President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Poverty Alleviation Cabinet Group today gave added impetus to priority programs in classroom construction, pre-school education and values formation.

At their meeting in Malacaņang, the President also presented the draft policy framework on Social Justice and Basic Needs, which is part of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan now being finalized.

For the schoolbuilding program, the President put top priority on areas with classroom-students ratios of 1:100 or more. From data on 42,000 schools, she identified more than 1,000 classrooms needed, which Education Secretary Florencio Abad will now prioritize.

The President also instructed the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which handles 90 percent of classroom construction, to cut costs by adopting design changes and making use of non-profit entities to build about 1,000 schools a year.

For the pre-school program, the aim is to include all five-year-old children at day-care centers. The DepEd will work with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), whose personnel run the day-care centers, and local governments, which build and fund them.

On the values formation program, especially in public schools, the Cabinet group decided that DepEd shall formulate a curriculum specifically for values formation. The proposed character education program shall absorb or replace the current "Makabayan" subject in basic education.

The new course takes the cue from the Presidential Council on Values Formation (PCVF), made up of top religious and moral leaders. In its first meeting on September 13 chaired by the President, the PCVF urged a return to basics in values education by giving it special attention in the elementary and high school.