Philippine Basic Education

They say, "It takes a village to raise a child". With the coronavirus pandemic, it takes the entire world to extinguish COVID cases. We are now just weeks before school starts and another wave of cases is imminent. Children have already missed more than a year of in-person schooling. The risk of school closures is once again with us in so many places in this world. It takes time to learn how we should address challenges. However, plenty of time have already passed and there is now clarity in what we must do. There are vaccines that are effective against this virus. We also know that wearing masks greatly curbs its transmission. Unfortunately, that is not the difficult part. What appears insurmountable is the fact that we all have to do our part. Above copied from MITMedical   The longer it takes for us to rise to this challenge, the greater the opportunity for the virus to mutate into a variant that can thrive even with vaccines. That, of course, brings us to an even more pre...

A failing basic educational system in the Philippines is no secret. International assessments clearly demonstrate this dire situation. Even the Philippines own national achievement test points to the fact that the educational system has worsened. A report from the World Bank is not really necessary to highlight this predicament. What is plainly imperative is for the Philippines administration to admit its dismal performance. Above copied from the Manila Times An educational system should be guided by science, by research, by assessments. Unfortunately, as in other fields of endeavor, there are charlatans. In addition, there are interests. The delivery of basic education, after all, is a giant enterprise. Thus, even when facts are clear, considerations outside of research become paramount. Thus, after the World Bank reports that "80% of Filipino children do not know what they should know", we see the following: Above copied from the World Bank Honestly, there are really no add...