Philippine Basic Education

"The K to 12 basic education curriculum will be sufficient to prepare students for work." This is one of the promises of the Philippine DepEd K to 12 curriculum . With assumed school-industry partnerships, the techvoc tracks of the senior high school are expected "to allow students gain work experience while studying and offer the opportunity to be absorbed by the companies". Focusing on a school-work transition in high school may indeed yield employment benefits in the short-term, but sacrificing general education may also lead to a very early specialization that can easily hinder adaptability and therefore decrease employment in later life. With a rapidly changing job market, skills specific to a given occupation can become obsolete. Thus, vocational education in high school may be beneficial right away, but disadvantageous in the long term. Determining the effects of either a vocational or general education on employment is not straightforward since tracking in...

In mathematics and the sciences, numbers are important. Our responses to numerical questions are marked wrong in an exam if our answers are incorrect. 12 times 12 is not equal to 143, regardless of whether or not we have an excellent lawyer to defend us. Obviously, numbers transcend mathematics for these also provide meaning. Thus, in real life, numbers are indeed significant. Stating " We are now looking at some very grim statistics: since July last year, more than 7,000 people have been killed in summary executions " is very different from " from July 1, 2016, to March 24, 2017, there were a total of 6,011 killings or “homicides” in the country. Of this number, 1,398 were confirmed to be drug-related while 828 were not drug related. The rest—3,785 cases—remained under investigation. " The first statement is from the Vice President of the Philippines Leni Robredo while the second statement comes from  Augusto Marquez Jr., head of the Philippine National Police (PNP...

Nongovernment organizations as well as the Department of Education in the Philippines are actively pursuing programs aimed at addressing severe malnutrition in young children . Data show that such programs are well managed although metrics such as child weights need to be accurately measured to assess the actual impact of these programs. Addressing malnutrition of school-aged children is obviously a good first step to alleviate the harmful effects of poverty on education. Unfortunately, before a child enters a school, proper nutrition is already crucial for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Poverty during these early years are now well known to correlate with both behavioral and academic gaps as early as when a child enrolls in kindergarten. Schools also try to inform children and parents of healthy nutrition through these posters. Above copied from The Rappler Johnson and Markowitz have recently published a paper in the journal Child Development : Of course, one should ...

Providing every eligible child a "Free Appropriate Public Education" is required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States has just ruled unanimously that schools cannot settle for "minimum progress" specifically in the case of a child with disabilities. "When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing ‘merely more than de minimis’ progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all", according to the opinion issued by the Supreme Court . With this decision, the court clearly takes seriously what "Free Appropriate Public Education" means. Above copied from the supremecourt.gov The case involves an autistic child whose parents have sued the Douglas County School District for not providing "Free Appropriate Public Education". With the IDEA act, a child with a disability such as autism is entit...

Most readers of this blog have gone through school. Naturally, I might be able to assume that readers of this blog have formed some opinions regarding education. After all, we have experiences. So we must have ideas of what is effective in teaching or learning. Perhaps, we should then check if our ideas are correct or not. Boser from the Center for American Progress   recently did such a survey in the United States and found that most people actually do not know what research-based evidence tells us regarding education. Above copied from the Center for American Progress So I am curious as to how readers of this blog compare to the respondents in Boser's survey. Boser used multiple choice items that he created to survey Americans on their beliefs regarding learning. The actual questions Boser used, however, are not listed in the report. Luckily, Anya Kamenetz of NPR  composed a quiz that captures Boser's survey, and I am taking the liberty of using that quiz for this blo...

As an undergraduate student at the Ateneo de Manila University, I was required to take 5 courses in Theology, 4 courses in Philosophy, 2 courses in History, 4 courses in Spanish, 4 courses in English, 2 courses in Filipino, 2 courses in Economics, 1 course in Sociology/Anthroplogy, 1 course in Psychology, 1 course on the Philippine Constitution, and of course there was Citizen Military Training and Physical Education. These added to the required science courses of Calculus, Physics, General Chemistry, Quantitative Analysis, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Industrial Chemistry, and Analytical Chemistry and a couple of electives in Computer Science. I would agree that the curriculum I went through was indeed heavy. In order to graduate in four years, I had to carry a full load for three summer sessions. Perhaps, this was one extreme. The other extreme, I believe, was passed recently by the University of the Philippines Diliman University Council...

Arguing that after-school and summer programs have not shown evidence of being effective, the Trump administration is now proposing to eliminate $1.2 billion in grants for these programs. Providing nutrition to needy children is obviously a benefit in itself. On the other side of the globe, Manila archbishop Tagle has called for Catholics to participate in  Fast2Feed , a program that provides nutritious meals to thousands of poor children in the Philippines. The faithful are encouraged not just to fast but also exercise acts of charity during the current Lenten season. Above copied from the Philippine Star For Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, true compassion is not asking its citizens to pay taxes for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC), a program according to Mulvaney, "does not work". In justifying the elimination of this after-school program, Mulvaney said : "Let's talk about after-school programs generally. They're supposed t...