Copycat mentality won't raise bar of Phl education

In the latest (2011-2012) World University Rankings, no Philippine university made it to the top 200. This is not the first time the Philippines has been excluded from the ranks of the elite in terms of education. We have been consistently dropping in the rankings. 

 And the reason for that is that there is no honest-to-goodness and well-thought-of policy guiding the way for Philippine education. Everything is either a band-aid solution or a copycat initiative. 

 Just look at the K+12 program of the Aquino government. It seeks to add two more years of high school beginning this school year for no other reason than that we are supposedly the only country in the world left with a 10-year basic education curriculum. 

 In other words, even if the educational system and all its stakeholders — including the students and their parents — are not at all ready for the added two years, we still need to go ahead regardless because we do not want to be the odd-man out. 

 Yet, even as we plan to plunge headlong into this stupid policy of two more years of high school, this very same policy aims to weed out the science subjects from the first three years of elementary. That’s right, there will be no science subjects from Grade I to Grade III. 

 But K+12 is not the only stupid educational policy of this government. There are more. One of them is to copy (yes, our educational policies always seem to involve some copying) the “kariton” project of former CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida. 

 Peñaflorida was hailed as a hero because, with his meager resources and strength, he was able to complement what the Philippine government lacked. Seeing the glaring lack of classrooms, Peñaflorida brought his classroom to places that didn’t have one on a “kariton.”

 Yet the Philippine government completely missed the point. Instead of being challenged into building more classrooms, do you know what this stupid government did? It copied Peñaflorida and built dozens of “karitons” for God’s sake! 

 Couple this with a K+12 program that is lacking in scientific exposure and it would not be hard to imagine the Philippines becoming a country of idiots following “karitons” around for 12 years until they decide to give up schooling altogether and become boxers. 

 Yes boxers. That is because, aside from the “kariton” folly, there is actually a bill in Congress seeking to establish a boxing gym in every town and city in the country, for no other reason than that Manny Pacquiao has shown a man can earn billions just by boxing. 

 What a calamitous way of thinking. Can you imagine the kind of thinking the leaders in this country have with regard to education? Instead of inspiring the young to study, we are now egging them to become boxers. 

 Yet even with such fallacious thinking, the law on probabilities still refuses to humor us with a wink. For Pacquiao is one of a kind. It does not follow that just because a person has two fists, he can earn a living fighting others with them. 

 The K+12 program, the copying of Peñaflorida’s “kariton” initiative, and pushing boxing instead of education are just three of the indications that suggest no one has really got a grip on the Philippine educational system. 

 To raise the bar of Philippine education, let us attract the best minds by making teaching worthwhile as a profession. Then let us eliminate the corruption behind the production of substandard teaching materials. Finally, let us do away with the perennial lack of classrooms. 

Just do these three things and there will be no need to follow what the rest of the world is doing. Fail to heed them and no matter how many years you add to schooling will not make a difference. And the only distinctions we will earn is as a nation of “karitons” and boxers.