Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Redhead on: Education System in the Philippines


Two Sundays ago after our Pizza Trip at Picobello Restaurant, Coi, Fern, Sheng, Ayyi and I, headed to Mix FM Station for the ViewFinder episode where the guests happen to be our bosses. The topic was indeed interesting and real damn important – The Philippine Education System.

During the entire show, they were discussing the difference between education in the Philippines and Education abroad. A Master’s degree in the Philippines is only a College degree in other countries or even lesser… what could be so wrong in our Education System?

For one, Basic Education in the Philippines is only 8 years while in other countries their basic education allots 12 years, 6 years elementary and 6 years secondary. This could be one of the reasons on why quality education in the Philippines is poor compared to other countries. Another factor to consider is the enhancement of the way children are being taught. Please pardon me, there are a lot of good and exceptional educators in the Philippines, but there are also some who really need to adapt to new techniques for educating their students. Based on my observation, there are teachers who need to undergo training to enhance their teaching skills to help children learn better.

And I appreciate that the Department of Education (Deped) and the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) found a way on how to deal with problems such as this… by enhancing the Basic Curriculum to somehow keep up with the global world… and at the same time conducting trainings for teachers to somehow apply new strategy in their teachings. As what Ian D’arcy Walsh termed as: Higher order thinking skills.

Having to work in the Institute for Indigenous Peoples Education (IIPE) somehow opened my views on quality education in the Philippines, and somehow, I figured that there is a complete difference in the way kids are being taught in city compared to the rural areas. Of course, it is all because children in rural areas don’t have the kind of resources children in the Urban has. Another thing is that, some prefer to work than to study because of wanting to eat than to learn.

Seldom do you find a kid who shows interest in school in the rural areas… most of them help their parents work in the farm to have something to eat.

A good thing though that the government and private sectors, reached out to these areas who really needs education the most. In the countryside, children find it hard to learn to speak English and learn math, for the reason that they are exposed to a different world. Thus, it is where strategic way of teaching is needed for kids to learn better and to think for themselves, and that is why it pays to have a good teacher; I guess kids are not the only one who needs to be trained but teachers too. They need to study and adjust to the enhanced curriculum by undergoing training that is needed to improve their teaching method. And based on the Enhanced Curriculum offered by BEAM and DEPED, we are finding a way to develop quality education in the Philippines.


3 comments:

ROBERT said...

Good Day,
I,ve search for those who read RICHDAD books, I saw that you already did and I Thank you for that.
I would like invite you to read some of my posts about my current views..
Thank you.

redhead said...

Wow... is this for real? I am visited by one of my favorite writers ever? Robert Kiyosaki? I am sure going to visit your site... thanks for dropping :)

rhon

Anonymous said...

Hi Rhon,

You are right to mention that one problem in the Phils Educatio System is the number of years spend by the students in the school.

Did you know that even teachers complained on this matter yet the people in authority are so idealistic that they bring the issue to teachers competence.

The real problem is that too many topics to discuss or lecture for a very short period of time. Most of the curriculum are integrated that there are no more mastery of the topics. It means all are basic and introduction and proceed to another lesson.

Teaching and teachers has the mastery. But we need to complete or close the topics no matter it is exiting because that is the planned under the DepEd Curriculum.