent of Grade 5 learners met the minimum standards in mathematics expected for the end of primary.