Crisis in education

It is just as well that the Vice President is also the Secretary of Education. Not that she has any experience or background in education, but if she listens to the right experts, public education in our country should benefit.

A World Bank report said learning poverty was already at 90.9 percent in the Philippines pre-pandemic. It also noted “the share of children at the end of primary (elementary), who read below the minimum proficiency level,” was also a high of 90.4 percent. The 2018 PISA report showed that in reading, 39 percent of private school students were above minimum proficiency level, compared to only 21 percent of those from public schools. In math, private school students were 35 percent above minimum proficiency level versus 15 percent for public schools.

So, whether from public or private schools, our performance is nationally embarrassing and worrisome.

Toti Chikiamco of the Foundation for Economic Freedom observed that “the problem is complex – from lack of school materials, poor school curriculum, overcrowding, and poorly written textbooks, to malnutrition.”

But since the performance of the private school sector is somewhat better, Toti suggests the government should consider public-private partnerships in education.

“One way is to expand the Assistance and Subsidies to Education Act (RA 8545). Surveys also show that parents prefer to make the choice of which school their children go to, rather than being forced to attend a poorly performing public school.”

As I have often cited in this column, poor nutrition is a big reason why our children can’t learn.

According to Toti, agricultural economist Dr. Karlo Adriano says that there’s a clear association between protein intake and performance in the PISA tests, i.e., the lower the protein consumption, the lower the test scores in PISA.

“In other words, malnutrition is a leading cause of our students’ underperformance. If they go to school hungry, they will lack the concentration and energy to study and absorb.

“Clearly, nutrition should be part of the solution to the country’s educational crisis. The solution would range from school or even pre-school feeding programs, to programs to make food more affordable to the poor.”

Then too, there is a big problem with the curriculum. Our legislators love to add subjects and effectively crowd out more important subjects like math, science, and reading.

Sen. Win Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said the curriculum is overcrowded and needs decongestion. For a start, Sen. Win said there is a need to refine the curriculum for kindergarten to grade 3 learners.

Our poorly-designed curriculum was one problem cited by one study:

“The amount of time allotted for teaching social studies in the Philippines, under the term makabayan, is disproportionately high compared with those in other countries (300 minutes per week in grades 1 to 3).

“Social studies is not taught in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia until grade 4, while Singapore offers it for only 30 minutes per week. Starting from grade 4, under humanities, 60 minutes per week is allocated by Malaysia and 90 minutes per week by Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.”

In other words, Toti pointed out, Filipino children spend less time acquiring basic skills in literacy, numeracy, and communication than their Asian counterparts.

The weird thing is that even with so much time devoted to the makabayan subjects, our young people are as ignorant of basic Philippine history compared to our generation.

Remember how after watching a historical movie, some young people wondered on Facebook why Mabini didn’t stand up, didn’t walk, but remained seated through the entire film. Didn’t their teacher tell them Mabini was called the Sublime Paralytic? Remember Gomburza? They are also unaware of the martyred priests.

We have thrown money into the problems the past years. Even salaries of teachers were raised, as befits a noble profession. But do we really have enough competent teachers, specially in math, science, and reading?

My youngest sister who lives in Los Angeles decided to take a basic math course in her community college after she retired. She hated math and she wanted to know if she was justified.

She got a good math teacher who started her from the beginning. Now she understands the logic of math and loves it. She concludes her math teachers here in the Philippines didn’t teach it the way it should be taught.

That’s what my daughter who teaches in grade school in Orange County also told me. The way they teach it is so different, and maybe that’s what makes other countries score better in international tests. That’s something we should look into.

Our educational problems are daunting, Toti observed, and the government can’t do it by itself. That’s why a partnership with the private sector is needed to solve our educational crisis.

Students can be given vouchers to study in private schools at a predetermined tuition rate. The really good students who will otherwise be stymied by the public school system can blossom and use their education as a ticket out of poverty.

I remember once writing about Ayala Foundation’s Centex (Center for Excellence in Public Elementary Education) program. It is a good concept… provide quality teaching at the beginning of a child’s education.

Bright children from poor families are given an opportunity to excel. The program started with two schools in Tondo and Batangas. It will be interesting to know what happened to their early pupils.

The Centex website is not updated, but as of 2019, they reported: 144 public school teachers trained and mentored; 100 percent promotion rate; zero dropout rate (v. 1.6 percent national average); 98 percent cohort survival rate (v. 97.4 percent national average); 90 percent teacher proficiency rating; 1156 total enrolment for SY 2019-2020.

To address our present crisis in the spirit of private sector and government partnership, can’t Ayala put up more Centex schools nationwide or where they have projects? Can’t we have the top 100 corporations sponsor at least two Centex schools as part of their CSR?

This could be the best investment our corporate sector could make for the nation’s future. It is like paying taxes except you know for sure it is spent wisely.

Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco