| | EUGENIA D. APOSTOL Chair of the Worldwide People Power Foundation (FWWPP) writes a Commentary in the Philippine Daily Inquirer today on the Education Revolution, a movement launched by her organization in 2002. That Commentary follows last week's editorial, Values Education at Every Opportunity, which is a report on the dismal showing of the Philippines in the 2003 Trends in Math & Science Study. She does not mention that 2003 is a repeat of its cellar-dweller performances in 1995 and 1999.
But what is wrong with Philippine Education in the view of Ms. Apostol and FWWPP? Here is an excerpt --
"The crisis facing Philippine education is
already out in the open, but learning outcomes form only part of the
picture. What about the school's inherent role in the formation of
positive civic values among our youths. You see, private
foundations and NGOs, including the FWWPP, have made substantial
donations to help meet the quite enormous resource gaps that our public
schools face every year. In 2004 for instance, Corporate Giving for
Education was estimated at P1.2 billion. Unfortunately, all this
philanthropy loses luster when our schools still turn out unskilled
graduates who have a vague appreciation of citizenhood and a weak
understanding of democratic principle. In fact, better resources
alone do not necessary mean quality education. Remember Lope De Vega
High School? Despite the lack of facilities, the students of this Samar
high school topped the most recent National Achievement Tests because
the entire community committed itself to making quality education its
top priority."
It is this kind of steadfast blindness to the obvious that keeps public education in the Philippines no better, according to TIMSS, than Somalia or Haiti. For even TIMSS pointed out it is the CONGESTION of the curriculum with all sorts of "extra curriculars" like Values Education, Nationalist Education (Makabayan) and all sorts of other politically-motivated subjects.
Yet that is exactly what FWWPP seems to stand for. More "values education". The real problems lie in less ethereal realities. For example, she does not mention the fact that nearly 94% of the P125 billion proposed budget for public education in 2006 will go to SALARIES for the over 400,000 teachers AND bureaucrats that run the Dept. of Education. This is like running Fedex (the package delivery leader) with 400,000 drivers on lifetime contracts, but without buying trucks, planes, phones or computers, since the education budget does not allocate anywhere near what it should for school buildings, textbooks, computers, science labs, and a system that doesn't PASS every single one of its 20,000,000 students every year, regardless of PERFORMANCE.
You see, public education in the Philippines is really a WELFARE PROJECT for the teachers and bureaucrats, who are the indentured servants of the Political Mafias, especially at election time, when the teachers get to risk their lives counting the votes and manning the polling places.
For the students, Public Education is a worthless AGING VAT.
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| | Posted 12/18/2005 7:01 PM - 18 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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