Cutting classes

THE CONVERSION of several public schools into evacuation centers for tens of thousands rendered homeless by Storm “Ondoy’s” floods should worsen the short shrift public school students have been getting from the Department of Education’s decision last August to cut class hours to five or even four hours. DepEd officials have justified the truncated class hours as a response to the large population of learners in class, the “public clamor for a smaller learning load,” and parents’ concern about the safety of their children who are either going to school too early or coming home too late.

Now that the schools are being used as refugee centers, expect students to get shorter class hours, if not none at all. The fact that classes have been suspended for a week and may be suspended further should cut the class days in the ordinary Philippine school calendar.

We don’t know the standard class hours the Filipino basic and secondary students undergo, but we do know that the class days number 180 more or less annually. The Philippines largely follows the American calendar, and we must be reminded of the recent observation by US President Barack Obama that American students spend far less time in school so that he would welcome additional school days “by 25 to 30 percent.” He said this would allow American children to catch up with those in Asian countries, especially in science and math scores.

American children have more instructional hours than Asians (1,146 hours as compared with Taiwan’s 1,050 and Japan’s 1,005). But the United States has a smaller number of school days as compared with Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan (190 to 201 days). The fact that the United States and the Philippines have the same number of class days – and the same laggard status in science and mathematics – should warn the DepEd that reducing the number of class hours sounds too suspiciously like truant children cutting classes. It’s academic suicide.

While the DepEd may argue that quality should trump quantity, it begs the question whether cutting school hours improves the quality of education. Ideally, quality complements quantity and vice-versa. In any case, it’s quite shocking that education planners who have argued all along for the need for one more year in basic education should now go for shorter class hours. They get a failing grade for Logic.

Moreover, education research studies show that science and mathematics competency, where the Philippines has scored badly in regional and global comparative tests, increases by adding minutes to the regular class hours. A US Brookings Institution study showed that math scores rose significantly in countries that added math instruction time.

It is curious that Education Secretary Jesli Lapus cited “school overpopulation” to justify a reduction in class hours. He could in fact look at the problem as one of the wages of success since, it appears, more and more students are entering public schools. But of course, he should look deeper at the causes of overpopulation and find ways to ease the congestion. At the same time, he has to be reminded that while building more public schools may improve access to education, this does not necessarily lead to better-quality education.

While Lapus complains about overpopulation in public schools, he has confessed that P2.5 billion allocated for the building of classrooms under the government’s P330-billion stimulus package remains unreleased. Obviously, the stimulus package has not been backed by resource mobilization because if the money were readily available, the budget would have been released, the better not only for children to have more classrooms and class hours, but also for petty officials and functionaries to cash in in the form kickbacks and commissions. One remembers here Lapus’ abolition of a P250-million nutrition program that bought cup noodles ostensibly to check malnutrition in public schools. The price tag: P17 per cup! Which made it the most expensive cup noodles in the world.

It is also curious that while the DepEd has been scrimping on resources and class hours, it has remained quite a bloated and overpopulated bureaucracy. To cite one statistic, it has the highest number of undersecretaries and assistant secretaries at 11! That is more than 100 percent above the legal ceiling of five. When even the DepEd cannot do the math, how can we expect our children to improve on their math scores? –Philippine Daily Inquirer