Aquino’s 12-year basic education agenda

During the campaign, Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno Aquino 3rd came out with a basic education agenda crafted by his education team, raising from 10 to 12 the number of years to earn a high school diploma. This means seven years instead of six in elementary and five years instead of four in high school.

Aquino had bewailed the low performance of high school graduates today in hurdling college entrance examinations “because of poor language communication, low math and science aptitude, and poor analytical skills.”

“I want at least 12 years for our public school children to give them an even chance of succeeding,” he said. “I will expand basic education in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration [2016].”

In most developed countries in the world, the basic education for their children runs uniformly for 12 years. In the US, elementary and secondary education involves 12 years of schooling by students to earn a high school diploma.

It is precisely the awareness of Aquino that many countries do not accord much recognition to our college graduates because of their dismal performance in their chosen careers that he wants a highly competitive basic education system.

Aquino said the cost of his education program will require close to P100 billion for the six years of his administration, or a yearly budget of P20 billion in terms of more schools, more teachers and more textbooks, but he is not daunted by the huge expense if only to improve the quality of education for our graduates.

He laid down a 10-point program to reform education which includes a universal pre-schooling for all, bringing back technical education in high school, greater efficiency in math and science, subsidizing private schools as partners in basic education and the use of quality textbooks.

He said that from pre-school to Grade 3, the mother tongue will be used in teaching English and Filipino as subjects. From Grade 4 to 7, English will be used as the medium of instruction for science and math, and Filipino for Araling Panglipunan (social studies).

For high school, English will be the medium of instruction for science, math and English, and Filipino for social studies and technical-vocational education.

Aquino’s education agenda is fine and edifying because of its lofty objective to raise the quality of education in this country. We have become notorious for producing half-baked graduates. But how will the public take these reforms, which will require additional costs and more time to acquire an education?

Parents have been already groaning under the dead weight of rising prices in everything—in tuition fees, school expenses, transportation and food. To add more years in the education of their children will stifle their dream of seeing them graduate early and become productive citizens.

The compelling force of students is their burning ambition to succeed by finishing school early. One who expects to be a lawyer has to spend under the Aquino education plan 12 years in primary and secondary education, four years in earning the required bachelor’s degree, another four years in law proper and one year for law review and the bar examination.

He will have to spend 21 years to become a lawyer, assuming he passes the bar. A medical student will take more years to become a doctor.

The real problems why our graduates are not at par with those of other countries are poor academic standards in our schools due to incompetent teachers, overcrowded classrooms, low-quality textbooks and lack of other teaching aids.

The fire of competition among students that prevailed in the pre-war years is sorely missing today.
Teachers are too lax in grading their students, passing those who really are not deserving largely out of pity or generosity in consideration of their parents’ hardships in sending them to school.

Quality teaching is a vital factor in producing bright students. In 1941, when seventh grade was abolished, sixth-grade and seventh-grade graduates found themselves classmates in their first year in high school.

That many sixth-grade graduates surpassed their older classmates in class standing and written examinations only proves that what really matters in achieving high academic standards are quality teaching and the willingness of motivated students to excel in a climate of spirited competition.

This disproves that more years are needed to produce proficient graduates. Filipinos are naturally intelligent and easy to teach. But many factors distract students from achieving high grades, such as the modern vices brought about by the television age, the lure of their favorite sports, computer games and drug addiction, to name a few.

While the Aquino education reform program has its merits, it is not practicable and timely to pursue it during this period of uncertainty brought about by the skyrocketing costs of electricity and gasoline that have caused, in turn, rising prices in food, clothing and shelter.

Let us leave the choice of spending more for the education of their children to those who can afford even 14 years for basic education and spare the poor from the increased schooling time for their children. –ALFREDO G. ROSARIO, Manila Times

agr0324@yahoo.com