DepEd and miseducation

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

This is where my step-daughter (previous marriage) went to.  School is Westside Christian School.  A good education and with highly motivated teachers.

Regarding the cost comparison, U.S. to Philippines, what many of us don't realize is that costs for everything in the U.S. have skyrocketed.  Much more than PH costs.   Something we remember from 5-10 years ago will be way too low.

I'm not talking about the costs you listed here in this post, which appear to be current, but I would bet those were a lot less 5-10 years ago.

[Mike J]

19 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

I'm not talking about the costs you listed here in this post, which appear to be current, but I would bet those were a lot less 5-10 years ago.

They were definitely a lot less when she went to school.  I don't recall the exact numbers, almost 20 years ago, buy sort of recall it being 3-4K per year.

[Mike J]

Quality education is always expensive.  I graduated from high school in 1968 and my school was kind of old even then.  I found out they are building a new high school this year and will tear down the existing school next year.  The new school will handle 1500 high school students.  The cost is 252 million dollars!   The school levy was approved by the voters who seem to know the value of education.  Of course this new school will have faculties that the Philippine education system would not even dream of.  My point being that the public school system spends a dismally small amount per pupil.   So yes the methods, classes, procedures, etc. deseradby deserve criticism, but we all know that "you generally get what you pay for".  

<snip>While annual spending per student in the Philippines had tripled in nominal terms from less than PHP 8,000 per student in school year (SY) 2009–2010 to more than PHP 22,000 in SYs 2016–2017 and 2017–2018, it subsequently declined to less than PHP 21,000 per student only in SY 2020–2021 <end snip>

<snip>In 2022, Oregon had 581,849 students enrolled in a total of 1,246 schools in 197 school districts. There were 29,799 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 20 students, compared to the national average of 1:16. In 2020, Oregon spent on average $12,855 per pupil.<end snip>

[hk blues]

12 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Actually I think a lot of these very expensive schools cater to families who have the tuition paid for by the companies that the expat breadwinner works for.  Companies have to lure good upper management employees to take overseas posts, and a big education allowance is a good incentive.  Maybe even some Philippines companies have education in contracts for senior management.

We have Brent International School here in Subic and they also have the main branch in Manila.  They have a lot of American teachers.  I met a husband and wife who were both teaching there, but were moving on to another country.  They were selling their car and I looked at it.  If you have American / Foreign teachers, they will have high salaries, thus contributing to high tuition.

Funny thing is, I only know 2 parents who have kids at Brent.  One is a Filipina who works there and probably gets free tuition.  The others are South Africans who are very wealthy.  I think Brent has a high % of Korean kids.

On the other had, I know a lot of parents and ex-students, mostly well to do Filipinos, who use SPED.  Special Education for the Gifted.  It is a public school that turns out some of the best educated kids in this area.  They could afford Brent, but choose SPED.  We asked about enrolling my then 5 year old, but got the cold shoulder because she did not speak Tagalog.  We have Phil-Brit friends whose kids were able to go there because they speak Tagalog.

If your child is fluent in Tagalog, you could look into SPED schools around the Philippine.  I know there are others.

But, everything you've said to justify the high fees here is absolutely true of Hong Kong. Given the relative lower cost of living here compared to Hong Kong (which regularly swaps places with Singapore in terms of most expensive place for ex-pats to live), I cannot agree that the cost of education should be comparable and certainly not higher. That would be like saying the cost of property here should be the same as in Hong Kong - that simply isn't the case as any global study shows. 

Talking of SpecEd schools, we have at least one here in Iloilo and one of my son's ex-classmates just entered. But, the entry requirement goes far beyond just being able to speak Tagalog. It really is for academically gifted kids - my son, bless his heart,  us not one of those!  Anyway,  as I've said repeatedly, I'm satisfied with the education he's getting where he is.

 

[OnMyWay]

35 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Given the relative lower cost of living here compared to Hong Kong (which regularly swaps places with Singapore in terms of most expensive place for ex-pats to live), I cannot agree that the cost of education should be comparable and certainly not higher.

I didn't mean to insinuate that it was justified.  Maybe just that they can get away with it if their market is expats who have education paid by the employer.  Supply and demand is always in play.  With no demand, they could not get away with it.

39 minutes ago, hk blues said:

But, the entry requirement goes far beyond just being able to speak Tagalog. It really is for academically gifted kids - my son, bless his heart,  us not one of those! 

Yes, same at SPED here.  My kids can't even take the test without the Tagalog requirement.

Actually, my step-daughter took the test years ago and did not make it.  At the time, my thinking was that she did not want to pass and leave her friends behind.  She did nothing to prepare for it.

The SPED schools are a bit strange.  They do produce good results.  My impression is that there are very few poor but gifted kids at ours,  which is just down the road from us, in our neighborhood.  It is public, but public funding is only part of the the funding.  Unlike most public schools, they have air con, so I think there is an air con fee.  When there are repairs, the parents pay for it, etc.

So mostly middle to upper class families can afford.  The drive nice cars or have a bus service.  The teachers kids get in.  Not sure if they are tested.

[hk blues]

On 7/7/2024 at 12:49 PM, OnMyWay said:

I didn't mean to insinuate that it was justified.  Maybe just that they can get away with it if their market is expats who have education paid by the employer.  Supply and demand is always in play.  With no demand, they could not get away with it.

Yes, same at SPED here.  My kids can't even take the test without the Tagalog requirement.

Actually, my step-daughter took the test years ago and did not make it.  At the time, my thinking was that she did not want to pass and leave her friends behind.  She did nothing to prepare for it.

The SPED schools are a bit strange.  They do produce good results.  My impression is that there are very few poor but gifted kids at ours,  which is just down the road from us, in our neighborhood.  It is public, but public funding is only part of the the funding.  Unlike most public schools, they have air con, so I think there is an air con fee.  When there are repairs, the parents pay for it, etc.

So mostly middle to upper class families can afford.  The drive nice cars or have a bus service.  The teachers kids get in.  Not sure if they are tested.

I didn't take it that you were suggesting the fees were justified - my bad by wording it the way I did.

The SPED school, in our place is, like yours, public but I know little about it.  My son's ex-classmate started this term and isn't what I'd class as well-off - certainly not poor as he was attending private school - but probably average income for 'not poor' locals.  It seems like his parents both attended this SPED.