In review and in prospect
(With apologies for this delayed issue)
The return of students to face-to-faces classes following what, reportedly, was “one of the world's longest school closures” have not surprisingly raised, yet again, a bevy of statements of outrage over the dismal state of Philippine education. At the centre of these outrage fads are certain news snippets making waves — that, according to a World Bank study, “90 percent of children in the Philippines were suffering from ‘learning poverty,’ or the inability by age 10 to read and understand a simple story”.
What is interesting is the term used to frame this problem: “learning poverty”. This is actually a loaded statement and partisan “thought leaders” have conscripted it to their “cause” of suggesting to the public that ten-year-old kids who can’t read nor comprehend simple strings of text are victims of some sort of institutional failure that came about only in recent years. Those “recent years”, of course, happen to be years that coincide with erstwhile Opposition bogey — former President Rodrigo Duterte who came to power in 2016. This “learning poverty” is now an “issue” they will be “weaponising” (a term these partisans themselves like using) under President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. specially considering that he had appointed his vice president, Sara Duterte, to the role of Education Secretary.
Of course, Marcos and Duterte are not excused from being accountable for how they manage this national crisis of ignorance from hereon. As such, in these early days, there is still cause to pause, observe, and reserve one’s comments until more evidence of how well or how badly the Marcos government is doing its job emerges. Not the Opposition, of course. Any “crisis” is fodder for their dishonest agenda. Yet it is worth highlighting that the problem of Filipinos not being able to read predates Duterte’s and even that of the 1987 EDSA “revolution” itself.
A thesis published in 1981 on BAHÁNDÌAN, the scholarship repository of the Central Philippine University revealed…
The studies found out that the reading ability of the average Filipino high school graduate is behind that of the average American student by two grade levels. In her own study of high school girls in St. Theresa's College, Manila, a group belonging to the upper socio-economic class, Carmen Rodil found that in the fourth year classes, percent were found to be three or more grade levels below that of grade placement. These findings are further supported by a report of the Minister of Education and Culture, Juan Manuel, to some 500 superintendents attending the annual convention at the Teachers' Camp, Baguio City, on April 19, 1979. His report said that at least 45 per cent of Grade Six pupils in the Philippines "public elementary schools can neither read nor compute." He attributed the poor quality of elementary school graduates to incompetent teachers and school officials, the shortage of necessary instructional materials like teaching aids and devices, and the poor socio-economic status of the people.
Education begins at home as the old cliché goes. What kids do at home — specially relevant today having just ended a two-year long lockdown that kept kids at home — pretty much describes the input into their most malleable years. Were there enough reading materials and role models at home? And even then, are they good quality reading material? This brings us to the debate around Filipinos’ access to high quality content and the roadblocks to these presented by Filipinos’ native dialects.
The trouble with Tagalog is that it is woefully incompatible with the needs of a society that aspires to at least ape and parrot Western liberal ideals convincingly and acquire their scientific and technological prowess. Thus, what was once a key to accessing the vast knowledge of advanced societies has been supplanted by a dialect that lacks the intellectual depth in vocabulary and nuance to capture this vital input into social progress. Filipino Tagalog speakers, in effect, have been locked out from a vast pool of intellectual capital that the tiny minority of private-school-educated elites of Philippine society have increasingly monopolised.
Finally, consider too what kids are passively exposed to at home. Many Filipino households have television sets on most of the day and tuned into the appalling programming aired by the country’s major networks. Mass entertainment is the opiate of the Filipino masses. It needs to be severely regulated in order for its ill effects to be mitigated. It is not surprising that media giants like ABS-CBN and the GMA Network often pander to the “cause” of “media freedom”. This is because media freedom is their license to continue feeding Filipinos crap. License is a privilege granted to licensees by authorities that are responsible for ensuring the best interests of the public are upheld in a free market.
Last week’s blog posts
The Noble Savage needs to be Buried
August 30, 2022 by ChinoF
"Our knowledge of history should be corrected about how savage old tribes really were. Many of them, whether Asian, Native American or African, were engaged in wars with each other and committed atrocities. Sub-Saharan African and Arab tribes traded in slaves."
Urgent Help Needed: Transitioning Pre-Pandemic Kids to F2F Classes
August 26, 2022 by Moduli
"Not understanding the importance of staying still on his seat and writing his name as instructed, he became 'unruly'."