Exam-centric education

It was back to school for over 27 million students with the official opening of classes yesterday. While some large universities in the country have shifted the start of their school calendar from June to August, public elementary and high schools have remained with the June calendar.

There is some sense to this because under the school calendar shift from June-March to August-May, classes held during the summer months have to endure the hot weather. Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones had already noted last year that classrooms in public schools are not suitable for our unbearably hot summer months.

Major universities like the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila, La Salle, and the University of San Carlos have already shifted to the August-May calendar, some as early as 2014. But take note that most of their classrooms have air-conditioning units that help their classes tide through the hot and dry months.

I am of two minds in this issue of calendar shift because there are compelling advantages as well as disadvantages. The shift, for example, aligns our universities with 70% of universities abroad which follow the August-May school calendar. In the words of Ateneo President Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J., in 2014, the calendar shift demands that the school “align academic programs to global standards in the context of internationalization.” It also facilitates the mobility of local and foreign students and teachers to move up or laterally between universities here and abroad.

My point of interest actually lies more on the issue of our exam-centric education. This issue came to my attention recently after coming across an NHK documentary “Class Struggle: Changes to China’s Education System”. The Japanese TV documentary highlighted the problem of China’s emerging population of college graduates who seem to be unfit to deal with the intricate and often obscure realities of the workplace and the marketplace.

“Many are unhappy with a decades-long focus on rote learning designed to help students pass university entrance exams,” the documentary points out, “new approaches emphasize self-expression, classical literature, or even martial arts.” And then it asks: “What will China's educators learn from this transformation? And how will it affect the future of today's students?”

In our own country, there is much celebration when students graduate at the top of their class, much more when they top licensure examinations. Many students today even expect, or worse, demand higher grades than what strict quality-conscious teachers think they deserve.

There is an apt internet meme circulating that shows a long line of students before a teacher who will teach them how to get a 95+ exam score in Physics. On the other side, there is a zero of line students before a teacher who will actually teach them the concepts of Physics.

The bad news is that the workplace of the future will demand creativity and critical-thinking skills. And these are the skills that our exam-oriented educational system falls short in teaching. Automation, informational technology, and the internet of things will make obsolete those who rely on rote memorization and textbook approaches to learning.

Of course, exams have their purpose – as “ceremonies of power” in Foucault’s words, a manifestation of one’s labor in studying authorities and excellent bodies of work. But what comes after that is more important. Are schools training students to go deeper into topics and be critical minded on issues? Are schools training students to create, to innovate, and to serve the greater moral principles in order to build a better society?