Punto De Vista | Bumababa na nga ba ang kalidad ng edukasyon sa Pilipinas?
Punto De Vista | Bumababa na nga ba ang kalidad ng edukasyon sa Pilipinas?
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00:00Is the quality of education in the Philippines declining?
00:04This is what Professor Antonio Contreras asked from his point of view, Professor.
00:16Thank you very much, Dayan.
00:19That is the number one question in the education sector.
00:23Is the quality of our education declining?
00:28This was given more attention by Senator Nancy Binay.
00:35Her question was, how can a student in grade 8 not know how to add?
00:43That is in basic education.
00:46We also have challenges in tertiary education and higher education.
00:51Now, let's go to basic education because a lot of things are being pointed out.
00:57This is the de facto policy of the DepEd that must be passed by everyone.
01:06Although the DepEd does not deny that they have a policy of mass promotion,
01:12we have a program called No Child Left Behind Policy.
01:17The goal is to ensure that all students learn without leaving anything behind.
01:23That is the meaning of No Child Left Behind.
01:26That our teaching system should be that everyone knows how to read, everyone knows how to write.
01:33But unfortunately, the interpretation of a lot of people here,
01:36along with other teachers, is that no one will be left behind in the grade level.
01:42So, even those who do not know how to read and write will be included
01:45to be promoted to the next grade so that they will not be left behind.
01:50That is not, in my opinion, the goal of No Child Left Behind.
01:54The goal is to implement pedagogical techniques and styles, learning approaches,
02:04improving the teaching of the material available to the students
02:09so that everyone will be able to finish reading and writing.
02:12But that does not mean that if they do not know how to read and write,
02:16they will still be included among those who know how to read and write.
02:21But even so, there are poor forces because if you look at it,
02:26and we also notice this, each school has institutional rewards points.
02:32We know that the bonuses in the government are based on performance.
02:36So, there may be a force, a pressure on the teachers to just pass
02:41because if a lot of students drop out, the impact on their school may be negative.
02:48Let's add to that, parents are becoming very, very concerned now.
02:54We can see that many are already involved in the education of their children
02:58and some of them complain when their children drop out.
03:02The teacher is still fighting.
03:05Of course, this poor teacher is being charged with a lot of things.
03:08He teaches for six hours a day, two hours for other things,
03:14and if he has to do something else, he has a low salary,
03:17he should think about what is good for his well-being.
03:21He should just let the others pass.
03:25It's not right, but we can punish them.
03:29Now, on the other hand, many are wondering,
03:31if the quality of education is declining,
03:34why do so many Latin honors graduates go to college?
03:38I personally witnessed that because when I was studying,
03:41if you are a cum laude or magna cum laude,
03:46or especially if you are a summa cum laude,
03:47you will be really good and that's just a few.
03:50When I was a cum laude, I think there was only one summa,
03:54that's really rare to happen, right?
03:57So, it's just a few.
03:59It's just a small percentage of the graduating class.
04:02But now, oh my,
04:05this is the last graduation that I witnessed.
04:08One in two graduates is a cum laude.
04:11There is another college where 87% of their graduates are cum laude.
04:16There are more.
04:17That's why when you are a cum laude, you should have a distinction.
04:21Those who graduate with a distinction,
04:24because it's distinctive,
04:26there are no cum laude graduates because they are just a few.
04:29So, the question is, how does that happen?
04:31We thought that the quality is declining,
04:33but when it comes to college, all of them have cum laude.
04:37The effect of this is,
04:39when we had a pandemic,
04:42and now we are talking about mass promotion again,
04:47that do not fail,
04:49because of course, we need to put it in,
04:52I was a teacher at that time,
04:53and until now I am a teacher,
04:55we have a policy to give more opportunities to students,
05:00not to fail,
05:01just make it incomplete,
05:03give them an opportunity to pass,
05:05because you are not failing.
05:07If your rubric is going down in grades,
05:11that's why the grades of students are going up.
05:13That's one.
05:14Another thing,
05:16our judgment on giving honors did not change.
05:20When I was,
05:22and I am 62 years old,
05:24students are poor.
05:25We really went through a lot of research,
05:28we went to the library,
05:30we need to go to the index card,
05:34the trees of molds,
05:39libraries,
05:40we go there, we look for our source.
05:42Now, it's so easy, it's already there on the internet,
05:44just google it.
05:46There is also artificial intelligence,
05:48so students do not go through that hardship.
05:50And now,
05:52the students have an awareness of their rights.
05:57In my time,
05:58there were teachers who were terrorized,
06:00and you can't complain if you fall,
06:02even if you fall, right?
06:05Now, you can't be terrorized,
06:07because there are student rights,
06:09you can complain to a student,
06:11especially if you are promoting,
06:13or if you are getting tenure,
06:15you might fall in the evaluation.
06:17That's why the faculties want to promote,
06:19and want to get tenure,
06:21they became kind.
06:23Because,
06:25if it's hard for them to pass,
06:27they might get back in the evaluation,
06:29but they can't promote.
06:31So, those are the structures in education
06:33that we are facing now,
06:35both in basic education and higher education.
06:37So, we are already there,
06:39lack of equipment,
06:41lack of technology,
06:43but there are also
06:45problems like this,
06:47we need to adjust.
06:49We need to adjust the police,
06:51we need to adjust the grading systems,
06:53we need to adjust the methodology
06:55of teaching,
06:57because now,
06:59you can't test pencil and paper,
07:01the true or false multiple choice,
07:03that's a low education level of learning.
07:05So, we call it performative,
07:07they report, etc.
07:09That's why I teach.
07:11Sometimes, if your test is objective,
07:13it's easy to know who studied and who didn't.
07:15But the problem here is,
07:17if a person is good at learning,
07:19even if they don't understand,
07:21they can't pass.
07:23But if it's performance or essays,
07:25that's where the AI is.
07:27It's easy for you to make an essay.
07:29That's why now,
07:31when I see an essay,
07:33it's beautifully written.
07:35Before, this student was good,
07:37but now, if it's beautifully written,
07:39wait a minute,
07:41you'll look for mistakes.
07:43That's the problem of education.
07:45But no matter what,
07:47our goal is to raise the level.
07:49We can't just rely
07:51on what we can do.
07:53And we can't
07:55pressure
07:57the exigency
07:59that we need to pass.
08:01Because the parents
08:03might get angry,
08:05or the student might complain,
08:07or maybe
08:09our boss might get angry
08:11and our score drops
08:13and we can't get a bonus.
08:15That's the problem.
08:17Seven minutes is not enough
08:19to discuss the complexity
08:21of education.
08:23But that's the challenge
08:25that we should face.
08:27That's my point of view for today.
08:29Go back to the studio, Diane.