Basic education reform is close to my heart since those who end up in my freshman class are products of our basic education system. The extent of reform and its hindrances are the subject of Professors Cynthia Bautista of UP College of Social Science and Philosophy, Dina Ocampo of the UP College of Education and Allan Bernardo of De La Salle centennial lecture “When Reforms don’t Transform: Reflections on Philippine Education”
Bautista a sociologist discussed on the social structures that foster and hinder reform. Bernardo, a cognitive psychology of education expert discusssed why learning has been taken for granted by DepEd’s reform initiatives and Ocampo, a literacy and reading expert dealt with the language issue.
Despite what I thought and people may think of DepEd, I was surprised to hear that it is actively engaged in educational reform. The alphabet soup of DepEd reform initiatives (BESRA, STRIVE, IMPACT, BEAM etc) have reached 34% of the country’s poorest schools. But DepEd’s initiatives are blunted by the project limited mentality of DepEd. Bautista and Bernardo call this “projectization”. Once the reform project is over, there is little follow through and the results of reform fizzle out.
Readers may argue that the NGO and private sectors (private schools and business) can help. Yes they can help but cannot lead in the reform effort. Education is one big national bureaucratic effort and private schools are really run as a business. Helping out DepEd in this way is a sort of CSR for private schools. Once enrolment drops, these schools will have to tighten belts. Thus DepEd should lead. It has no choice.
Before we proceed to other matters like the language issue, I will have to echo the worrisome primary school completion rate data presented at the lecture. The completion rate for Pinoy kids is 75% down from 84% or so during the Erap presidency. This speaks volumes on the priorities of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration and its vaunted “ramdam ang kaunlaran” soundbite. We have now have the worst completion rate in the whole of ASEAN. Even war ravaged Cambodia and Laos have been achieving 99% completion rates in recent years.
The question posed by the speakers is “:Why” and it seems this is linked with some problems in the society that is DepEd, the schizophrenic language policy and the slow progress of education decentralization. These BTW are all linked and have to be seen as a whole.
The speakers reviewed the history behind it. We inherited the structure of the American basic education system and how it is run. This system is hierarchichal and with our Asian culture of deference, schoolteachers defer to their superiors, who defer to their regional superiors who defer to the Manila bureaucracy. Thus very little initiative can be done at the local level. The DepEd reform initiatives aim to do away with this. Bautista reports that some innovation has been made and teachers have begun to manage their own schools the way it fits their social realities.
It is surprising to learn that in the late 1920s, the Insular government contracted US education experts to review the public education system. The Americans were appalled at the less than 50% primary school completion rates despite of their 20 year control of basic education. They recommended decentralization and instruction in the native languages. However Quezon’s Commonwealth did not follow these recommendations and instead imposed a Tagalog based National language in hopes of fostering linguistic unity.
This leads us to the language problem which the nation hasn’t been able to finally resolve. Ocampo points a way forward. She says that it would be good if the State recognizes that the nation is multilingual. She presents data to show that the average Pinoy is quadrilingual. He/she can function in the regional language, English, Filipino and because of the OFW phenomenon, some other foreign language. She then presented evidence to show that children learn the basic competencies (numeracy, literacy, values formation and science) when taught in the mother tongue in the early grades. These then translates to better learning and comptencies in higher thinking skills and in learning ENGLISH and the FILIPINO national language. Ocampo gives statistics that show students in the provinces have better science competency than English competency. We are left with only one conclusion. Teachers don’t teach science in English but in their native languages thus subverting official policy.
However since 1973 we have been following a bilingual policy in which science is taught in English and the arts and social sciences in Filipino. She argues that this has been a major flop since very few Pinoys (the elite) are truly bilingual. Many learn the regional language first,then Filipino,then English in school. I do agree with her. Children of the elite may be considered true bilinguals since they learn Filipino and English right from the start. From the time I can earliest recall, my lola spoke to me only in Episcopalian English and the rest of the household spoke to me in Tagalog based Pilipino (Filipino). I am part of the elite. I confess that it is the reason why I feel insulted if Americans,the Brits, the Aussies do not consider me a speaker of English as a first language. I am a true bilingual. English and Filipino are FIRST LANGUAGES to me!
But that isn’t the case with other Pinoys who make the majority. English is a second or even third language to them. Unfortunately the response of the Philippine elite is to go back to the English as the medium of language instruction strategy that was considered a flop by those American education experts in the 1920s. But we can really view this as part of the answer to that all important question
“What is the true value of education for us Pinoys?”
The enlightened educators would like to see a reformed basic education system in which learning results in not mere credentialing but societal transformation and the development of life long learning competencies. This according to Bautista, Bernardo and Ocampo is the key to international competitiveness and not mere parroting of American English accents. But according to former UP President Jose Abueva, (who is one of Gloria’s advisers on education reform) his advisory committee’s TOR as provided by the Palace directs them to improve English competency in the hopes that this will improve our workforce competitiveness.
To which the three speakers said “it depends”. If our vision of a competitive workforce is to export labour as call centre agents, nannies,care givers, domestics etc then that is the way to go. But this is premised on the remittance mentality that props up the economy and President Macapagal-Arroyo. I would agree. Every domestic and international in the country airport has this GMA poster “Jobs for the world”!
The DepEd reforms are on the right track it seems with some surprising results. If local schools are able to manage their own logistics and affairs, the data presented by Bautista shows reduced corruption in the procurement of supplies and building of classrooms. It seems that teachers are really good people! (Every schoolkid believes their teachers are very good people!) When do teachers become bad?
I haven’t even discussed about higher education but it reflects the problems of basic education and even concentrates it. For example the dysfunctional language policy is really obvious in the”English only spoken here” schools! I am beginning to sense that the elite wants to impose this policy to ensure their grip on power.
I ask FV readers to react and possibly propose novel solutions. I have asked Dina Ocampo to read our blog.
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“The Americans were appalled at the less than 50% primary school completion rates despite of their 20 year control of basic education. They recommended decentralization and instruction in the native languages.”
Why did our leaders disregard these findings?
A friend of mine who also writes in Ilocano told me that in Nueva Vizcaya (sorry I forgot where exactly) they started teaching the kids basic concepts in Ilocano and they were able to grasp the concepts much more quickly.
Too bad there are people and bureaucrats who still believe in the defunct “isang bansa, isang dila” mentality.
Penstalker
I think we got carried away in the kind of elite nationalism of the Commonwealth years and even beyond independence.
My family is Ilocano but my lola,lolo and father spoke to me only in English! :-( I never learned Ilocano
Blackshama, that’s sad. :( My education (taught primarily in Tagalog & English) almost led me away from Ilocano. Thankfully, I rediscovered the rich Ilocano culture and literature when I joined GUMIL, an Ilocano writers’ organization after graduation in College.
By imposing Tagalog and English ONLY, we have alienated the regional languages and the rich culture of other ethnic groups.
I’m glad that DepEd has started thinking towards multinlingualism. I hope it achieves real change in our educational system.
When my dad passed away,all my Ilocano relatives came for the funeral. Nakiramay sila sa Ilocano. Sabi ko tuloy, “Interpreter please!’ Nag Ingles tuloy sila! Hiyang hiya tuloy ako. Correct grammar ang Ingles nila. Walang mali sa prepositions!
I believe we have to promote multilingualism. All regional languages should be considered equal to and no less important than the national language. I still believe we have to keep Filipino and promote it as our National language to foster interregional communication. 84% of Pinoys are functional in Filipino. Wala na tayong choice! Since it is historical fiat that it is Tagalog based, (thanks to Manolo’s lolo!) we just have to content ourselves with what linguists say as “consuelo de bobo” that Filipino isn’t Tagalog. I am happy that one FM radio station has made “pangga” become part of Filipino. It isn’t strange to me when I hear my Ilocano relatives say “Hi pangga” when they speak in Filipino. We have to promote the entry of regional words in Filipino. I think the Cebuano “gugma” will soon be part of the Filipino lexicon too. At least this isn’t “bastos”! (I have heard in a UP Cebu sponsored symposium that Cebuanos resent the fact that many of their words that entered the Filipino lexicon deal with “kabastusan”!)
When we finally recognize the equality of regional languages with the national language, then I suppose Visayans will make their linguistic cultural cringe a thing of the past.
To some extent the 1987 constitution heads towards this direction but according to Dina Ocampo the word “voluntary” in the language provision suggests that the regional languages are inferior to the national language still.
“I believe we have to promote multilingualism. All regional languages should be considered equal to and no less important than the national language. I still believe we have to keep Filipino and promote it as our National language to foster interregional communication.”
Blackshama, my friends in the Ilocano writers’ community will be glad with what you’ve written here!
I keep an Ilocano blog, and your post is worth a reaction there. It will surely evoke discussion among Ilocanos who also advocate
multilingualism in education.
backshama,
Great post!
How about the creation of some sort of American “school districts” as obtaining today under the U.S. federalism setup?
As you may know, school districts in the U.S. are quasi-autonomous body politic that have the power to raise their own revenues through their own power of taxation and other powers that a town or county possesses, and are governed by a body (called the school board) whose members are in most cases elected directly by the people. The board independently runs the school system of the district (which may comprise one or more towns) through an experienced school administrator (superintendent) that carries out the board policies such as school curriculum (e.g. multi-lingual medium of instruction), teacher salaries, student discipline, school libraries, computerization, etc. Other school policies are adopted if approved in local referendums.
Well-administered school districts enhance the value of housing and real estate in the area affected, thereby boosting the amount of tax revenues available to carry out the operations of the school systems. Badly-run systems lose out in the competition.
Of course, before the creation of school districts approximating the above concept could happen in the Philippines, we must first dismantle our highly centralized bureaucracy by adopting federalism or similar forms of decentralization such as . . . as you ready for it? . . . the BJE model.
This means that if to be done now we have to make compromises on “the priorities of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration” . . . hehe.
Shouldn’t these be among the important policy issues that the 2010 presidentiables ought to be asked to state their stand on?
The major hurdle of multilingual instruction has been the production of educational materials. You have to translate each textbook into all the major Philippine language groups, e.g., Tagalog/Filipino, Ilokano, Cebuano Visaya, Ilonggo, Kapampangan, etc.
Of course benign0 would argue that these “lowly languages” won’t be as efficient as English as medium of instruction.
Unfortunately he’s also part of the elite that grew up with English as the first language (dude, did you really forget your Tagalog already?) and therefore English as a medium of instruction is a matter of convenience, as is true for most of the people who argue that the medium of instruction should forever be English, despite the 100 year history of its own ineffectiveness in education.
The costs of multilingualism was brought out in the open forum. This is one disadvantage. It may work if the regions have substantial autonomy and finances. We can look at the Spanish model here.
It is beginning to look like this is tied with proposals for federalism. But even with federal set up,language can be imposed by the federal government. Take the example of Canada.
It would be good if our government has language councils like a Council for the Promotion of Hiligaynon for instance. These councils can set priorities on how to use their languages for basic education. But we need a law recognizing Filipino society as multilingual and probably a constitutional amendment.
This isn’t a new idea. Louisiana has a state council for the promotion of French. It recognizes the French heritage of Louisiana and works with school boards on the teaching and use of French in basic education.
This approach should make Spanish proponents happy. There is a significant chunk of our population that uses Chabacano. In this case Spanish Filipino creole should be recognized as a regional language too.
I like Abe’s take on how we should structure our educational system in terms of revenue generation thru Federalism or even local autonomy. ChaCha will do.
In terms of mode of teachings, keep tagalog and English, just like what we used to do from pre-school thru highschool. English should be encouraged thru college as the primary mode of teaching. It is a Universal language to communicate to the rest of the world.It is one of our competitive advantage. I will consider it as an asset for any pinoy. Tagalog is easy to learn. It is our national language of communication within our country.
Spanish and other international languages should be an option but not mandatory in college. Learning international languages will depend on economic development within our country. For example, in Cebu we have so many Japanese and Chinese clients, a college student may choose to take Nipongo or Mandarin as a competitive advantage for future employment. Try learning Spanish, trust me you will not be hired within Southeast Asian Countries. China will not consider it as a must to have for employment unless will seek employment in Spain or South America.
Honestly, I don’t prefer Spanish to be added to any college curriculum. In terms of economics, Philippines seldom trade nor do business with Spanish speaking countries. Philippines is a member of APEC and WHO. These are governing bodies and entities for policies on international trade. For example: if we have to do an international trade contract, with China or Japan, the contract is translated to English. Same international contract in English if we do business with the Germans, Swiss, French or Spain.
Going back to our educational system, my take would be to focus on teacher’s quality of service, infrastructure ( school buildings), technology and students well being such as sports infrastructure in every schools. There should be a very good reason for our children to go to school. More fun and competition in sports or academics, just like old times. However, managing our educational system would be too big of managerial work from DEP-ED unless, task are delegated to local autonomy or Federalism. The original concept of education itself as a service, must be copied all the way to the local government. It is a uniform quality service with one policy, rules and procedure but will be implemented by different management level ( the copy cat concept) The end products and results would be a society comprising of highly educated and quality workforce.
@blackshama:
what is the completion rate? is this just 1-dropout rate? is this to complete a tertiary education? or to complete elementary?
to clarify, the forum said that the causes of the low completion rate are:
“The question posed by the speakers is “:Why” and it seems this is linked with some problems in the society that is DepEd, the schizophrenic language policy and the slow progress of education decentralization. These BTW are all linked and have to be seen as a whole.”
if its possible, could you post an explanation why these are the reasons for low completion? the story thats in mind is that the kids are discouraged to learn because, say, they are forced to learn using a language they don’t understand. So they exit the system, since they aren’t learning anything. This is a factor that pushes kids from school.
Is this really the reason why kids exit school early? this feels untrue, and i’d put more weight on factors pulling them out of school, i.e. local economic conditions, etc.
what kind of story and evidence does the panel put forth to support their theories? thanks!
My question is separate from your main point, where you say the wrong language policy hurts learning, which ought to be largely uncontroversial.
Easy said than done, but this is management skills and leadership among our DEP-ED representatives. They have to think of our Educational system as a provider of QUALITY EDUCATIONAL SERVICE to satisfy its customers. If we as the customers/people of our country are unhappy with the results and delivery of such service, then maybe it will be easy to blame it on them? :)
there’s something lacking in our country. I am always convince that the people managing our country do not fit the job descriptions. hay naku… nag tulog tulugan. ano ba! get your ass to work. my goodness. I will have a heart attack at an early age. It’s obvious. :)
merong website sana to view the lectures, but i cant get the thing to run:
http://dilc.upd.edu.ph/index.php/themlec/231-when-reforms-dont-transform
ka-inis… lots of other cool stuff on the dilc website..
GabbyD
We just have to wait when the lectures are out in print or pdf files. Academics take ages to come up with the final paper! :-) UP Prez Emer Roman wants the lectures to come out early next year. They won’t get their centennial lecture honoraria if they don’t submit. I think that is enough incentive.
Completion rate is the proportion of pupils that finish the elementary grades with the number that start out in grade 1.
The speakers contend that learning difficulties using a language they have difficulties are a major reason why pupils drop out. This is compounded by the fact that there isn’t any support at home. The speakers support the idea that parents by supporting their kids learning in school, can make the difference as proven in the IMPACT reform program. But if the parents can’t speak the language of school instruction, what support can they give?
A Malaysian academic I spoke with three years ago told me that when Malaysia had an English policy in education, they had the same problem. The government thus made Bahasa Malaysia mandatory. This had negative effects (decreased competency in English) but it did increase literacy. Malaysia can now afford to promote English as a second language since their people have achieved competencies in their own language. This is precisely what Malaysia is doing. Promote English. It doesn’t make them less Malaysian.
But we have to remember that language isn’t the only reason why pupils drop out.
As far as I can remember, my teachers were speaking in visaya but my books were in english and tagalog during my elementary. I was eager to walk to school. The distance was quite a bit. This was in Leyte until my family move to Cebu.
But what’s in Leyte? “Sindangan Elementary School in Macrohon, Southern Leyte — the number one public elementary school in the Philippines based on the results of the latest National Achievement Test (NAT). The Department of Education (DepEd) conducts the annual NAT to measure the readiness of grade six students for high school”
The Edge of Reform? Children learn languages mostly from their peers. Why not use a model, please read this link.
http://sandyshores.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/the-children-of-sindangan/
I can’t find the youtube video of the school. The children were featured last year, 2007.
As I have been emphasizing, education is not only about curriculum, it is not only the medium of instruction but it is the whole system with different elements or components.
I am glad to see that one educator mentioned about building schools and procurement of supplies.
Most of the discussions about educational system reforms are only focused on the language used as medium of instruction; the debate on the use of English or the dialect continues.
Language used is part of the curriculum which includes two elements, namely the courses or subjects offered and the SPECIFIC LEARNING PROGRAM where the teaching, the learning and the assessment materials and books are described.
While many are advocating for the use of the dialect in the area, they forget that the instructional materials used are still written in English so that the learning process is left to the capability of the learning facilitators (teachers) to translate the English words and or scientific names into a non-existent equivalent terms in the dialects spoken.
Japan’s books and instructional materials were written in Japanese but the translation took centuries and the need to send scholars to the West just for that purpose.
But now Japan, just like China recognizes the importance of English language in global economy so that beginning 1988, they started hiring English teachers from the West to teach their educators.
Basic educational system in Japan is patterned after Germany, France and US with the latter accounting for 40 per cent of the whole. They do not hide this fact, neither they are embarrassed to admit of copying the system.
In the meantime, the Philippines is going backwards by using different dialects which they could only use in their regions. Their world does not revolve in their region alone…and that’s what China realized when it opened its country to other world economies.
After curriculum (not necessarily in the order of importance, comes the learner.
In the manufacturing process, the learner is the material put into production. Use low quality and you produce same low quality product.
How can a learner be a good quality material?
First, there is the nutrition, the basic.
Most of our learners in the public school system come from the marginalized population sector. They suffer from nutrition deficiency.
Politically motivated or not, the nutribun project of Imelda was a response to that problem.
In the US, the children are provided with free food in the school. Those who can afford to pay are charged very minimum amount.
With the learner comes that family.
In Japan, the government has to pressure the parents to give more time for their children to study instead of making them help in their business or in their home.
In the Philippines, the children become part of the labor force at an early age especially in the underground economy.
I wonder what RA 9155 will do for parents who do not send their children to elementary education which is supposed to be compulsory.
Again, because you are not aware of the passage of the Rep. Act 9155 in 2001 reorganizing the Dep-ed
which transfers the implementation of policies and principles of governance of basic education to regions, districts and learning centers. These offices can translate these into programs or projects to suit lhe local needs.
The learning facilitator
I have one blog entry about a Filipino science teacher who was so frustrated in the Philippine education system because they are not given resources to become effective teachers.
He applied for teaching in the US and he was assigned in Galveston. When Rhante Lubrico first went started teaching at the the Ambassadors Preparatory Academy, it didn’t have any science labs or microscopes. Worse, Lubrico held classes in a trailer.
But take Filipino ingenuity, he was able to make do for whatever resources or lack of it to shine in the US educational system.
In fact, or teachers are regarded as efficient learning facilitators.
So how do you measure the effectiveness of an educational system? by the proficieny in English of the students even if they did not major in English or Language? Is it in the drop-out rate which is more economic-related? Is it because the thrust is more on responding to the needs of the global labor market thus causing brain and brawn drains in the Philippines. Sabi nga sa Tagalog, ano ba ang problema ninyo kung in demand ang Filipino? Does that not tell you that the graduates are good, work attitude and skillswise?
Is it in the international competition involving math and other contests?
What about this?
I did not find this in the headline of a Philippine newspaper.
Lastly, I hate reading an article about deterioration of PHilippine educational system from a foreign observer whose analysis was only based on the essays of self-deprecating “Education Experts” who do not even know the difference between a curriculum and a course outline. SHEESH.
The Ca t
We are aware of these laws you mentioned. Sadly even with these empowering laws, DepEd’s culture seems to thwart its application. Perhaps you can help empower the communities. Be a teacher! Better yet be a Pinoy teacher in the Philippines and not in some third world corner of the US of A!
(I taught in some third world corner of the USA too and I can speak from experience)
You ask “So how do you measure the effectiveness of an educational system? ”
The answer is simple. If Filipino society has been transformed by education,then it has been effective. I sound so Rizalian here!
You also write “Sabi nga sa Tagalog, ano ba ang problema ninyo kung in demand ang Filipino?”
This is what is precisely wrong with the Filipino system. This demand for Pinoys isn’t transforming our whole society for the better. We are condemned to dependence on remittances.
You also write “the debate on the use of English or the dialect continues.”
Is Cebuano a dialect of Ilocano? Your use of the word dialect betrays and elitist view that some languages are inferior to the standard language. SHEEESH. If a Bisaya speaks Cebuano to an Anac ti Batac and the Anac ti Batac talks back in Ilocano, I bet you there won’t be any meaningful communication. Cebuano, Ilocano,Tagalog,Hiligaynon, Waray, Maranao, Pangasinan etc are DISTINCT LANGUAGES OF THE PHILIPPINES AND NOT DIALECTS!
Also Leytenian and you think in the old paradigm that if you provide classrooms, books (in a foreign language)etc learning will improve. One of the eye openers of the centennial lecture was this isn’t completely true. This strategy has surely given improvements in corruption.
You place the learner at a lower priority than the curriculum. Tell that to the parents of rich kids who send their kids to OB Montessori!
The mother tongue bills in Congress (Gunigundo bill) would make it possible for students to learn basic competencies in their regional language. After which learning other languages (like English) and the National Language will be introduced. Filipino will still remain the National Language. It is hoped that this bill will spur the development of our regional languages.
If you ask (like I did) Visayans, Ilocanos,Itawes, Tausugs etc what they felt when they were learning Tagalog based Filipino in the early grades, they told me that it was like learning a foreign language. Hirap sila. They asked me if I learn their language in school ,would I feel like I was learning a foreign language?
I answered, “Parang Japanese na rin ‘yon” I studied 3 years of Nihongo with Japanese and Ilocano teachers. While my Ilocano senseis were well trained to teach Japanese since they had intensive training in Japan, the Visayans say that their Filipino language teacher was also Bisaya and also had a hard time with the language since their were not trained enough!
BTW, I have to emphasize that Filipino is not “easy to learn” as some in Pinoy elite often write in letters to the editor. I wrote a scathing letter to Justice Isagani Cruz about this. They justify this to maintain the English only policy in education. This betrays their disconnect with their heritage and again emphasizes their view that Philippine languages are inferior to that of their colonizer.