Informative

EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES…. DECLINING!

by: Mary Jane G. Funa

Education is essential in human. It is their way for their success in life. The future of our country depends on the quality of education that we are providing to our young. It plays a vital role in our students. All parents and students want nothing but quality education. But this quality of education is not true to all.

Based from the result of National Diagnostic Test on June 2002 and National Achievement Test on March 2003, the results shown that the performance is far from satisfactory. They did not even get the 75 passing grades in reading comprehension. The elementary and high school students were not learning the desired competencies in English, Science and Math. Out of about 1.2 million grade six pupils who took the same tests in the following year, only 8,043 pupils nationwide got a score of 75-100 percent correct score. This fact is continuously going down yearly.

The quality of education in the Philippines is declining. What are the possible reasons of this? Slow economic growth, inadequate government revenues and rapid population growth are causes of this vast issue in our country now.

If the parents are given the chance, they prefer to enroll their children in private school were in facilities and aids for learning are very much evident. But because of their economic situations, they would rather enroll their kids in public school rather than break their future. An earning of each family allotted in different needs. Food, house rental, electricity fee, water, clothes and medicines are some of it. Fare, allowance, school contribution and miscellaneous are their needs in studying. They are fortunate if both heads of their family have their works because they can provide all these needs. However, most of the head of the family today does not have their source of living or if they have, these will just a temporary. Family that can provide the needs of their kids has the chance to have a quality education. On the other hand, those families that belong to the low-income society, they will just accept what is in there without sacrificing their other needs. 

 Rapid population growth has something to do with the economic stability. Population is the number of people living in the same community. If there is a growth of population, there must be a growth of their sources of living. The problem is, it is insufficient, and the result is most of the people will not get what they need, and one of these needs is education.  The ratio inside the classroom is 1:40, means 1 teacher for 40 students. However, due to increase of enrollees and no additional classrooms, the 80 students need to be placed in one section. This data is based from my interview of one of the high school students here in Albay. She told me that they are 80 students in one section. Good for her because out of that number, only 36 students are regularly reporting to their classes. The room is not crowded so she can participate and listen well to her teacher. Our youth suffer a lot with this situation. What are the actions done by our government with these difficulties?

The government's priority is education. As a matter of fact, the budget of whole education increases for about 31 billion based from the Official Gazzette. This budget will cover for the entire needs of the schools in our country. Is this enough? Though our government allotted a higher amount for the education, the needs of this sector still increases. This can make our education better but not best. The difference between the better education and the quality of education is the details about it. What we need is the quality of education for our young.

It is true that the rate of the quality of education is going down, but we can do some changes on it. It is not the work of the government alone. Classrooms that are conducive for learning, teachers who love what they are doing, books for one student, and the administrators that will set reasonable rules and policies for the benefits of all and the support coming from the parents, we can attain changes in the quality of education at present. But above all, it depends on our young. Whatever situations they are facing, if they have the right disposition and the courage to finish their studies, still the increase of quality of education is possible. After all, what we should do is to do more and better with what is existing in our education rather than complaining about it.