18/07/2021
RETHINKING PHILIPPNE BASIC EDUCATION
A series of Essays on Basic Education
by Juan Miguel Luz
Fellow, FEU Public Policy Forum
Philippine Basic Education is not in good shape. While more Filipino kids are entering Grade 1 these days, too many are dropping out before completion of the entire K-12 cycle. Worse, of those completing the cycle, the levels of learning as revealed in large-scale international assessments are low – at one to two or more standard deviations below proficiency.
For years, the definition of success in education was measured as (a) Access to education and (b) the provision of education materials and infrastructure in basic education. It was a numbers-crunching exercise of indicators. Little attention was paid to Learning as argued in the World Bank’s World Development Report on the topic of Learning in 2018 (Learning to Realize Education’s Promise). To be fair to the Philippines and the Department of Education (DepED), other countries around the world fell into the same trap.
In 2018, the Philippines, through DepED, participated in PISA (Programme in International Student Assessment) for the first time to abysmal results. A year later, the country participated in TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science Survey) with similar results. A third large-scale international assessment, SEA-PLM (Southeast Asia Program Learning Metrics), confirmed the same conclusions.
Different groups in the country, particularly those participating in the DepED-organized Education Forum, have recognized the gravity of the situation and have raised alarm bells. The call for a second Education Commission 30 years after the first EDCOM has been even as educators lament the fact that a number of issues today mirror the issues back then. Did we not, as an education system and as a country, not learn anything from the first EDCOM?
In discussing the Philippine Education system, critical questions are asked. How is the system organized? Why is it under-performing? Why is overall learning low? How can this state of low performance be remedied?
The essays written in this series looks at the education system as a series of education levels a child goes through in the course of their journey to becoming an educated, fully functioning member of society. Each level adds more value to what a child learns, each level having different learning objectives.
An education system is necessarily complex with multiple layers, countless moving parts, human emotion, and multiple stakeholders with their different interests. Having seen the insides of the Department of Education and the different interests and tensions therein, it is best to take the system apart in easily discerned pieces before putting them back into a single whole.
The entire system, I think, is best looked at in parts corresponding with the Learning age of a child.
From age 0 to 5 years old: Very early and Early Childhood Development; day care and pre-school. The learning objective is early socialization and communication skills development. Learning about the Self.
Kindergarten (5 years old): The learning objective is socialization, social habit formation, and early language and communication skills. Learning about themselves and others – the concept of community.
Lower Primary (Grades 1 – 3): Learning to read, write and do the four operations of arithmetic (3Rs). Learning to ask insightful and meaningful questions. Learning how to report what a child observes through their five senses. Learning about community and the country.
Upper Primary (Grades 4 – 6): Learning higher order thinking skills (critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, collaboration). Learning about the larger community.
Junior High School (Grades 7 – 10): Learning to think by subject discipline. How to do open field/scoping research. How to write essays and thought pieces. Thinking about the country and the world.
Senior High School (Grades 11 – 12): Looking at career, work options. Longer term planning. Thinking about society and civilization.
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To read the full article, click on one of two links below:
https://publicpolicy.feu.org.ph/article-series/rethinking-basic-education-a-series-of-essays-on-basic-education-by-juan-miguel-luz/
Or,
https://wordpress.com/post/juanmiguelluz.com/430
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