mentee

i really don’t know where to start… i was jut forced to do this… hahahaha!

it’s his birthday today, he is often labeled by his classmates as “suplado”, though it’s not really surprising because he himself knew that he is. aside from that his classmates also admired his being industrious, some say he is a dynamic person, literally a scholar, princely (i wonder why), and a smart kid.

i have known him for almost four (4) years. actually, i knew almost everything about him. he was my student in Phil-Asian History, Ancient History, and Economics class. to top that he was my mentee for three (3) consecutive years (2nd Year to 4th Year HS).

he grew up without his father in his side but his mother tried to fill that space. he grew up without a brother or a sister but because of the people around him i think it never became a reason for him feel alone and sad. every time i scheduled a chat with him (face to face conversation) i make sure that i do have longer free time because i knew that our conversation would last longer that expected. its just funny sometimes because we end up talking about me (my life) and little about him. hahaha! i remember one time, for one school year we only have one goal, and that is for him to be part of the honors list. unfortunately, he ended up being in the principal’s list instead. not bad though because it was such an achievement.

i met his mom. we actually talked lots of things about him. i was very amazed with the kind of set up they have at home because unfortunately ours at home were different. a very strict mom but caring and sweet.

one time, he asked for a help to tell his mom about his failing grade. i agreed and tried my best to help him. when his mom heard about it the environment suddenly changed. it was quiet, not a single word came out, we are all waiting for the next word from her. she wasn’t scolding him but giving him advices about things, making him realize the consequence of what had happened to his grades. i myself was listening too. it lasted for four (4) straight hours. we were like watching a suspense movie waiting what would be the ending.

he is now entering college bringing with him all the things he learned from the school. i could positively say that he is now ready to face all the challenges that might come along his way. he is fully equipped of the weapons he need for the war he is in now. i can proudly say that he is one of my students who will successfully achieve his dreams someday.

@gerardosuplado: good luck to you and happy birthday!

1 year ago  /  0 notes

Add more classrooms and teachers NOT years!!!

I come across with this article by EdizerS. Laqueo (2004) and made me think about a lot of things in relation to the K-12 program of the Department of Education.

National Achievement Test (NAT) is use for assessing the basic education and data provided will guide the DepEd policy makers and curriculum planners in the improvement of the quality and relevance for basic education.

The NAT conducted in March 2007 by the Department of Education among some 1.6 million grade six students showed a marked over-all improved performance in all subject areas. Based on the mean percentage score (MPS) of 59.94 percent from the 2007 NAT while the MPS in the 2006 NAT was 54.66 percent or an increase of 5.28 percentage points (DepEd).

These results were still BELOW mastery level because the mastery level is 75%.

Among the Government Plan of Actions to enhance the quality of education in the Philippines is by adding additional year in basic education curriculum. In one of the interview of former President Gloria Arroyo, she said she wants to strengthen the Filipino student’s basic education foundation through the adoption of an additional term in pre-school. And there are other parallel proposals made by some government officials (K-12), for they thought this might resolve the crisis in our educational system. But is it the immediate answer to our diminishing condition of education?

Question: What explains the decline in performance outcomes of students especially in public schools?

1.       1. The budget shortfalls

The minimum prescribed standard for education spending set by UNESCO is 6 percent of a country’s GDP. In 2003, the country spent measly 3.3 percent for education. I wonder how much was given in 2004, 2005… 2012?

For instance:

For 2004 the Department of Education was given close to P109 billion, about 17% of the national budget. But let us analyze how this P109 billion was earmarked by expenses class.

About 90 percent of the basic education budget went to Personal services or in other words to the salaries and allowances of our teachers and non-teaching personnel. About 10 percent of the budget measly in terms of proportion, but significant in terms of amount at P12 billion. This amount is spread thinly for key maintenance and operations and capital outlay expenditures like classrooms and school buildings; textbooks; and trainings, among others.

2.       2. Shortage in classrooms

If we were to put all schools on single shift, we would be in dire need of 72, 781 classrooms for elementary and high school.

If we mandate all schools to have 2 shifts, we would still lack about 6, 702 classrooms (DepEd, 2004)

3.       3. Class size

Philippines has a public elementary school average size of 43.9 students in a classroom as compared to Malaysia’s 31.7, Thailand’s 22.9, Japan’s 28.6, and India’s 40 (UNESCO, 2003)

In high school, The Philippines have an even higher average with 56.1 while Malaysia’s 34, Thailand’s 41.5, Japan’s 33.9 and India’s 39 (UNESCO, 2003)

The ideal should be 15 students-i- a-room (National Education Association in the United States)

4.       4. Shortage in textbooks

15.3 million for elementary and 19.3 million for high school which has a total of about 34.5 textbook shortages (DepEd, 2004)

5. Shortage in teachers

To peg the class size to about 40 students for every teacher, our total teacher requirement for elementary and high school in 2004 is 47, 723. But we have only about 9, 188 available teacher positions this year. We are therefore short of about 38, 500 public school teachers (DepEd, 2004)

Maybe the intention of the government is truly to elevate the condition of our educational system by adding its year and we are not against it because the proposal was fine, but they should not overlook the present crisis. They should address these things first before getting over to other resolution as like one of the Filipino sayings that “hindi hihilomang sugat hangga’t hindi natatanggal and nana sa loob nito” or we will just be wasting our resources to heal the outside wounds wherein the problem is within.

1 year ago  /  0 notes