PISA,TIMMS OUR ELUSIVE DREAMS

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair… "

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens What are the reasons behind the dismal performance of the Philippines behind on those international assessment given to the Filipino learners.

Former Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz told that “in English , test results show real difficulty in inference,interpretation of information, deduction of meaning, drawing conclusions and summarizing ideas. This is a problem of comprehension. Our high school graduates cannot understand what they are reading nor are they developing proficiency in the language. They cannot put together coherent ideas to explain themselves or articulate what they want to say or write. In short , they are grossly deficient in in basic and higher order thinking skills.

In the time when Dr. Jose P. Rizal met his death at Luneta Park, he told to her sister in the English language “there is something inside” which cannot understand by a Spanish Guard, Filipinos can adopt that second language with determination during that time through constant readings of books in English .

My I quote on the word of Leonidas V. Benesa, entitled Our Link with the World “We came back “(from the International Writers Workshop) with the firmer conviction that English will remain the principal language of literary expression among Filipino writers in defiance of cynics.

What especially struck as in regard to the Filipino writers who attended the workshop was the fact that they are starting to write stories and poemsvery good one-at a very young age in English , a tongue which is known among local educators as a “second language” and which is, in fact, as only language to these writers in so far as literary expressions is concerned.

The reason for this is that English has been in the Philippines’international language for the last half- century and will remain so in this everdiminishing world, barring cataclysms like the ultimate war or the collision of planets.

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Sto. Tomas National High School Sto. Tomas,