Key Issues in Philippine Education

Literacy rate in the Philippines has improved a lot over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. This is attributed to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools. The number of schools grew rapidly in all three levels - elementary, secondary, and tertiary. From the mid-1960s up to the early 1990, there was an increase of 58 percent in the elementary schools and 362 percent in the tertiary schools. For the same period, enrollment in all three levels also rose by 120 percent. More than 90 percent of the elementary schools and 60 percent of the secondary schools are publicly owned. However, only 28 percent of the tertiary schools are publicly owned. A big percentage of tertiary-level students enroll in and finish commerce and business management courses. Table 1 shows the distribution of courses taken, based on School Year 1990-1991. Note that the difference between the number of enrollees in the commerce and business courses and in the engineering and technology courses may be small - 29.2 percent for commerce and business and 20.3 percent for engineering and technology. However, the gap widens in terms of the number of graduates for the said courses. On gender distribution, female students have very high representation in all three levels. At the elementary level, male and female students are almost equally represented. But female enrollment exceeds that of the male at the secondary and tertiary levels . Also, boys have higher rates of failures, dropouts, and repetition in both elementary and secondary levels. Aside from the numbers presented above, which are impressive, there is also a need to look closely and resolve the following important issues: 1) quality of education 2) affordability of education 3) goverment budget for education; and 4) education mismatch. 1. Quality - There was a decline in the quality of the Philippine education, especially at the elementary and secondary levels. For example, the results of standard tests conducted among elementary and high school students, as well as in the National College of Entrance Examination for college students, were way below the target mean score. 2. Affordability - There is also a big disparity in educational achievements across social groups. For example, the socioeconomically disadvantaged students have higher dropout rates, especially in the elementary level. And most of the freshmen students at the tertiary level come from relatively well-off families. 3. Budget - The Philippine Constitution has mandated the goverment to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education. However, the Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to education among the ASEAN countries.

4. Mismatch - There is a large proportion of "mismatch" between training and actual jobs. This is the major problem at the tertiary level and it is also the cause of the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. The following are some of the reforms proposed: 1. Upgrade the teachers' salary scale. Teachers have been underpaid; thus there is very little incentive for most of them to take up advanced trainings. 2. Amend the current system of budgeting for education across regions, which is based on participation rates and units costs. This clearly favors the more developed regions. There is a need to provide more allocation to lagging regions to narrow the disparity across regions. 3. Stop the current practice of subsidizing state universities and colleges to enhance access. This may not be the best way to promote equity. An expanded scholarship program, giving more focus and priority to the poor, maybe more equitable. 4. Get all the leaders in business and industry to become actively involved in higher education; this is aimed at addressing the mismatch problem. In addition, carry out a selective admission policy, i.e., installing mechanisms to reduce enrollment in oversubscribed courses and promoting enrollment in undersubscribed ones. 5. Develop a rationalized apprenticeship program with heavy inputs from the private sector. Furthermore, transfer the control of technical training to industry groups which are more attuned to the needs of business and industry. Read more: http://www.ph.net/htdocs/education/issue.htm Woes of a FIlipino Teacher Imagine yourself a Filipino teacher. Imagine yourself a teacher in a public school. Imagine yourself handling a class of 60 to 70 students. Imagine yourself handling two shifts of classes with 60 to 70 students. Yes, it is a nightmare. And yes it happens in real life within the public school system. It is a manifestation of the two most prevalent problems in the educational system: lack of classrooms and lack of teachers. In fairness, most private school teachers, especially those in small private schools, will admit that public school mentors earn more than they do. But even with the relatively higher wages, it does not seem to compensate for the daily travails of public school teachers. The ideal ratio of teacher to student is 1:25. The less number of children handled by one

mentor, the more attention can be given to each individual, especially if their learning competencies are not equal. With 25 students in a class, the teacher is likely to know each of her students, not only by face but by name and how they are actually performing in class. But with 60 children in a classroom, it is a miracle how teachers are able to stay sane every single day. They hardly know their pupils, save for the excellent ones or unfortunately, the notorious. She does not even bother to remember them. How can she? Classrooms are cramped, if there are any at all. Many classes are held in makeshift rooms meaning a multi-purpose covered court with partitions where 4 or 5 classes are merely separated by thin plywood walls. With 60 kids north, east, south and west, it's a wonder teachers can hear themselves over the din. And how do you tailor lessons with so many competencies to consider? Often, the result is children are left to cope on their own. If they get the lesson, well and good. Otherwise, they are lucky to pass at the end of the year. Yes, students are still divided into sections and they are grouped into the level of their academic skills. Which leaves those who are academically challenged lumped together and their teacher to stretch her skills, patience, resources and dedication to addressing the need of her students. Resources are another matter. Many public school classrooms are equipped with the most basic of equipment: a blackboard, chalk and eraser. Some are fortunate to have visual aids, either donated or purchased by the school. But many times, a teacher will not only have to be creative, but will dig into her own pocket to produce the kind of materials she needs and wants to teach class. It used to be that rolls of Manila paper were adequate to write down the lesson for the day. But this can get to be very expensive, especially if the lessons are long. And with a class so huge, children are barely able to see small handwriting from the back, so you need to write bigger, and use more paper. Children always welcome additional and unique visual aids, and woe to the teacher who has to create them if she wants her subject or lesson to be more interesting. Which brings us to the budget for visual aids. It is non-existent, except if you choose to shell out on your own. Teachers still have to make ends meet. And often, their pay is simply not enough to cover their needs, as well as their families. The Department of Education just announced that so many millions of pesos have been released for the construction and repair of classrooms around the country. I believe this will only cover those included in a priority list. But there are many more schools which lack classrooms, and more communities that lack schools. When additional classrooms are built, will there be additional teachers? If new teachers will be hired, will there be a budget to support their wages?

It's a never-ending cycle, because the government has yet to come up with a plan that will finally address these problems. In the meantime, Ma'm or Sir will have to suffer through their public school experience.

The Crisis of Public Education in the Philippines

By Ronald Meinardus According to the human capital theory, the economic development of a nation is a function of the quality of its education. In other words: the more and better educated a people, the greater the chances of economic development. The modern world in which we live is often termed a "knowledge society"; education and information have become production factors potentially more valuable than labor and capital. Thus, in a globalized setting, investment in human capital has become a condition for international competitiveness. In the Philippines, I often hear harsh criticism against the politics of globalization. At the same time, regarding the labor markets, I can hardly think of another nation that is so much a part of a globalized economy than the Philippines with nearly ten per cent of the overall population working beyond the shores of the native land. Brain drain. Apart from the much debated political, social and psychological aspects, this ongoing mass emigration constitutes an unparalleled brain drain with serious economic implications. Arguably, the phenomenon also has an educational dimension, as the Philippine society is footing the bill for the education of millions of people, who then spend the better part of their productive years abroad. In effect, the poor Philippine educational system is indirectly subsidizing the affluent economies hosting the OFWs. With 95 per cent of all elementary students attending public schools, the educational crisis in the Philippines is basically a crisis of public education. The wealthy can easily send their offspring to private schools, many of which offer first-class education to the privileged class of pupils. Social divide. Still, the distinct social cleavage regarding educational opportunities remains problematic for more than one reason. Historically, in most modern societies, education has had an equalizing effect. In Germany, for instance, the educational system has helped overcome the gender gap, and later also the social divide. Today, the major challenge confronting the educational system in the country I come from is the integration of millions of mostly nonEuropean, in most cases Muslim, immigrants. Importantly, this leveling out in the context of

schooling has not occurred in this part of the world. On the contrary, as one Filipino columnist wrote a while ago, "Education has become part of the institutional mechanism that divides the poor and the rich." Let me add an ideological note to the educational debate: Liberals are often accused of standing in the way of reforms that help overcome social inequalities. While, indeed, liberals value personal freedom higher than social equality, they actively promote equality of opportunities in two distinct policy areas: education and basic heath care. For this reason, educational reform tends to have a high ranking on the agenda of most liberal political parties in many parts of the world. This said, it is probably no coincidence that the National Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS), liberal think-tank of the Philippines, invited me the other day to a public forum on the "Challenges on Educational Reform." With the school year having just started and the media filled with reports on the all but happy state of public education in the country, this was a very timely and welcome event. I was impressed by the inputs from Representative Edmundo O. Reyes, Jr, the Chairman of the Committee on Education of the House of Representatives, and DepEd Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz. Both gave imposing presentations on the state of Philippine education. Although I have been in this country for over a year now, I am still astonished again and again by the frankness and directness with which people here address problems in public debates. "The quality of Philippine education has been declining continuously for roughly 25 years," said the Undersecretary -- and no one in the audience disagreed. This, I may add, is a devastating report card for the politicians who governed this nation in the said period. From a liberal and democratic angle, it is particularly depressing as this has been the period that coincides with democratic rule that was so triumphantly and impressively reinstalled after the dark years of dictatorship in 1986! Describing the quality of Philippine school education today, the senior DepEd official stated the following: "Our schools are failing to teach the competence the average citizen needs to become responsible, productive and self-fulfilling. We are graduating people who are learning less and less." While at the said forum, more than one speaker observed that the educational problems are structural in nature, I missed propositions for reform that are so far-reaching to merit the attribute structural. Gargantuan problems. While the Undersecretary very patiently and impressively charted out the four policy directions of the political leadership of his ministry (taking teachers out of elections, establishing a nationwide testing system, preserving private schools, raising subsidies for a voucher system), to me -- as a foreign observer -- these remedies sound technocratic considering, what one writer in this paper has recently termed, "the gargantuan magnitude of the problems besetting Philippine basic education." Let me highlight two figures: Reportedly, at last count more than 17 million students are enrolled in this country's public schools.

At an annual population growth rate of 2.3 per cent, some 1.7 million babies are born every year. In a short time, these individuals will claim their share of the limited educational provisions. "We can't build classrooms fast enough to accommodate" all these people, said the DepEd Undersecretary, who also recalled the much lamented lack of teachers, furniture and teaching materials. In short, there are too little resources for too many students. Two alternatives. In this situation, logically, there exist only two strategic alternatives: either, one increases the resources, which is easier said than done considering the dramatic state of public finances, or one reduces the number of students. This second alternative presupposes a systematic population policy, aimed at reducing the number of births considerably. But this, too, is easier said than done, considering the politics in this country -- or to quote Congressman Reyes: "Given the very aggressive and active intervention of the Church addressing the population problem is very hard to tackle."