Students share learning realities

(Second of three parts)

The basic education report says that many public schools lack funds and buildings,” says Rosco, a family business founder. “But I expect more from wealthy private schools. My apo cannot answer the simple math questions I give them, and they are honor students. They showed me essays they wrote on math, which they got from the net. They said they only answer the easy questions in textbooks because teachers never touch the harder ones. I studied in a public elementary school after the war and my teachers were superb. What’s happening now?”

“Let’s ask the students themselves,” I say. “My freshmen students are achievers from around the country who are majoring in pure math, applied math-finance and data science. As part of Ateneo’s service learning, they dialogued with public school parents in Cardona, Rizal, and also reflected on their own elementary and high school learning experiences. Under my supervision, they delved deeply into logic and reasoning, persevered with nonroutine math problems, and honed their grit and growth mindset. Afterwards, they shared observations on Philippine education,” some of which appear below.

K-12, textbook, teacher, resource inadequacies

“We are math majors,” say my students. “But in college, even we struggle with concepts that were not or should have been taught in high school. Why don’t we have math in Grade 12? There should be at least one math course per semester. The plethora of topics in K-12 also rushes learning, resulting in lack of mastery. Decongest the curriculum, even if this means removing calculus from senior high to give students more time to master algebra.

“Public school parents in Cardona say that their kids learn better with Filipino textbooks. Since Filipino lacks the technical terms for math and science, teachers can retain English terms that have no Filipino equivalents while explaining the topics in Filipino, English, or a mixture. Integrate Filipino in technical fields by standardizing new terms to enrich it further.

“Filipino teachers ranked close to the bottom of 17 countries in the Teacher Education and Development Study in Math. Our teachers need refresher courses. Many teachers also have administrative burdens. Some have more paperwork to do than teaching! Hire other personnel to handle these tasks.

“School resources are inadequate, so private groups and [nongovernment organizations] should offer free or affordable training, similar to the problem-solving sessions and bridging programs in Ateneo.”

Grade inflation, mass promotion, trivial assessments

“Math requires building from foundations to advanced topics,” say my students, “such as from fractions to rational expressions. It is not enough to study for one exam and forget everything after. Rather than mass promotion [which public schools do for rankings] or grade inflation [which private schools do to cater to students and parents], schools should hold remedial classes for those who need help. For those who excel, give them advanced topics instead of holding them back.

“Many schools inflate grades, giving students high marks despite unsatisfactory performance. Many teachers spoon-feed students, rather than challenge them with problems that need critical thinking. Most schools do not fail students even if they [deserve it]. Although high grades may serve as a reward to those who deserve them, grade inflation does more harm than good.

“Many schools assign reflection papers with only trivial connections to other fields. For example, instead of [balancing chemical equations or doing organic chemistry], students are asked to write essays linking molecular bonds to human relationships. Students make bola (fool around) and do not take these seriously.

“Other teachers assign open-notes activities where everyone gets perfect scores—but once in college, students are shocked by their lack of preparation. Many teachers [barely teach the technical material], so many students do not learn [much] even if they get high grades.”

(Next week: What parents can do)

Queena N. Lee-Chua is with the board of directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or the ebook at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at [email protected].