RECENT international comparisons in which Philippine students quickly fall well behind those of other countries make depressing reading.
What to do?
The problem is that it is asserted by UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization) that we lack the progress made by students elsewhere. This reportedly occurs from the beginning so that by Grade 4 our students are not able to read as well as others.
We have a burgeoning population so that for the Scholastic Year 2022-2023 we have, for the first time, an enrollment of over 28 million.
Our school building program has not kept pace so that we have the perennial problem of overcrowded classrooms. Reading is an individual activity so, ideally, students learn to read on the basis of a 1:1 relationship with a mentor. Many students learn to read at home and I wonder whether this form of volunteerism can receive quasi-official support from the school.
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In 2012, we were all subjected to a bombardment of propaganda about K-12. At the time I was disappointed with our legislative branch of government for not engaging more combatively with Br Armin Luistro, then the Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd). He made many pronouncements which were disputable, and now have turned out not be true. For example, he said that K-12 would make the Philippine system of education globally competitive. Not true. He also said that successful completion of K-12 would improve the employment prospects of Senior High School (SHS) graduates. Also, not true.
We now have many students, graduates of a 13 year program, who are unable to find work. Employers have always sought students who have completed at least two years of tertiary education.
President Marcos has instructed his deputy, Sara Duterte-Carpio to re-evaluate K-12. I believe that when this is done there will be enough evidence to find that K-12 (already in its eleventh year of implementation) has not produced the benefits that we were led to believe would transpire. A recommendation, worthy of consideration, could be to revert to the system (The 1982 Education Act) that was successfully instilled before K-12.
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Meanwhile, DepEd and the Department of National Defense (DND) are already discussing the reintroduction of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program in senior high school. The discussion is billed as ‘exploratory’ but I am not aware of any discussion in which the arguments against an ROTC program are promulgated.
DepEd now has an Assistant Secretary for ‘youth affairs and special concerns’ (presumably a euphemism for ROTC) Dexter Galban who describes the talks with DND Undersecretary Ignacio Magdriaga as a ‘prelude to a multi-tiered, well safeguarded, multi-faceted citizenship program.’
Nothing like jargon to obfuscate ROTC reintroduction.
Will our legislators have the opportunity to debate this?/PN
