Education

[craftbeerlover]

23 minutes ago, earthdome said:

I would be intetested in what the actual experience has been for those who send their kids to private school in the Philippines. Our daughter will start 1st grade in an international private school in August.

I have significant experience with a private school, and I was not impressed.   Having said that, it is better than the public school.   Biggest problem, in my opinion, is everything was dictated by the DepEd.    Every time I would question something, with a WTF look on my face, the response almost always was...... DepEd.    A HUGE part of the grade was based on "class participation", maybe not those exact words.   I saw students with grades in the low 80s on their exams get a final grade in the 90s making them an honor student.  As others have stated somewhere along the lines, way too much time is spent on bullshit such as class dance rehearsal, or sing a longs etc...  A good takeaway, the teachers really did seem to give a shit, which gave me some comfort.    An international school is probably the best option as they are not handcuffed by the Philippines.  BUT that comes with a big cost

[earthdome]

51 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

I have significant experience with a private school, and I was not impressed.   Having said that, it is better than the public school.   Biggest problem, in my opinion, is everything was dictated by the DepEd.    Every time I would question something, with a WTF look on my face, the response almost always was...... DepEd.    A HUGE part of the grade was based on "class participation", maybe not those exact words.   I saw students with grades in the low 80s on their exams get a final grade in the 90s making them an honor student.  As others have stated somewhere along the lines, way too much time is spent on bullshit such as class dance rehearsal, or sing a longs etc...  A good takeaway, the teachers really did seem to give a shit, which gave me some comfort.    An international school is probably the best option as they are not handcuffed by the Philippines.  BUT that comes with a big cost

Cost as in tuition fees?

[craftbeerlover]

17 minutes ago, earthdome said:

Cost as in tuition fees?

The range is HUGE....  Can cost as little as about 40 or 50k a year or as high as 70 or 80k a month   International private schools will be on the high end

[earthdome]

1 hour ago, craftbeerlover said:

The range is HUGE....  Can cost as little as about 40 or 50k a year or as high as 70 or 80k a month   International private schools will be on the high end

Yeah, we saw some in BGC that were around 20k USD per year. After alot of research we found a school we liked close to BGC but with a more affordable tuition.

[craftbeerlover]

5 hours ago, earthdome said:

Yeah, we saw some in BGC that were around 20k USD per year. After alot of research we found a school we liked close to BGC but with a more affordable tuition.

Sad one has to pay so much for a decent Education.   I cant pay that much either, and that is another one of the problems we are facing. 

[Tommy T.]

My partner, L, is a high school teacher at a public school. She bemoans often about DedEd's lack of support for teachers - virtually no teaching aids supplied - that is done by teachers themselves. Constant last-minute "emergency" meetings to organize to meet new time schedules for endless (and probably worthless) reports. And the number of reports increases every year if not every week! She spends much more time filling out paperwork than she does in the classroom. By the way, when beginning her teaching career, she could choose between private and public school. she picked public because of a significantly higher pay scale.

And I agree with some above comments that there is too much emphasis placed on dancing and singing presentations and competitions.

Edited June 25 by Tommy T.

[Mike J]

I have worked with "honor students" from a small private school.  They could read/speak English but their comprehension was almost non-existent.  It was a mixture of enjoyment, disappointment, and sadness to work with them.  Had to stop when covid arrived.  

[craftbeerlover]

13 minutes ago, Mike J said:

I have worked with "honor students" from a small private school.  They could read/speak English but their comprehension was almost non-existent.  It was a mixture of enjoyment, disappointment, and sadness to work with them.  Had to stop when covid arrived.  

Case in point, just because it is a private school one should not set your expectations high.   The Philippines is one of the least educated countries in the world for a reason.   A confidently solid education here is going to come at a very high cost (syempre there are exceptions)   I am actually getting tired of dwelling on this, but we do owe it to our son.   Football season is 3 months away, I am looking forward to some stolen escapes with a cold beer and some wings.

[hk blues]

My son goes to a private school here in Iloilo - one of the better ones but given we are not in Cebu or Manilla the fee is definitely manageable and nothing like the numbers some have mentioned.  It does not place that much emphasis on singing, dancing, special programs etc but still a little more than I'd like. I know this is very individual and relative but I'm not particularly unhappy with the education he's receiving.  One bugbear is the grading system which definitely over-grades all students so I guess it's relative and for sure not all students are high honor/honor students - based on the recent graduation ceremony probably about 10% are high honor and maybe 20% honor so totally 30%.  I have no idea how that compares to other countries as we don't have such a system in the UK. 

All in all, I'm not as unhappy with the education my kid's getting as many although that seems to be swimming against the tide. I guess the stats don't lie though (), but there are pockets of hope for parents here.

[Lee]

16 hours ago, earthdome said:

I would be intetested in what the actual experience has been for those who send their kids to private school in the Philippines.

We sent our niece to what was supposed to be the best private HS in town. Noted that the disciple was pretty strict at the school as the students weren't allowed to clown around before and during class. The HS that she went to before was a complete circus where the students did as they pleased.

Instruction was poor IMO as some teachers simply plugged in a thumb drive to project their lessons on the wall and didn't come back until class was over.

Mentioned to a math teacher once at an open house that our niece didn't seem to know her multiplication tables (she got top grades). The teacher admitted that he didn't know the multiplication tables either but suggested that this wasn't a problem as everyone had cell phones.