Philippine Basic Education

A couple of years ago, the Philippines has adopted a more detailed and comprehensive way of measuring poverty. This methodology takes into the account the following dimensions: education, food and nutrition, health and santitation, and employment.  Two indicators are used for education: school attendance and educational attainment. School attendance counts the number of families that have at least one school-age child (between age 5-17) that is not attending school, while educational attainment counts the number of families that have at least one family member aged 18 or older who have not completed high school. The initial numbers for the years 2016 and 2017 are indeed sobering for educational attainment: At least half of Filipino families have one member aged 18 or older that has not finished basic education. Above copied from  Philippine Statistics Authority These numbers represent the first attempt to measure poverty in the Philippines along different dimensions. ...

It is not easy to tell what we are going to be twelve years from now. Yet, what happens in the early years of basic education can strongly correlate with what happens in the later years. For students who are struggling in the first grade, promoting or retaining a student apparently has long term consequences. Students who repeated a grade in the elementary years are more than twice likely to leave school when they reach the high school years. This is the main finding of a 14-year prospective study of more than 700 at-risk students in Texas. Above copied from Hughes, J. N., West, S. G., Kim, H., & Bauer, S. S. (2017, November 9). Effect of Early Grade Retention on School Completion: A Prospective Study. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000243 What is especially interesting to note in this study is that school-leaving of these at-risk students mainly begin to occur in the later years of basic education, not in midd...

There remains the serious concern that about 60 million children in the world are out of school . Both former and current secretaries of education in the Philippines have raised the importance of addressing out-of-school youth. There is, however, an equally serious plague in basic education. " More than 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels (MPLs) in reading and mathematics, according to new estimates from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). " That is 6 out of 10 children who are in school and yet, are not learning. And in every region of the world, most children who are not learning are actually in school and not out of school. Above copied from UNESCO's Fact Sheet No. 46, September 2017, UIS/FS/2017/ED/46 There are about 75 million children from Eastern and South-Eastern Asia who fail to reach proficiency levels in math and reading. More than sixty percent of children in school in this region fail in math and re...

Schools have just started in the Philippines. Back to school is supposed to be exciting. It marks the end of the summer brain drain. And for those who are just about to start school for the first time in kindergarten, parents can be as anxious as their children. It is a new world. It is a time to begin becoming independent. It is a time to make new friends. There are indeed a lot of reasons to get excited for there are so many good things to come. So we make sure the backpack is ready. We must have sharpened pencils, brand new notebooks, and crayons. Such excitement does make you wonder how children in Marawi city in the Philippines feel about the start of school this year. A section of Marawi city, heavily damaged by the fighting between Philippine armed forces and the Maute group. Photo copied from Community Newswatch PH Pictures of despair, however, are not exclusive to war-torn Marawi. In the Philippines, even in places where there is no armed conflict, the start of the sch...

The disparity is clear. The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) shows that about half of school dropouts in the Philippines belong to the lowest 25 percentile in income. These families comprise only a fourth of the Philippine society yet their children make up half of school leavers. Poor children comprising the majority of out-of-school children, however, more than highlights the dramatic impact of poverty on basic education. The sad plight of poor children also marks the great inequity in Philippine schools. Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg just visited Thailand and pointed out that the biggest problems in Thailand's basic education are inequity and lack of competent teachers. These problems obviously apply likewise to the Philippines. Sadly, instead of addressing these problems, the Philippine government simply made the system much more inequitable with its new K to 12 curriculum. PIDS provides the following to summarize their most recent findings: ...

While a great number of out-of-school youth in the United States cite falling behind school work or getting poor grades as main reasons for leaving school, in the Philippines, the major reasons provided are marriage and financial difficulty. The difference between the reasons given by Americans and Filipinos on why they quit school is really dramatic. It suggests that the underlying reasons behind the out-of-school problem varies greatly between the two educational systems. Of course, surveys are shaped by the questions provided, and in some cases, responses are even provided as choices. If I have to hazard a guess, it is very likely that Filipino students who drop out are also not doing well in school. We quit often for the following reason. We think we will not succeed. We also give up when we feel that the reward we may get at the end does not justify the effort we need to exert. With regard to schooling, children who are disengaged and at the same time, struggling with the academ...

Data and statistics help us see what is really happening but these still need to be collected properly and more importantly, analyzed thoughtfully. The number of children who leave school is a significant metric for any educational system. School leavers constitute an anathema to the mantra of education for all. The Philippines currently faces significantly low and seemingly stubborn cohort survival rates for both elementary and secondary education. The Cohort Survival Rate is the proportion of enrollees at the beginning grade or year who reach the final grade or year at the end of the required number of years of study. The numbers above are helpful for these show how many students actually finish both elementary and high school at the designated number of years. Thus, at the end of high school, more than 21 percent of the students do not finish on time. What is quite remarkable is that this number is not so different from the percentage of youth (aged 15-24 years old) who are no...

"For every seven adults a neighborhood adds, one fewer young person leaves school", Jonathan F. Zaff and Thomas Malone conclude in their paper, " Who’s Minding the Neighborhood? ". It is a correlation they find after comparing a neighborhood's school dropout rate and the adult to youth ratio. This correlation is not surprising since children generally need both support and guidance. Developing nations like the Philippines currently have a "young population". A young population of course correlates with serious challenges in basic education as resources, teachers, and other necessary inputs are stretched to their limits. What is remarkable is such correlation is still found at a more granular level.  Above copied from Community Commons Above are maps for Kansas City and its suburbs. The first map is colored according to the percentage of young people not enrolled in school and not employed. Reddish brown and red are for 15 percent and higher whil...

Basic education obviously goes beyond what occurs inside a classroom. Part of growing up, both social and intellectual, involves activities outside academics. College admissions take into account not only how a student performs in tests.  The grades a student has on his or her transcript are often not the only thing colleges consider. Higher institutions of learning try to learn more about each applicant. Colleges like to see what a student thinks is worth spending his or her effort and time. Pooja Yesantharao and Ishan Puri write in the Huffington Post , "Admission to your dream college is not only contingent on academic success, but also your extracurricular work. College admission officers want to know you as more than just a number- they want to know what makes you tick - what are you passionate about, what drives you?" Above copied from Huffington Post Extracurricular activities do not just help in college admissions. In fact, extracurricular activities help a stu...

"It Takes a Village" probably ranks high in the list of popular proverbs. Even Hillary Clinton used it as a title for her book . The proverb rings true especially in close-knit neighborhoods or communities. Unfortunately, with increasing isolation, we probably need to take a step back and realize that first, "It takes a family to raise a child." In education, numerous studies have strongly suggested that poverty profoundly affects learning outcomes. Perhaps, underneath this is the fact that the family deeply influences education. Such impact can be easily seen when one compares the academic performance of children who are in foster care against those who are not. The chasm observed in this comparison is actually much wider than the gap seen due to poverty. Above copied from The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd has been examining the academic performance of foster children in t...

A lot can be said regarding how people could use statistics to mislead. It is therefore important to evaluate the source of information as well as biases that may be present in both sampling and analysis of data. Data can indeed provide correlations but one must be cautious in drawing a cause and effect relationship. There is a considerable interest in finding what correlates with crime. A reduction in crime rate can be easily claimed as an accomplishment by either policy makers or law enforcers. If the crime rate has really gone down, it is indeed an accomplishment. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to identify what factors are really responsible or significant. For this analysis, the size of the data as well as the length of time are consequential. One study , covering the period 1970-2008, shows that the crime rate in the Philippines correlates with wage rate, labor participation rate, and per capita income. In contrast, deterrence does not seem to impact significantly crime r...

The title of this article is a bit misleading. Attending college in an elite institution in the Philippines was not normal for my socio-economic status. Seeing a "G" on a paper I turned in and later hearing the professor explained that "G" did not mean "good", but "very bad grammar", could have easily made me feel ostracized and not good enough for college. Hearing a professor say that I had nothing between my ears did not help either. But I probably knew then that there were others before me who had experienced major setbacks but did not give up. I perhaps believed then that becoming a chemist was not something I was born with, but was something I needed to work hard for. Honestly, what worked for me was support and confidence from my peers and mentors. Results recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  show that simple interventions can improve the survival rate of colored and disadvantaged students in college....

When a student is not in school, formal education simply can not happen. Worse, when a teacher is absent, an entire class misses one school day. Outgoing secretary of education in the Philippines, Armin Luistro brags that this year is the " best class opening thus far ". This statement ironically comes with an admission that around 200,000 to 400,000 students are possibly dropping out of high school this year. Roy, a seven year old, has his photo holding a "Junk K to 12" sign posted on Facebook. Roy has never stepped into a school. Einstein Recedes, who posted Roy's photo, states a sad realization that he may just be a product of an educational system that places profit above service. Above photo copied from Einstein Recedes' Facebook page Sarah Eliago shares a different story. Also on a Facebook  post, a photo of Senior High School students sitting on the ground is displayed with the caption, "There maybe Senior High School, but there is no te...

DepEd's K to 12 is supposed to offer various tracks for its senior high school. Unlike a restaurant that can provide a wide assortment of buffet dishes, a smorgasbord of curricula is really out of reach for any educational system. The fact that resources are limited makes it impossible for any public school system to give so many options. In the Philippines, the reality is that for every 500 high schools in the Philippines, only one school can really offer DepEd's K to 12 Senior High School curriculum . In the National Capital Region, only four out of ten high schools can offer the academic track, the one that supposedly prepares students for higher education, while seven out of ten are able to provide some type of technical-vocational-livelihood track. One can easily anticipate the nightmare when a majority of students prefer the academic track. Sadly, recent data from Central Luzon indicate that this is the case. The Inquirer  reports: Above copied from the Inquirer ....

What do the states of Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Alabama share in common? These states are among the most unequal in terms of household income. The poor are so poor while the wealthy are so wealthy. These states are also marked with low intergenerational income mobility. The poor stays poor and the rich stays rich. But these states apparently share one more thing. The percentage of boys not finishing high school in four years are among the highest in these states across America. Analyzing the data on graduation rates, income inequality, and intergenerational income persistence, Kearney and Levine  have arrived at the conclusion that boys who did not finish high school in four years mostly have given up hope. They conclude: Our analysis has demonstrated that a greater persistent gap between the bottom of the income distribution and the middle leads to lower rates of high school completion among economically disadvantaged youth, boys in particular. These...

Analyzing the additional years of DepEd's K to 12 requires careful attention to details. For instance, proponents of the new curriculum are always quick to cite that the Philippines is the last country in Asia and one of only three countries in the world with a 10-year pre-university program. Unfortunately, such statement does not cover what is truly missing in Philippine basic education and what other countries are really doing. Without this thoughtful consideration, DepEd's K to 12 manages only to address the number of years but not the real challenges Philippine basic education faces. Education programs can be uniformly classified using  UNESCO’s International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) . ISCED 2011 has nine levels of education, from level 0 to level 8: • ISCED 0: Early childhood education • ISCED 1: Primary education • ISCED 2: Lower secondary education • ISCED 3: Upper secondary education • ISCED 4: Post-secondary non-tertiary education • ISCED ...