Tests, both domestic and international, have repeatedly shown the disadvantaged position of public school students regarding academics, eventually consigning them to cheap labor instead of specialized professions.
It therefore comes as no surprise that the country is not a stellar performer in international academic rankings. In the 1999 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, for example, the Philippines placed 46 out of 48 countries in terms of student proficiency in science and mathematics. The succeeding research four years later showed no substantial improvement among Filipino students; following that, the Philippines no longer participated in the study.
Even in domestic measures, though, the country has seriously underperformed. Every year, the Department of Education (DepEd) conducts the National Achievement Test (NAT) for grade six and second year high school students, and the passing rate of 75% seems incredibly unattainable. In the last couple of years, the tests have resulted to a national average score of 64-65% for grade schoolers, and 48-50% for sophomores.
University President and former Presidential Task Force on Education Head, Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, is dismayed by these figures. “The system [for education] is there, but [the students] aren’t really getting educated. See the test scores.”
Such challenges in education have continuously dogged previous presidential administrations; now, however, the new government is insistent on a new approach, that of adding two more years to the basic education system. In fact, President Noynoy Aquino has already instructed DepEd Sec. Br. Armin Luistro, FSC, to “adopt a 12-year basic education cycle to conform with global standards.”
Some members of the academe and groups from the education sector, however, find inherent problems in the proposed education policies. To these critics, it is hardly the time to prioritize the addition of two more years to basic education.
Economics of education
In 2010, the country’s budget allocation for education amounted to a mere 2.79% of the GDP, way below the minimum 6% that the UNESCO recommends.
For the proposed 2011 budget, the allocation for DepEd increased by 18%, but while the president touts this as the biggest increase in education allocation in over a decade, the 2011 education budget still lacks around P90 billion to sufficiently address basic problems like classroom, textbook, and teacher shortages.
State universities and colleges, meanwhile, will be subjected to budget cuts, with the University of the Philippines, for example, getting around 20% slashed off its budget. In contrast, the budget of the Department of National Defense will be increased by 81.1%: P57.8 B ballooning to P104.7 B.
Big picture
Funding woes aside, however, around 2.4 million students still enter grade one annually, beginning a supposedly 10-year journey through compulsory education. To date, only the Philippines and Malta remain as the countries not implementing a 12-year system. Nevertheless, a large number of students still don’t get to finish the country’s already short 10-year educational program.
This is partly the reason why Political Science Instructor Anne Lan Candelaria thinks the Aquino administration is not looking at the big picture when they push for a 12-year system.
Pointing out that one-third of the 2.4 M initial grade one students do not finish elementary, she says, “By the time the students reach the 11th year, many drop out. What will you do with these unemployable, unproductive ones?”
“I believe [the government’s] goal [with this proposal] is to prepare students better for college, but not everybody is going to college,” she says.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers Party-list Secretary-General France Castro adds that graduates of the 12-year cycle are not guaranteed jobs—this, despite Luistro’s assertion that the proposed system would form “employable secondary school graduates with practical livelihood skills.” Luistro was referring to another part of Aquino’s education agenda regarding the strengthening of technical-vocational education in the country.
Castro, however, doubts Luistro’s assertion. “We do not buy it because firms require college graduates,” Castro says. “Do we have light, heavy and medium industries where we will put our vocational graduates? No. Our economics isn’t ready for the education plan.”
Basic problems
Critics of the proposal, however, don’t deny that reform is needed. Castro, for instance, sees the value in a total system overhaul, but she believes that the two-year extension is not the smartest one to take right now, given the current conditions.
“We need P90.5 B to provide the basic educational needs [brought about by the 12-year education cycle],” she says. This amount is already half of the P185.5 B allotted for education in the 2009 budget, and around two-fifths of the proposed 2011 budget.
This is problematic, because as Candelaria points out, around 80-90% of the annual budget for education goes to the salary of some 500,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel. The remaining 10-20% percent of the budget is then split for new classrooms, school supplies, textbooks, maintenance, and other school expenses. The P90.5 B for the 12-year plan, it seems, has no organic place in the budget.
Lack of direction
Castro also believes that the education proposal lacks direction. “We need to answer [questions such as], ‘for whom and for what [is this proposal]?’” she says. “What direction does the Aquino administration want to take?”
She raises these questions because her party-list opposes the use of public education “to serve foreign consumption of docile labor,” as she thinks the Arroyo administration did.
In the view of her group and its allies, the education system in the country must produce a mass base of proficient individuals with specialized skills to forward national industrialization, and not just produce cheap labor destined for export.
Candelaria, for her part, believes the government is being simplistic in merely saying that “10 years [for schooling] is short”, as if without considering the realities of Philippine education, and without concern for feasibility.
Timing’s the thing
In Fr. Nebres’ opinion, the system is ultimately overtaxed, especially because the budget allocation for education is already very limited. He believes that there is no urgent need for this 12-year system.
“If high schools continue to have 60 to 80 students in a class, and if they continue to have [low] scores,” Nebres explains, “then I do not see the point of adding two more years.”
Indeed, some classes in Quezon City and Parañaque, for example, have as much as 80 to 100 students, as Sylvia Aldana of the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) mentions. In contrast, neighboring Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia enjoy a much lower teacher-to-student ratio at around 1:18.
All these demonstrate the government’s skewed priorities, and this leads Castro to reject all the more the Aquino platform for education. Aquino’s educational platform also includes plans to construct ‘scientific infrastructures’ even if, as Castro says, “some schools do not even have ordinary physics and biology laboratories.”
Incremental changes
For Nebres, it is clear that the deficiencies of the educational system must first be addressed before any plans for an overhaul. Otherwise, the system will change, but the overall realities will remain. Poor, penniless Juan will still dropout of school by grade four, regardless of whether school lasts for 10 or 12 years.
Nebres, however, believes that Filipinos can do something about the problem. “We described a very difficult situation, but it is not impossible to change,” he says.
He cites the efforts of ACED as an example. Through the help and efforts of the Center, 143 schools in Quezon City, and 50 in Nueve Ecija and La Union posted significant increases in NAT scores, from an average of 50% in 2005 to an average of 80% in 2009.
“Our problem is that we say, ‘we want to solve [the problem], but it’s not me [who’s going to work on it],” he explains, sharing his belief that incremental changes can become significant.
At least such efforts—personal help—will never be untimely.
*With reports from Katrina C. Gaw
