PHILIPPINE EDUCATION: WHAT IS ITS FUTURE?

KAREN SERRANO- SANCHEZ

Education is said to be the key to success of every individual. This is because it makes a person’s natural talent reach its finest and it enlightens one’s mind with essential knowledge to triumph over the various obstacles brought by life. This is the reason behind the steps our government has taken just to give the best education our children deserve.

Our government has not stopped in finding for ways on how the education here in the Philippines be improved to uplift the lives of Filipinos. The curriculum has been changed from the Basic Education Curriculum to the K-12 Curriculum. This is probably because the administration believes that this new curriculum is the answer to the call of coping with the abrupt changes that continuously happen in our world especially now that we are in the modern time – the age of technology. Most likely, Filipinos may become more globally competitive since our adopted curriculum is also the existing curriculum in other nations particularly those which belong to the First World. Perhaps, the inclusion of two years in the high school which we call in senior high school may prepare our students’skills and knowledge for the challenges college may bring and real-life situations may carry. In this way, whatever difficulties may be faced by our students in their struggle for excellence, they will be ready.

However, in spite of the actions that have made by our government to enhance the curriculum in order to shape the future of our children, some people are not so convinced that the new curriculum will bring hope. Instead, they see it as a burden especially for those who have low social status. Though some public schools offer free senior high school; they think that the facilities are not enough to hone the skills and talents of our students that is why some of them avail the vouchers our government offers and choose to take senior high school education in different private schools whose facilities are sufficient. Some think that instead that their children will enter college already; they have to undergo two years more in the high school which means additional expense. Some consider that the career choices of their children become more complicated with the existence of the strands offered.

With the discussions presented, perhaps some of us will meditate if to where the issues in the Philippine education bring its future and to what path will it lead our children. Whatever will happen to the education here in our country, I am sure that we always hope for the betterment of the future of our nations-the youth.

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The author is Teacher II at Northville High School