It is school time again. The same problems are with us again. There is the perennial shortage of classrooms and teachers. Parents have to source out funds, even to the extent of borrowing or selling the proverbial carabao, to pay the ever-increasing tuition and school-related expenses.
Our government will continue to administer an educational system and structure with inadequate funds and limited and superficial vision, perspectives and management systems and oversight.
The resulting educational output of graduating students and supply to the labor force will continue to mirror the socio-economic segmentation of small high and middle classes versus the large lower class.
And this educational output imbalance will continue to perpetuate itself into the labor force, employment and the same socio-economic classes of the many poor and the few rich.
The implementation of the K-12 to replace our Grade School from Prep/Kindergarten to Grade 6 and our High School from First Year to Fourth Year with Prep/Kindergarten, Grades 1 to 12 or K- 12 is intended to upgrade the quality of our graduates. Supposedly, this will be on par with global standards which are using this K-12 model.
I have my doubts as to this correlation. However, it seems that there are three tracks for the last years, one for academic preparation for college, a second track for technical/vocational skills which will provide immediate entry into jobs and work, and the third track will be in the area of arts and culture.
The general intent and process is to maximize the utility and channeling of the basic education content and time. Obviously, this will need a lot of adjustments in the present setup in the system and human resources.
It may even require that the Philippine school calendar will have to synchronize itself with the international schedule of school openings in September.
However, it must be emphasized that with all our various concerns about education, the Filipinos attach a very high value to education. Enter the humblest nipa hut in the far-flung barrio and you will find hanging along the walls, together with the religious pictures and the cross, the diplomas and certificates of the family, whether these are graduation diplomas for grade school, high school or college and even just certificates for hairdressing and beauty culture.
There is pride in showing these off. This is probably why Filipino students excel and even get higher ratings in various tests and competition than their foreign counterparts from more developed countries.
It is also time to focus on the teachers. I find it quite sad that some major universities in our community here in Pampanga and even in Metro Manila are having problems with their teachers in the management and agreement of the relationship between the school authorities/owners, whether these be in the areas of fiscal benefits, continuing professional development, rights and responsibilities, working conditions and school culture.
“The quality of an educational system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” (Barber and Mourshed, 2007:40) Likewise it holds more specifically true that the quality of a school cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.
A school can have the best buildings, equipment, facilities, grounds, site, even the winningest basketball team but if it has mediocre or dissatisfied teachers, then the mandate and reason for being of the school will be meaningless and incapable of being delivered.
These schools have to “walk the talk” or practice what they teach. Or else they will end up hypocrites practicing the very inequities they have railed against and reproducing the very inequalities that education is meant to address.
Providing quality education for all includes both ethical and competency values and practices.
It is the teacher working and motivated with a positive culture of conducive teaching and learning who directly provides this quality education. Let not the schools, the owners and administrators, be deluded by their branding and its trappings, forget.
