Today @ ABS-CBNNews
Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:08 AM
Battling the crisis in education
By Totel de Jesus
As another school year ends, Education Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad admits there is still a crisis in Philippine education. More than the lack of classrooms, textbooks and other equipment, the absence of well-educated teachers contributes to the worsening problem on illiteracy.
He laments: “It is sad to know that the crisis in Philippine education continues. The failure of education represents the failure of society. The failure of education represents the inability of society to adequately prepare its young for their inevitable ascendancy into leadership roles in the future. The failure of education represents the inability of society to properly perpetuate itself through succeeding generations.”
Based on a recent data that TODAY obtained, the alarming facts revealed that in the 2004 High School Readiness Test, only 0.64 percent scored 75 percent or better. That’s 8,000 students out of 1.2 million examinees. Out of 38 countries in the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), the
In the Self-Assessment Test for English, only 19 percent of our teachers scored 75 percent or better. That’s no more than 10,000 out of around 51,000 teachers. That means some 41,000 of our teachers have inadequate proficiency in the English language.
Secretary Abad cited how the students’ poor performance in something as basic as reading and comprehension is synonymous with poor scores in English, math and science. About 90 percent of those who passed the tests came from the private schools.
In short, the country continues to produce more illiterate graduates.
Lack of funds
Though the budget for the education department amounted to P112 billion for the year 2004, there’s still a need for more financial assistance.
Secretary Abad cited that if we were to compare test scores with students from other countries, we must also compare our budget for education with our foreign counterparts.
“Our per capita budget for education is a paltry $138 a year. That’s around P7,700 a year per student,” he said.
It’s the equivalent of 16.2 percent compared with
As of last count, there are about 19 million students in the public schools—12 million elementary pupils and seven million high-school students.
“That’s more than four times the entire population of
They go to 41,734 public elementary and high schools throughout the country. Elementary schools are estimated to be at around 36,000, while high schools are around 5,000. The DepEd has about 523,000 rank-and-file employees running these institutions. As of last count, there are about 465,000 teachers.
“That’s over half-a-million professional men and women in the service of education, making sure that the 17 million students in all public elementary and high schools get the best education possible under the dire economic conditions existing today in our country.”
He pointed out that every year, there’s an increase of around 275,000 students, while the number of school buildings remains the same and the teachers shift to other jobs or go abroad for greener pastures.
Underpaid and overworked
It’s not new for public-school teachers to moonlight as sales agents for retail products like women’s undergarments, cosmetics and life insurance.
“This has been going on for the past 30 years. In many provinces, the teachers are also the breadwinners. They are also mothers. To supplement their income, they sell everything, from candies to pies to T-shirts. Now, I heard they also sell cell-phone cards.”
The entry-level salary for a new teacher is around P9,950. The total deduction is around P3,000, which covers the withholding tax, GSIS contribution, PHILHEALTH and other compulsory taxes.
“The Filipino teacher is overworked and underpaid. She is maligned and unrecognized. And in order to fulfill the mandate of our country’s constitutional democracy, the Filipino teacher is even placed in harm’s way during elections.”
Education via mass media
The biggest challenge for the DepEd is to help students to stay in their schools. Drop-outs are common for children before they reached high-school level.
“Because they fail the test, they have low morale already. They would rather drop out of school and work than be humiliated by their fellow pupils who had gone to the higher levels. It’s a psychological trauma for them.”
The worst part is that these dropouts would learn values and other information that they should have learned inside the classrooms via mass media. Secretary Abad said that even those who still attend their classes, about 70 percent of them are influenced by television and the radio.
He added that there must be a strong monitoring of the mass media. Every day, the children watch and hear nothing but news about scandals in show business, criminals, corruption in the military and the police, about politicians debating on issues they cannot still understand and won’t care about.
Solutions using modern technology
While the DepEd admits the pervading hopelessness in the system, there is still a concrete move to overcome the problems.
There is a move to equip the teachers, especially those in the countryside, with basic computer skills. Secretary Abad reasoned out that if a teacher will learn how to use the Internet, the better access to new information.
Ironically, these teachers are easily intimidated by the English language. A special team was created by the department to translate the Microsoft computer commands into Pilipino and, soon, in Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Ilocano and other local dialects.
In order to deliver services immediately, DepEd also avails itself of the SMS technology. Like a hot line, students and teachers all over the country can simply send text messages or make a call directly to the secretary’s office. There are cell-phone numbers posted in each school for the students or teachers to air their grievances freely. They can be about anything, from delayed release of grades to complaints on erring teachers or principals.
“The DepTxt started during Secretary Edilberto de Jesus’s time. We continued it and it’s proven to be an effective way to know the basic problems of our students and teachers. No, I don’t attend to them all, because some of the problems can be solved in their respective schools, like delayed release of grades. But I always make sure that I read them all. It’s fun also to know how problems from the remote schools in the provinces can reach me!”
The ultimate aim of the department is to give the students more reasons to stay in school. That means, there will be 1:1 ratio in terms of textbook per student. There will be more scholarships to be given and increase in the salary of teachers.
But he also reiterated that the local government must help in the process, especially in the countryside. He emphasized that since the local officials are the ones who can directly deal with the problems like lack of school buildings or textbooks, they should also be involved.
“As a secretary, my main concern right now is to increase our budget and in order to do that, I have to deal with Congress and the Senate and the people in Malacañan. We can only do so much. Here in Metro Manila alone, there are already truckloads of daily concerns. There is crisis so let us help each other. Let’s invert the pyramid. Don’t rely only on what I or the department can do. The community must also do its share. Fault-finding will get us nowhere.”
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