(We yield this space to the statement of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
IN THE last few days, the Department of Education (DepEd) found itself in hot waters after the World Bank (WB) released its findings that 80% of Filipino students do not have the minimum proficiency required for their respective year level. The report was based on the result of WB’s three multi-country assessments in which the Philippines participated: the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018; the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2019; and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) also in 2019.
The country’s poor performance in these tests stems from decades of unabated crisis in education due to its colonial, commercialized, and repressive character, that only grew worse through the years.
A quick review of history would show that it was the colonial government of the US that established formal education in the country to serve the needs and interests of the colonizers. Education served as an ideological state apparatus that molded and controlled the mentality of their “subjects.” Our education system, its medium of instruction, and the curriculum we use follow that of the US since the beginning. This was a deliberate and meticulous attempt of the US to alienate Filipinos from their own identities, experiences, and culture; and to maintain their hold over the productive forces that will become of these students.
The decreasing state support to education, especially under the Duterte administration, further ensures that our education system will be tied and dependent to the dictates of foreign powers, whose main interest is to sustain the world market. The products of our education institutions are designed to fulfill the Philippines’ role in the global market—that is, to provide batches after batches of semi-skilled, and therefore, cheap labor.
Anyone who dare challenge the status quo in education and thereby compromise our and the colonial powers’ position in the world market are then treated as enemies of the state. See how no less than President Duterte ensured the closure of independent, alternative schools and education systems of the Lumad, with the help of DepEd. See professors and universities who are asserting academic freedom—which may mean a deviation from the traditional contents of education or an opening up to other schools of thought, methods, and pedagogies—are called destabilizers. See how public school teachers who demand bigger funding for education, a re-orientation of the curriculum, and teach and live by the basic principles of a just society with respect for human rights and true democracy are red-tagged.
So it’s no wonder that our students perform poorly in school and in international tests. The Philippine education system is not meant to help them make sense of their history and society and equip them with critical minds and deep appreciation for their invaluable role in advancing social justice and genuine national development. The nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented education that our youth needs and deserves go against the very foundations on which formal education in the country stands.
