Poor quality education leads to wasted lives, tax money

Our public school system officials at the Department of Education (DepEd) must truly step up the transformation of basic education to make it an achievement motivator for millions of young Filipinos. Since the late 1920s, various initiatives have been adopted, but all seems to be for naught.

Not only have we lost billions of tax money as we look at scorecards that tell us how far behind our students are in learning and comprehension compared with those of other countries. We should feel bad for wasting the lives of generations who should have gotten better paying jobs had they graduated smarter.

Education is a great accelerator for improving lives, but only if the quality of education sufficiently motivates students to pursue the real essence of learning. For this to happen, educators must be appropriately armed to inspire learning and to take responsibility for improving learning outcomes.

Unfortunately, recommended interventions in the early 2000s, like the introduction of school-based management (SBM) and other training for public school administrators, have yielded only a handful of outstanding results, and even these have been discontinued over time with personnel movements.

The government has been talking about a basic education sector reform agenda for decades, but has been remiss in putting flesh and bones that would make it relevant and updated. In reforming our public school system, we must establish rolling long-term action plans (as opposed to time-bound programs, like the five-year SBM rollout). More importantly, they must be measurable and auditable.

Society’s role

One feature of SBM that is often glossed over is the role of school administrators in rallying parents and relevant local stakeholders to play a more active role to improve the delivery of basic education.

One of our readers, Charles Meiselman, commented on our recent column on education. He shares some down-to-earth views on how we can make basic education more impactful in the lives of our young. The following are some lightly edited excerpts.

“Change is again needed as we pivot toward education that leaves no child behind in terms of equal opportunity, not outcomes. While parents often are ill prepared to mentor their children, there is much we can do as a society. A lot!

“Provide nursery-level books a parent can ‘read’ (story-tell) with their tiny tots. Yes, read, even if cartoonish storybooks.

“It works. The US Army uses such training books (manuals) [that] illustrate ideas and bridge communication gaps, given schooling deficiencies [and] teams of diverse backgrounds and different mother tongues.

Focus on ME

“STEM focus should be ME focus. M- Math. E- Engineering. Then Science and Technology.

“Children are builders. Blocks. Sticks. Mud pies. Rice patties. Stepping stones. That is real engineering, taught from the perspective of childhood dirt and swings, bikes and boards; and we use base 10 numbers counting fingers and toes, bananas and kilos of pork.

“Math is the basis of science, technology, structures, and electronics (0s and 1s, di ba?).

On learning language

“Since international standard English is the language of the above, why not have comics say so, and have kiddie texts teach parents simultaneously. I know, here (in the Philippines), tribalism trumps globalism. But we must learn if we are to take our rightful place in the ranks of other nation states, most of whom are not leaning toward Russian or Chinese or Spanish or Arabic.

“What if half of the class is English-immersed, while the other follows mother-tongue literature? Guess who learns math further and better? Guess who stays in school longer, realizing they are joining the world of scientists and tech job skilled workers who can read and run CnC (computer numerical control) machines, and repair/build the billions of new robots just around the corner.

“Me? I’d tell my friends, like Dr. Brenda Corpuz and DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, to drop the languages to no more than two, preferably one!

“Any coursework other than STEM is pride talking, not adult common sense, if we as a nation are going to dig ourselves out of the swamp. Drastic? Yes. Will it save money? Yes. Will it shorten school hours/combat boredom/allow teachers time to think, study, grow, and relax? And be adequately schooled? Yes, yes, yes.

“Which is more important: skills and a modern, well-fed, healthy society or a people where tribalism policies has so divided the nation that those (in the) north know not what (the) south is jabbering on about and vise-versa. Autonomous regions are the most likely to be impacted.

Leave none behind

“Put bright students in a STEM-only track and measure their reading ability at 15. Let STEM material be created by them and their equally brilliant teachers; Honors courses they be (to) bootstrap progress. Leave none behind as the honor flight learners learn side-by-side in the same (for now) decrepit schoolrooms.

“It’s not too late to scrap the old clunker and buy a decent set of wheels. Not if you want to get further down the road to prosperity (and say) goodbye (to) poverty.

“This is not my Communist Manifesto or even an email I wanted to write, but someone in authority must be able to see that tribalism hiding in the skirts of nationalism is paving the path to less than success.

“Our children are our future: on that you can bet the farm. If we don’t pay it forward, we surely condemn our ‘fragmented’ selves. So there can never be a united Philippines standing strong and proud.

“Knowing we gave our children a chance to shine is our blessing as well.”

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.