As stated in the introduction of Chapter IX on Legal bases of
education, “…our government through its Ministry of Education, now known as Department of Education or DepEd has
provided a comprehensive school program that is both constitutionally sound and educationally desirable.”
Taking a look at our educational laws is like hearing a utopia; it’s
good in the letters but the outcome is far different from what it was supposed to achieve.
First,
ours is a consumer type of education, it is geared towards producing future workforce that would serve these
multinational corporations that comprises most of our businesses today. No wonder nowadays, the Philippines is one of the
top “exporters” not of products but human workers around the world. Our very own inventions and attempts at technological
mileage are downplayed, discouraged or is simply bought by foreign business. We highly applaud American, Japanese, and British
products. I have yet to buy a genuine Filipino product.
Second,
Our higher education curriculum and its general educational outcome in particular are a compromise between our country’s
economic/political state and socio-cultural ideals. My auntie has been teaching for 15 years and she’s very glad to
tell us that she’ll be going abroad to work as a domestic helper. My cousin in Korea, who is a high school graduate
works as a factory worker who earns P 50,000/mo, a local public teacher here earns less than 10, 000/mo. One reason is that
Education is not a major priority here (and so is Science and Technology) but politics. (I cannot expound further…)
Third, our educational system
has produced Filipinos who are not fluent in English nor are fluent in our own national language. Since the 1980’s,
we already have the Engalog or the Taglish and now it has grown much worse. The Filipino/Tagalog has never reached
that stage to be called an intellectualized language. And now, we add to that, knowledge in Nippongo or Mandarin, which Japanese
and Chinese multinationals require. If a nation’s language is said to be the soul of a nation, where is our soul now?
Fourth,
It seems that crucial values do not really reach to the affective level of the students, that’s why there are moral
deprivation in our country today. Our educational system has produced and keeps producing corrupt public officials. It is
really a complicated scenario that is intertwined with other societal problems. The school is no longer a training ground
but a gate pass, and the ticket is the TOR and Diploma.
Lastly, and it will
just be a summary.
1) Still
more teachers are underpaid by today’s economic necessity. I heard arguments that if you know that teachers get low
salary, why choose to be one? Well, teaching is a noble profession and it makes all other profession possible. But a teacher
also has basic needs in order for him/her to the job more effectively.
2) There
are many areas that still lack educational facilities like classrooms and school buildings, there are more students than classrooms
so we have 60+ students in a room.
3) The
recent education budget cut is decreasing nor has it increased in the past.
4.) Public
educational services are becoming a political tool.
5) Our
educational policy has yet to support Filipino as an intellectualized language.
6) The
government do not seems to have a complete control over private educational institutions, unjustified tuition fee hikes but
who will question inflation as a reason (?). And religious schools gets tax exemptions and take note; their tuition fees are
WOW!!! Inflating like balloons, that’s why various sectarian schools are mushrooming; just have to take a look around.