Reconciling

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BY NEIL HONEYMAN
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1. JOAQUIN Martinez has recently been installed as president and chancellor of University of Saint La Salle – Bacolod. He says he would like to be a “reconciling and unifying” president. I wish him well.

“Reconciling” is an interesting word to use. It means that he wants to restore friendly relations. Which means that hitherto relations were not so friendly.

For 30 years the Department of Education (DepEd) was responsible for implementing the 1982 Education Act. This Act, underpinned by the 1987 Constitution (Article XIV) specifies a six-year elementary education program followed by four years of high school. For those who completed the high school program and who wished and could afford to attend tertiary institutions, a wide range of options was available.

Were there problems?

Yes. We had overcrowded classrooms and inadequately maintained school buildings and ancillary facilities. Despite a rapidly increasing budget (over 10 percent increase per annum for several years) we were never able to adequately provide enough classrooms for our burgeoning school age population. This was and is the main problem that needs to be addressed.

In 2010, President Aquino appointed La Salle’s Br. Armin Luistro to be DepEd Secretary. From the outset, Luistro waged a propaganda war in favor of “K-12.” This mantra was repeated ad nauseum on the erroneous basis that this was a universal education system which the Philippines needs to adopt if it is to be “globally competitive.” K-12 is an American construct. Europeans do not use it.

For me, globally competitive means that Philippine students can compete on a level playing field basis with students from other countries on objectively measured tests. The United Nations (UN) has carried out these tests for many years.

Singapore, Korea, China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan were amongst the best in the world. The United States was well below the world’s best. The Philippines did fairly badly and no longer participates in the UN program.

This is regrettable. If we seriously want to be globally competitive, we need to know how we are doing relative to other countries.

The K-12 Act was passed in 2013. The difficulty for many is that it specifies six years of compulsory high school before students are deemed suitable to enter tertiary education. Except for La Salle and STI which spuriously evaded the six-year requirement. So LaSalle-Bacolod has “Senior High” School students taking fifth and sixth year high school courses whereas the LaSallians gained College Entrance after only four years of high school.

Is this the area in which Br. Joaquin Martinez wishes to achieve reconciliation?/PN
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