Plummeting Education Standards Are a National Emergency

[OnMyWay]

Good read on the current Philippine education system.  Very sad.  Education is a key reason why I am moving my family to the U.S. next year.  When I moved here and did not have kids except for my older step-daughter, I probably would not have cared much about this.  Now, with two younger school age daughters, it is a big deal.

https://www.bworldonline.com/plummeting-education-standards-a-national-emergency/

Numbers Don’t Lie
By Andrew J. Masigan

Filipino children born in the last 10 years are at a disadvantage even before they enter the workforce. Due to educational standards that have plummeted, the average Filipino today has become intellectually inferior to his counterparts from the rest of Asia, Europe, and North America. Unable to compete, this will relegate the Filipino to be the manual laborers of the world unless radical reforms are set into motion. It is a national tragedy.

Every three years, the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluates 600,000 15-year-old students from 79 countries. The Philippines participated for the first time in 2018 for which 7,233 Filipino students from 187 public and private schools were evaluated. The results were appalling.

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In reading, or the ability of students to extract information from a moderately long text, Filipino children were dead last among 79 nationalities evaluated. None of our students were able to comprehend lengthy narratives, deal with abstract concepts or make distinctions between fact and opinion.

In math, or the ability to interpret how simple situations can be represented mathematically (e.g., comparing prices between currencies), Filipino students were second to the last among all nationalities.

In science, or the ability to recognize basic scientific principles, Filipino students were at 71st position out of 79 countries, at par with Panama.

Our private school pupils, supposedly our best and brightest, are only at the same level in reading as students from Uruguay (ranked 48th overall). In math, they are at par with students from Morocco (ranked 73rd). In science, they are at the level as Indonesia (ranked 72nd). In other words, even our private schools students are in the lower 10% in terms of academic competence. Less than one percent of Filipino students were at the level of their counterparts from Singapore.

The average Filipino student has an average Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of 86 compared to an IQ of 108 for the average Singaporean, South Korean, or Hongkonger. Filipinos children have the lowest IQ in ASEAN, lower than kids from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. It’s safe to say that our youth are among the least future-ready on the planet.

Having a young population with generally low IQ comes with dire consequences. It will lead to mediocrity in governance, poorly run public institutions, a low success rate in entrepreneurship, slow technology adoption and low disciplinary compliance. This is because those with low IQ make important decisions based on emotional considerations, not based on empirical facts, evidence and analysis. They are also more impulsive and talk without filters.

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Most worrying is that a whopping 69% of Filipino students believe that they are consigned to their level of intelligence. Only 31% believe they can improve if they work hard.

At the heart of the problem is the government’s lack of urgency and lackadaisical attitude towards uplifting our education standards. Save for a brief moment under Brother Armin Luistro who insisted on adding one more year to our elementary curriculum (K+12 program) and who built 10,000 public school classrooms through a public-private-partnership transaction, the Department of Education (DepEd) has only delivered the bare minimum, at best.

The DepEd, under the leadership of Secretary Leonor Briones, has secured the lion’s share of the national budget amounting to more than P600 billion per year. According to the DepEd, its thrust is four-tiered: 1.) To review and update the K-12 Program, 2.) To improve learning facilities, 3.) To upskill and reskill teachers and school heads’ through a transformed professional development program; and 4.) to engage all stakeholders for support and collaboration.

The DepEd’s thrust is a basket of motherhood statements. Is it enough to arrest the downward spiral in educational standards? We will know later this year when PISA conducts its next student assessment audit.

But I am not optimistic. Education was never high on the Duterte’s government’s list of priorities. If only the resources squandered on the war on drugs were channeled to education, we would be in a better place today.

[Dave Hounddriver]

The education standards are not as important as some may think.  My SO applied for, and got, a job in a Canadian Hospital that required a High School graduate.  I only found out recently that her High School graduate in the Philippines (from previous years) only has Grade 10.  No one checked to see what they were studying or where they studied it.

The reason for a high school graduate is the applicant needs to take online training courses before being hired.  Thus they are really looking for someone who has shown the ability to learn rather than having a bank of knowledge in their memory banks.

So, in my opinion, the school needs to teach the students to learn.  That is their primary task.  What they learn, beyond readin' writin' and 'rithmatic, is not so important.

[Jack D]

59 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Education is a key reason why I am moving my family to the U.S. next year.  When I moved here and did not have kids except for my older step-daughter, I probably would not have cared much about this.  Now, with two younger school age daughters, it is a big deal.

Same for me, since when I first moved to the Philippines, I was single, but as time went on, I married a widowed Filipina (who had a 7 y.o. child), and then she and I had a child of our own. To be perfectly honest, it was the child of my own that made me go through the mountain of paperwork needed to get my spouse, her daughter (my stepdaughter) and my half-American son (with his own mountain of paperwork for his CRBA) over to the USA. If wasn't for a better education and greater opportunities for my young son in the USA, I would have preferred to stay in the Philippines.

[Old55]

31 minutes ago, Jack D said:

Same for me, since when I first moved to the Philippines, I was single, but as time went on, I married a widowed Filipina (who had a 7 y.o. child), and then she and I had a child of our own. To be perfectly honest, it was the child of my own that made me go through the mountain of paperwork needed to get my spouse, her daughter (my stepdaughter) and my half-American son (with his own mountain of paperwork for his CRBA) over to the USA. If wasn't for a better education and greater opportunities for my young son in the USA, I would have preferred to stay in the Philippines.

Exactly the reason Don and Jack stated is why we choose to remain in the States. American schools do have issues but are ahead of most schools found in Philippines.

To be fair there are some world class K-12 schools to be found in Philippines but not many. 

 

[Old55]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

mediocrity in governance, poorly run public institutions, a low success rate in entrepreneurship, slow technology adoption and low disciplinary compliance. This is because those with low IQ make important decisions based on emotional considerations, not based on empirical facts, evidence and analysis. They are also more impulsive and talk without filters.

 

Sadly an apt general overall description of Philippines.

[Shady]

Anyone who thinks a PH education is worse for their child than a US education better live in a state that's banned Critical Theory.

One advantage a PH education has is its very easy for home-schooled children to graduate HS (with ALS) and then be eligible for any PH university.

[Mike J]

6 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

n reading, or the ability of students to extract information from a moderately long text, Filipino children were dead last among 79 nationalities evaluated. None of our students were able to comprehend lengthy narratives, deal with abstract concepts or make distinctions between fact and opinion.

My wife and I work a lot with youth through our ministry.  Lack of reading comprehension is just terrible.  It feels like the education system teaches the kids to "pronounce" English words instead of "reading" them.  The sentence and paragraph as a whole are often completely lost to them.   I work with youth in English so I cannot say comprehension is quite as bad in their native language, but in English it is abysmal.   To read a short paragraph and have absolutely no idea what it "actually means" is a tragedy.  

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

So, in my opinion, the school needs to teach the students to learn. 

Yes, of course, and I think the article was somewhat about that.  This quote below and the IQ statistics are telling.

7 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Most worrying is that a whopping 69% of Filipino students believe that they are consigned to their level of intelligence. Only 31% believe they can improve if they work hard.

 

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, Old55 said:

To be fair there are some world class K-12 schools to be found in Philippines but not many.

Brent Int'l here in Subic might be one, but at 15k USD per year it is not in my retirement budget.

Our current private school is going through the process to be designated an Int'l school.  I suppose they will raise their rates.  I think we are going to move our first grader to another school for second grade.  We like the current school but a key reason we signed up is because they have a lot of good physical facilities and programs like music, etc.  We are not getting value for our money for online schooling and I can't see face to face coming back this year.  There is another school people like for 2/3 the cost.

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, Shady said:

Anyone who thinks a PH education is worse for their child than a US education better live in a state that's banned Critical Theory.

I'm fully aware of the pros and cons.  I follow a group who is fighting all that BS and they are pushing back hard.  Polls show most Americans do not want that in schools.