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In the past years, data shows that the performance of students in the Philippines in the National Achievement Tests (NAT) across subjects remain to be way below the target of the Department of Education. This, along with the introduction of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) integration pushed the Philippine government to implement the Enhanced K-12 Basic Education Program. With this reform is the enhancement of the English curriculum. Hence, it is timely to assess the content of the new English curriculum (known as the Language Arts and Multiliteracies Curriculum or LAMC) to help teachers implement it according to its intention. Thus, this paper sought to examine its clarity and specificity and alignment to the 21st century principles and established language teaching and learning principles. Using content analysis and Vidovich's (2002) policy cycle as the theoretical framework, the findings revealed that there are several elements that need to be clarified and specified. The findings also indicate the lack of integration of some 21st century principles and language teaching and learning principles into the LAMC. The paper concludes with the implication of the findings in the Philippine education system, recommendations for future revisions, and suggestions for future studies.

Using a team-based course development approach, the University of British Columbia collaborated with the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) and universities from Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Canada to design and develop six transnational, online, distance-education courses covering diverse topics such as sustainable forest policy, international dialogues in global forestry issues and forest restoration. The team-based approach is commonly used in online course development to form a cost-effective managerial and development team that manages timelines, coordinates solutions, and oversees budgets, all of which are particularly challenging for an international collaboration among universities across the Asia-Pacific region, due to cultural differences and variations in teaching and learning practices. This paper gives an overview of the design and development of transnational, online, distance-education courses, and the results of a pilot study that put the completed courses through an in-house, evidence-based quality enhancement rubric and a written survey reporting the leading professors' satisfaction with the project management and instructional design services. The quality enhancement rubric showed that the course designs were of high quality and the written survey revealed that the subject matter experts were satisfied overall. However, many improvements were suggested and could be implemented to improve the quality of course design, and the collaboration in orientating subject matter experts to the team-based development process, and in implementing best practices for online course design.

This paper describes the experiences of doctoral candidates involved in the first year of a transnational research training partnership between Australia and the Philippines. It aims to ascertain how the partnership model of the programme has been perceived by doctoral candidates, and to understand its associated benefits and challenges. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with the six candidates enrolled in the programme, revealing five key themes: the importance of place, of planned face-to-face interactions, of diversity in research cultures, managing distance communications, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consideration of these themes led to two key conclusions. First, in the online context, interpersonal relationships with and between supervisors and programme administrators provided a trusted reference point that became part of the candidates' sense of belonging. Second, that the treatment of the candidates as a cohort was crucial to their wellbeing and progress in the first year of candidature.

Faced with a pressing demand for eldercare workers, Japan signed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to recruit workers from Southeast Asian countries. The EPA limits the employment period for migrant workers, unless they successfully pass the healthcare licensure examination in Japanese. Therefore, they receive on-the-job training and prepare for the examination, making their host institutions partly responsible for assisting the training and exam preparation. In this system, migrants' Japanese ability, tested against a strict standard, is the key to their being successfully accepted as good workers. Migrant workers and their employers are thus important actors in a neoliberal logic in which mastering a specific language practice and demonstrating it on standardized tests is deemed important for one's social mobility. To analyse how this logic is realised in a healthcare workplace, this paper draws on fieldwork data in an eldercare home employing EPA workers. The operation scheme of the EPA and institutional policy will be highlighted as underlying mechanisms for the creation of neoliberal subjects. I argue these measures primarily support the hierarchical relationships between Japanese and non-Japanese, and between employer and employee. I also discuss consequential ways in which on-the-job training has differentially impacted employment trajectories of the migrant workers.

With the growing lapses of sports-based strategies in the Philippine setting, the gap between its theoretical foundation and its praxis has ballooned, predominantly attributed to the need for more academic work in this area. Correspondingly, this study provides implications for sports-related strategies for predicting a positive public image of the Philippines and harboring peaceful state cooperation through the merits of soft power. To achieve this, this paper has contrived the objectives, including (1) identifying the implications of hosting the SEA Games 2019 for the country by examining the management of the Philippine government, (2) determining the implications of the elite sporting success of Filipino athletes in sports tournaments, and, lastly, (3) identifying the potential of sports through the implementation of sports-related strategy by the Philippines. Moreover, this paper implements qualitative methods, including document review and key informant interviews, to gather pertinent testimonials from various sub-sectors in sports, including national elite athletes, professional coaches, and sports experts, to assess the state of Philippine sports and significantly determine its potential as a serious form of public diplomacy, particularly in achieving its intended outcomes. This study infers that Philippine sports have the capability to influence the country's stature with consideration of the global media as well as advance its foreign policy of international cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shares an innovative methodology to 'co-create' a curriculum with eleven international community development organisations from seven countries to prepare undergraduate students for international work-integrated learning activities. The co-creation process was complex, messy, and always evolving. Here we reflect on and document the process, identifying three key methodological principles that might guide the co-creation process for others. These principles embrace the unpredictable, emotional, and personal reality of bringing together diverse ideas and perspectives, as well as opening up possibilities for more creative ways of communicating and listening to what is seen, heard, and felt.

Despite the essential role of local, regional, national and international languages in human development, there is little reference to language planning in development aid discourse. Beginning with definitions of development aid and language planning, the paper examines how the two were linked in pre- and post-colonial times, showing how language planning scholarship has responded to the overarching shifts in understandings of development over time. While we find that language planning maintains a low profile in human development documents, we note some positive signs in UNESCO's and UNICEF's continuing support for language issues. We contrast this support with the World Bank's concern with measurable outcomes. We conclude with an analysis of how the contributions to this special issue exemplify some of the tensions inherent in language planning for development in a global age.

Accurate risk assessment of international scientific and technological (S&T) cooperation is significant to international cooperation. In this paper, 5 risk dimensions with respect to the political, economic, social, cultural as well as technological of the regional comprehensive economic partnership countries (RCEP) are selected to establish a proper S&T cooperation index system for risk assessment. To calculate the weight of each index, a cross-entropy combination weighting method is proposed based on the combination weighting method of game theory. Furthermore, the standard cloud model is constructed by using the golden ratio, and the risk of S&T cooperation among the RCEP countries is analyzed by the cloud model. The results show that the combination weighting method proposed in this paper is effective, and its calculation is simpler than that of the game theory combination weighting method. Besides, compared with political, social, cultural, and technological indicators, economic indicators have a greater impact on S&T cooperation risk. Furthermore, it is also obtained from the results that the risk of S&T cooperation with China and the Philippines is at a lower to low level and medium to higher level, respectively, and the risk of S&T cooperation with other countries is all at a lower to medium level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tribunal in the case brought by the Philippines against China in relation to the South China Sea has recently given its decision on whether it has jurisdiction to entertain the claims. Although it only found unequivocally that it has jurisdiction over three of the fifteen claims, this paper explains why in a number of respects the argumentation used by the Tribunal is weak. In particular it questions whether the Tribunal was right to proceed when issues of maritime delimitation and disputes over territorial sovereignty are outside its jurisdiction. The paper also criticizes the manner in which the Tribunal reached the conclusion that there was no undertaking to solve any disputes in the South China Sea through other means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the few nations in the world (and the only one in the vicinity of China) to be a former colony of the United States, the Philippines is in a unique position on the world stage. This article delineates the history of the complex relationship between the Philippines and the United States since the Spanish-American war while placing an emphasis on modern relations. Since its independence to the end of the Cold War, the Philippines was unequivocally an ally to the United States, though this did not stop tensions from mounting. As China's contemporary foreign policy fosters further amicability between it and the Philippines under the Belt and Road Initiative, this has given rise to worries of a potential pivot to China. Furthermore, hostile sentiments conveyed from certain facets of the Philippines' leadership towards the United States accelerate these concerns. This article delves into the current relationship between the Philippines and the United States while outlining avenues for further cooperation via mutual benefit, particularly within the realm of developmental assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent barriers to universal access to medicines are limited social protection in the event of illness, inadequate financing for essential medicines, frequent stock-outs in the public sector, and high prices in the private sector. We argue that greater coherence between human rights law, national medicines policies, and universal health coverage schemes can address these barriers. We present a cross-national content analysis of national medicines policies from 71 countries published between 1990–2016. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2001 guidelines for developing and implementing a national medicines policy and all 71 national medicines policies were assessed on 12 principles, linking a health systems approach to essential medicines with international human rights law for medicines affordability and financing for vulnerable groups. National medicines policies most frequently contain measures for medicines selection and efficient spending/cost-effectiveness. Four principles (legal right to health; government financing; efficient spending; and financial protection of vulnerable populations) are significantly stronger in national medicines policies published after 2004 than before. Six principles have remained weak or absent: pooling user contributions, international cooperation, and four principles for good governance. Overall, South Africa (1996), Indonesia and South Sudan (2006), Philippines (2011–2016), Malaysia (2012), Somalia (2013), Afghanistan (2014), and Uganda (2015) include the most relevant texts and can be used as models for other settings. We conclude that WHO’s 2001 guidelines have guided the content and language of many subsequent national medicines policies. WHO and national policy makers can use these principles and the practical examples identified in our study to further align national medicines policies with human rights law and with Target 3.8 for universal access to essential medicines in the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity urges, inter alia, that nations protect at least 17 % of their land, and that protection is effective and targets areas of importance for biodiversity. Five years before reporting on Aichi targets is due, we assessed the Philippines' current protected area system for biodiversity coverage, appropriateness of management regimes and capacity to deliver protection. Although protected estate already covers 11 % of the Philippines' land area, 64 % of its key biodiversity areas (KBAs) remain unprotected. Few protected areas have appropriate management and governance infrastructures, funding streams, management plans and capacity, and a serious mismatch exists between protected area land zonation regimes and conservation needs of key species. For the Philippines to meet the biodiversity coverage and management effectiveness elements of Aichi Target 11, protected area and KBA boundaries should be aligned, management systems reformed to pursue biodiversity-led targets and effective management capacity created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]