Questions of Policies
Dysfunctional education
By Honesto General
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:04:00 03/26/2008
THE CHAMBER of Commerce of the Philippines Foundation took out a full-page ad (this is the season for full-page ads) to moan a dysfunctional nation.
Let me discuss this point: "a dysfunctional educational system where our 'educated' children end up incapable of speaking or writing straight English or performing basic mathematics let alone applying sciences."
I agree that there are those who speak broken English, cannot do sums nor distinguish science from fiction. No matter how wide our educational net is, there are always those who slip through.
The major problems are in our public schools. English is no longer the medium of instruction in the grade schools. There is a severe shortage of teachers, classrooms, textbooks and libraries.
But there is a lot for us to be extremely proud of.
Public education is, far and away, the government's largest enterprise. Since the Commonwealth era, the budget for education has consistently outpaced that for national defense. This is truly remarkable, considering that, for decades, we have been afflicted with communist and Islamic rebellions.
There are over half a million teachers in the country. That is almost twice as many soldiers and police put together.
Buttressed by a network of excellent private (mostly Catholic) schools, our educational system handles over 22 million students, fully one-fourth of the population. This is larger than the population of Australia. Our colleges and universities can comfortably house the entire population of Singapore.
Last week, in spite of dropouts along the way, three million graduated from all levels. About half a million finished college. These figures are unmatched in Southeast Asia.
The tremendous strides in engineering education belie the claim that our young do not do well in math and science.
When I took the mechanical engineering exams in 1951, there were only four engineering schools: UP, UST, NU and Mapua. My classmates at NU came from all over the country. A Muslim from Lanao became a good friend. From the four schools, about 100 of us took the board exams.
Today, there are engineering schools all over the country. Last October, almost 5,000 took the civil engineering exams alone. Even if we allow for population growth over the past 50 years, that number is truly impressive. And I bet this number is unmatched by Southeast Asia put together.
Also, in my time, only courses in civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical engineering were offered. Lozada is a kind of an engineer I am not familiar with.
What is most wonderful about our educational system is its accessibility, not only because public schools are tuition-free up to high school, but also they are spread throughout the archipelago.
For a kid in the remotest barangay, there is a grade school nearby. If the kid is gifted enough, scholarships in high school, college, and post-graduate are available. If you look around you hard enough, you might bump into a Ph.D. who worked his way up from abject poverty.
The curriculum in many schools has expanded into a dizzying array of disciplines. In Ateneo, the liberal arts course is gone. In its place is a list of courses as long as the menu of a five-star hotel.
My grandson Kevin is taking a new course in information technology that must be extremely difficult because I do not understand what it is all about.
Insurance education has also expanded to meet the demands of a highly competitive industry. Fifty years ago, the insurance agent was not very well educated. Today, the agent has to have a good command of English. In fact, you cannot be employed in the insurance industry unless you speak and write English well.
If you wanted to be an actuary, you had to go to the University of Michigan. Today, you can take up actuarial science at UP, UST or PWU. If you visit the actuarial department of any life insurance company, you will find the loveliest actuaries in the world.
Mastering oral and written English is a struggle for many Filipinos. Constant practice makes perfect, but not everybody has the chance or the need to speak English every day.
Written English is also a problem, mainly because of spelling quirks. George Bernard Shaw wrote that the word "fish" could be spelled ghoti (gh as in enough, o as in women, and ti as in nation).
There are several bills in Congress proposing to return English as the medium of instruction in all school levels. It is a good idea that should be approved.
Still and all, the Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the whole, wide world, next only to the United States and United Kingdom. Our neighbors have a lot of catching up to do.
By the way, with all due respect, may I ask, how much money has the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Foundation ever spent to support directly our public educational system?
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