HELP OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

June 4, 2006

PHILIPPINE PUBLIC EDUCATION – A SITUATIONER

 

 

The Philippine public education system is in crisis!

 

 

·   Only 6 out of every 1,000 Grade Six elementary graduate students are prepared to enter high school.

 

 

             Education Secretary Florencio Abad, 24th National Educators Congress, 18 October 2004, Bacolod City, Speech: “There is a crisis in Philippine education. Only 0.64% of some 1.4 million Grade VI students got a score of 75% and above in the 2004 High School Readiness Test (HSRT). The mean percentage score was 32.13%.”

 

 

             99.36% of Grade VI elementary graduate students failed to get 75 percent and above in the HSRT, a 90-item competency test on elementary English, Science and Mathematics administered by the National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC) of the Department of Education (DepED) on May and June 2004 on incoming public freshmen high school students nationwide. Only 7.9 percent got a score of 50 percent and above. The mean percentage score was 29.47 in English, 33.46 in Science, and 33.46 in Mathematics.

 

 

·   Only 2 out of every 100 Fourth Year high school students are fit to enter college.

 

 

             Ibid., “97.9% of the more than 1 million 4th Year High School students failed to get 75% and above in the National Achievement Test (NAT) last March 2004. The total percent score of examinees was 44.36%.”

 

 

             The mean percentage score was 36.80 in Science, 46.20 in Mathematics, and 50.08 in English.

 

 

·   Only 19 out of every 100 public school teachers have confidence and competence to teach English.

 

 

             Ibid., “19% of 53,412 public high school teachers of English, Science and Mathematics earned a score of 75% or higher in Self-Assessment Test (SAT) for English Proficiency administered by the DepED in May 2003.”

 

 

             81% of Public School Teachers failed to earn a score of 75 percent or higher in the SAT for English.

 

 

·   The Philippines is No. 41 in Science and No. 42 in Mathematics among 45 countries.

 

 

             Boston College, Quadrennial Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 16 December 2004, Malaya, page 1, www.timss.org. “In science, Grade 8 (equivalent of Second Year) Filipino students edged out only their counterparts in Botswana, Ghana and South Africa. In Mathematics, they were ahead from the same countries plus Saudi Arabia. “

 

 

             In science, Philippines got a score of 377; International average is 474. In mathematics, Philippine score is 378; International average is 467. Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan topped the worldwide survey. TIMMSS is administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement.

 

 

 

The Philippine public education is in distress!

 

 

·   1 in every 8 schools has teacher-to-pupil ratio of 1:50 and above.

 

 

             Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2004 Budget Proposal Submitted to Congress of the Philippines, 01 September 2003, Part II, Page 13: “4,456 schools [3,597 (13%) public elementary schools and 859 (25%) public high schools] with a total enrolment of 2.73 million children have teacher-pupil ratios of 1:50 and above.”

 

 

·   1 in every 7 students does not have a classroom.

 

 

             Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Proposal Submitted to Congress of the Philippines, 14 October 2004, Page 6: “Growing Resource Shortages for Fiscal Year 2005 – Remaining Classroom Backlog: -57,930 based on a class size of 45 children to a room.”

 

 

·   1 in every 5 students does not have a desk.

 

 

             Ibid., “Remaining Seat Backlog: -3.48 million.”

 

 

·   1 in every 3 students does not have a single textbook.

 

 

             Ibid., “Remaining Textbook Backlog: -34.7 million.”

 

 

·   2 to 8 students share in a single set of textbooks.

 

 

World Bank (WB), Commission on Audit (COA), Ibon Foundation, “Robbed” by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), On-Site surveys by KAAKBAY CDI on Pilot Schools.

 

 

 

The quality of Philippine education is declining continuously. Elementary and high schools are failing to teach the competence the average citizen needs to become responsible, productive and self-fulfilling.

 

 

Ibid., Department of Education, Fiscal Year 2004 Budget Proposal, Part II, Page 2.

 

 

The principal reasons for this decline are: 1) the country is simply not investing enough in the education system, and 2) the education establishment has been poorly managed.

 

 

             Ibid., Part II, Pages 3.

 

 

             The Department of Education, Performance Report January 2001 to June 2004, 12 October 2004, Page 7: “The delivery of basic education has been confronted by the ill effects of continuing, rapid population growth and the dwindling Philippine economy. Public school enrolment… consistently expanded, while government’s spending for basic education has not kept pace with such increases.”

 

 

             Ibid., Education Secretary Florencio Abad. “The Philippine per-capita budget for education is P7,700 or $138 per student per year. New Zealand and the United States of America’s budgets amount to P125,500 or $2,240 per student per year”

 

 

             Senator Manny Villar,  Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Congress of the Philippines, 25 October 2004. “The Philippines allots only 3.2% (P111 billion or $2.1 billion) of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for education. It is the third lowest compared to other Asian countries: Malaysia 7.9%, Thailand 5%, Hong Kong 4.1%, Japan 3.6%, South Korea 3.6%, China 2.2% and Indonesia 1.3%. Even as a percentage of the national budget, at 14% the Philippines ranks the third lowest in Asia. Debt service payments have soared from only 8.1% of the GDP in 1990 to 19% in 2004, while the increase in education spending is minimal, from 2.9% in 1990 to 3.2% in 2004.”

 

 

             The per capita government spending on education in the Philippines has suffered due to extremely tight fiscal constraints, yet funds for debt service payments are growing faster than the budget for education.

 

 

        The rural areas and the countryside are the worst affected areas of the deteriorating quality of public education in the Philippines.

 

 

 

Education has always been viewed as an avenue to a better quality of life. It provides equal opportunities to the rich and poor alike. As such, the development and provision of education should always be discussed and viewed within the context of poverty alleviation.

 

 

Poverty in the Philippines, however, has reached a point where education is no longer a right for all but a privilege for a few.  If it is indeed a way for a better life, it is one that is narrow and difficult to thread. Education, as an equalizer for opportunities, has become a myth. The rich has a variety of choices offered by the private educational institutions, while the poor has to make do with a public education characterized by dilapidated school facilities, lack of materials and textbooks, technological incompetence and the like – one which could never give an enabling foundation for equal opportunities in the future.

 

 

             National Anti-Poverty Commission, “Responding to Basic Needs of the Poor,” I Situationer: Philippine poverty is basically rural poverty since almost three out of four (or 73%) of the total number of poor in the country, are residing in rural areas. The poverty level in rural areas is much higher at 48.8% against 18.6% in urban areas: this means almost 5 out of 10 rural residents are poor compared with almost 2 out of 10 urban residents.

 

 

   Poverty incidence worsened to 34% in 2000 from 33% in 1997. This resulted in an increase in the number of poor individuals by 2.59 million from 23.95 million in 1997 to 25.54 million in 2000.

 

 

Operating on a very limited budget and with a very high investment demand on social services, the Philippine government had to thinly spread its resources. But the government is not investing enough on public education to provide a meaningful impact on the educational system, in particular, and the lives of the citizenry, in general.

 

 

        It is for this reason that non-government organizations and other stakeholders have to take on the gargantuan task of bringing quality education directly to the poorest areas and the poorest people in the country and share this responsibility with the government. 

 

 

 

        Every child has an inherent right to quality education. To deny a child equal access to quality education is to deny his/her future.

 

 

        Education, being the most powerful instrument in poverty alleviation and economic advancement, needs to be accessible to every child.

 

 

        The limitations of government, wealth and borders must not hinder the task of providing quality education to an incoming generation.

 

 

        The concerned people in the government, private sector and civil society who have the capacity to help and to contribute in bringing quality education have a responsibility to shoulder this task.

 

 

        Social mobilization must be done if we still hope to see some genuine upgrading in the academic performance of the Filipino students.  It is as imperative that community’s resource holders whether individual or private businesses realize that education is too complex an issue to be left to the government alone.

 

 

 

                                                Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan

 

                                                Citizens’ Development Initiatives, Inc.

 

                                                (KAAKBAY CDI)

 

 

                                                Alain Del B. Pascua

 

                                                Executive Director

 

                                                0918-6042654, adbp@kaakbay.org

 

 

 

                 

 

KAKBAY CDI is undertaking the Kaakbay sa Pag-aaral Capacity Building for Rural Learning and Development in active partnership with the Department of Education under its Adopt-a-School and Sagip Eskwela Programs. Helping arrest and reverse the deterioration of Philippine public education is the general framework of this project. It’s KAAKBAY CDI’s response to the call of government to assist responsibly in nation-building by sharing in the challenging task of delivering quality education in the countryside.

 

 

About 7,000 Textbooks, Instructional Materials, and Teachers’ Manuals have already been distributed from September to November 2004 in 12 pilot project areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

 

 

More than 35,000 DepED student textbooks and teachers’ manuals have also been distributed in Nueva Vizcaya covering 53 public elementary schools in 8 towns and in Candaba and San Simon, Pampanga covering 29 schools on April and May, 2005.

 

 

In partnership with the Alert and Concerned Employees for Better SSS (ACCESS) which collects used textbooks from among its members and clients nationwide, hundreds of textbooks were able to be distributed in Gerona, Tarlac.

 

 

KAAKBAY CDI is one of the many non-government organizations that has committed to support and provide assistance to the 2005 Textbook Delivery Program Texbook Count 3 of the DepED.

 

 

 

KAAKBAY CDI is also undertaking the Kaakbay sa Kalikasan Candaba Swamp and Wildlife Conservation Project in Candaba, Pampanga in partnership with Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo. The project is citizens’ development initiative to help in the overall rehabilitation, protection and conservation of the Candaba Swamp and its Wildlife. It is a non-government organization’s effort in helping the local government units, local communities, other environmental and conservation organizations and all other stakeholders in actually protecting and conserving biodiversity in the area.

 

 

The Candaba Swamp is an important staging and wintering area for migratory birds. It is a significant part of the East Asia-Australiasian Migratory Flyway and is home to more than ninety species of resident, endemic and migratory birds.

 

 

KAAKBAY CDI’s Candaba Swamp and Wildlife Brochure was a Finalist in the 2005 Catholic Mass Media Awards in the Best Public Service Print Ad Category.

 

 

It’s Swamp Rangers for Candaba Swamp and Wildlife Conservation and Ecotourism won in the Project Grant Category of the 2006 Panibagong Paraan Development with Equity, the 2^nd Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace organized by the World Bank. KAAKBAY CDI has now become a partner of the Australian Assistance for International Development (AusAID) through its Philippine-Australia Community Assistance Program (PACAP) in environmental conservation.

 

GREAT EMPLOYERS

May 3, 2006

2006 1:20am(PDT)
Subject: A Must for Employers

A Must for Employers!
  It is an undeniable fact that one major factor why employees leave a
particular company is due to its employer or its top management.
Perhaps, if all companies would have these 3 traits—this may somehow lessen
the quick turnovers and would see employees sticking it out for the
organization’s growth.
  1. Be Loving and Giving.
  A business owner certainly needs to be like this. Do not ever treat
your employees like robots. They are human beings too with strengths and
weaknesses. In fact, if computers do get to hang at times—your
employees also have the tendencies.
  It’s just right that I get my money’s worth—I’m paying them. Would
that be the one valid reason to justify your being a slave driver? Never
forget that you are also human and your true essence is to love. Just
like in any romance novel, love is defined as something that knows no
boundaries and transcends time and space. When you decide to love—you’d
be giving too. Ask yourself, "Am I giving my employees the commensurate
salary for the mileage of work I demand from them?"
  2. Consider to being Considerate.
  You might have noticed the frequent ‘coming-in lates’ of your
employee and it directly affects your productivity and profitability. Yes,
there may be company policies to discipline them for offenses they have
committed, but have you asked yourself when was the last time you’ve
reached out to your employees?
  As a boss, it is never degrading to go down from your pedestal and
talk to your employee(s). In a dialogue, you may discover things that
need your immediate action and consideration. It might be that he or she
is allowing his or her personal problems get in the way of his or her
job—it’s not an excuse. It is also your responsibility to guide them.
Never separate the fact that work and personal issues still go hand in
hand, so why not go out of your way and show your employee(s) that you are
concerned and is always willing to extend a helping hand.
  3. Are You Sensitive?
  I don’t mean that you easily cry over a victim story. If you get
carried away sometimes with movies created by the imaginative works of
writers, then why can’t you be human enough to understand the feelings of
your employee(s)? Not all day’s in a week or in a month’s time they are
okay, either you or one of your employees would just simply blow
it—don’t just plunge into the situation and worsen it. Let it cool down. When
you’re giving and loving—it won’t be close to impossible that you’d be
sensitive. Sensitivity is putting oneself in their shoes.
  These three may sound basic and corny, but I am sure if you’d give it
a try—it will create positive results in your life and in your work as
well. Actually, it’s like learning, un-learning and re-learning. Dick
Leatherman once said, "If I don’t know that I don’t know, how am I going
to learn what I need to learn?

  Russelle S. Trinidad

READING AND MATH STUDY CONCENTRATION

April 25, 2006

March 26, 2006
Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
By SAM DILLON

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of schools across the nation are responding
to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left
Behind, President Bush’s signature education law, by reducing class
time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students,
eliminating it.

Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases
tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading
and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires
annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of
rising benchmarks.

The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who
test below grade level.

The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in
American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich
curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies,
science and art. A nationwide survey by a nonpartisan group that is to be
made public on March 28 indicates that the practice, known as narrowing
the curriculum, has become standard procedure in many communities.
The survey, by the Center on Education Policy, found that since the
passage of the federal law, 71 percent of the nation’s 15,000 school
districts had reduced the hours of instructional time spent on history,
music and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. The
center is an independent group that has made a thorough study of the new
act and has published a detailed yearly report on the implementation of
the law in dozens of districts.

“Narrowing the curriculum has clearly become a nationwide pattern,”
said Jack Jennings, the president of the center, which is based in
Washington.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School in Sacramento, about
150 of the school’s 885 students spend five of their six class periods
on math, reading and gym, leaving only one 55-minute period for all
other subjects.
About 125 of the school’s lowest-performing students are barred from
taking anything except math, reading and gym, a measure that Samuel
Harris, a former lieutenant colonel in the Army who is the school’s
principal, said was draconian but necessary. “When you look at a kid and you
know he can’t read, that’s a tough call you’ve got to make,” Mr. Harris
said.

The increasing focus on two basic subjects has divided the nation’s
educational establishment. Some authorities, including Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings, say the federal law’s focus on basic skills
is raising achievement in thousands of low-performing schools. Other
experts warn that by reducing the academic menu to steak and potatoes,
schools risk giving bored teenagers the message that school means
repetition and drilling.

“Only two subjects? What a sadness,” said Thomas Sobol, an
education professor at Columbia Teachers College and a former New York State
education commissioner. “That’s like a violin student who’s only
permitted to play scales, nothing else, day after day, scales, scales, scales.
They’d lose their zest for music.”

But officials in Cuero, Tex., have adopted an intensive approach
and said it was helping them meet the federal requirements. They have
doubled the time that all sixth graders and some seventh and eighth
graders devote to reading and math, and have reduced it for other subjects.
“When you only have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some
area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that,” said Henry Lind,
the schools superintendent. “It’s like basketball. If you can’t make
layups, then you’ve got to work on layups.”

Chad Colby, a spokesman for the federal Department of Education,
said the department neither endorsed nor criticized schools that
concentrated instructional time on math and reading as they sought to meet the
test benchmarks laid out in the federal law’s accountability system,
known as adequate yearly progress.

“We don’t choose the curriculum,” Mr. Colby said. “That’s a
decision that local leaders have to make. But for every school you point to, I
can show you five other schools across the country where students are
still taking a well-rounded curriculum and are still making adequate
yearly progress. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask our schools to get
kids proficient at grade level in reading and math.”

LISTEN TO EDUCATION ON THE AIR ON 846KHZS RADIO VERITAS EVERY SATURDAY 2:30 -3 PM

June 1, 2005

There is a radio show for you every Saturday from 2.30 pm to 3pm on Radio Veritas 846 khzs from Manila, on the internet go to www.forexworld.com then click the radio veritas logo 846.

This Saturday September 10, 2005 we have Pilar Almira on Employee relations.

The program is called EDUCATION ON THE AIR (EDUKASYON SA RADYO)
which aims to enhance the skills of managers, supervisors and entreprenuers of micro, small and meduim enterprises. THE PROGRAM IS AIRED IN ENGLISH AND FILIPINO
There will be a series of guest lecturers on the show.

On June 04, 2005, our guest is Dean Gerrie Baricaua who shall discuss the important differences of management and leadership. For the four Saturdays of May, our teacher and sharer was Atty Pilar Almira who discussed values and universal truths that every person and business entrepreneur must have and practice.Listen this afternoon June o4, 2005 at 230pm to 3pm Radio Veritas 846 khz on the MW or AM band and on the internet go to www.forexworld.com and click the radio veritas logo to listen.
Read Stephen Coveys’ 8th HABIT.

You can buy a CD of the show,mention the date of the broadcast starting with May 7, 2005, give your name and address so that postage and handling can be added THEN EMAIL THE INFORMATION
TO HILMAN1108@YAHOO.COM and to education846@yahoo.com

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FOR THE RATE CARD

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