Current State of Philippine Education

The Philippine public education system is in crisis! The sorry state of Philippine public education

The sorry state of RP public education At the 24th National Educators Congress, former Education Secretary Florencio Abad laid down the facts: Only six out of every 1,000 Grade Six elementary graduate students are prepared to enter high school. Only two out of every 100 fourth year high school students are fit to enter college. Only 19 out of every 100 public school teachers have confidence and competence to teach English. The Philippines is no. 41 in Science and no. 42 in Mathematics among 45 countries. THE MANILA TIMES INTERNET EDITION Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Enrolments Basic education enrolment currently stands at 19.25 million children, two-thirds of which (or 12.91 million) represent the elementary portion, while a third (or 6.33 million) represents the secondary portion. Of the total basic education enrolment, 88% are in the public schools. The gross School Participation Rates are 92% and 68% for elementary and secondary education, respectively, with the girls outperforming the boys. The enrolment figure for 2006 is slightly higher by 72,969 children

Typical Cohort Survival Over the past 30 Years since 1975 Not only that our country faces a very dire situation in terms of getting its basic education sector to provide more solid foundations essential for global competitiveness. We have long neglected, underinvested, over-politicized a vast network of public schools. As a result, Tracking age cohorts over the past thirty years (since 1975) reveal a disturbing pattern of long-term underachievement in the system. Tracking the 1994-95 cohort (a typical cohort over the past 30 years)[1], for every 100 children that enter Grade 1 at either 6 or 7 years of age, 15 would not get to the end of Grade 2. (Note, that access is not a problem in Grade 1 since over 98% of all children enter Grade 1 at either 6 or 7 years of age or older. The problem is with retention.) Of the 85 left by the end of Grade 2, another 9 will drop out by Grade 4. That leaves 76 of the original 100. If the foundation for functional literacy is laid by the end of Grade 4, then the 84% functionally literate as reported by NSO might be overstated. 68% of the cohort will reach Grade 6 with close to 66% graduating. Of this number, 58 will transition to high school with 43 graduating from high school. Of the 15 that drop out of high school from this cohort[2], it is five times more likely that these are boys rather than girls. Of the 43 that finish high school, 23 will go to college and of this number, only 14 will graduate with a university degree. This is not atypical of other countries. What is atypical is that other countries are graduating the majority, if not almost all, from high school. We graduate less than half of the cohort from high school. Of the cohort that finishes university, a very small 2% graduate with a science or engineering degree. This is way below that international benchmark established by UNESCO. [1] Typical means that most other cohorts show similar performance or behavior. [2] The high school dropout rate is 26% (15 members of the cohort out of the 58 that enter high school).

Poor Quality of Education TIMSS 1999, the Philippines ranked 36th in both mathematics and science among 38 participating countries. TIMSS 2003 placed the country 23rd among 25 countries for both grade 4 science and mathematics, and 42nd in science and 41st in mathematics among 45 countries for Second Year High School well below Asian neighbors The NAT in SY 03-04 reported that only 20% of Gr. 6 pupils had mastered the basic competencies in all 5 subject areas and less than 1% of 4th Yr students had mastered the basic competencies in those subjects

2005-2006 achievement scores of public school students are far from desired. On a per subject area basis, the scores (expressed in mean percentage scores) are as follows: Grade 6 English – 54.05%; Math – 53.66% Science – 46.77%. secondary students: English – 47.73%; Math – 47.82% Science – 37.98%. These numbers imply that the children only learn half of what they ought to learn at the basic level. Further, the girls consistently outsmarted their male counterparts in all of these subject areas.

Achievement Gap The continuous alarming measure of disparity in health, income, and achievement Academic gaps represented by a fundamental failure of our educational system to ensure that every child has the opportunity to reach his/her fullest potential

Subject Majors Non-Majors General Science 42% 58% Biology 44% 56% What explains poor results in Science and Math? Non-Majors Teaching Science and Math classes (1) The majority of Science teachers and a significant percentage of Math teachers (at the HS level) are not science or math majors. Subject Majors Non-Majors General Science 42% 58% Biology 44% 56% Chemistry 34% 66% Physics 27% 73% Math 80% 20%

What explains Poor Achievement in Science and Math What explains Poor Achievement in Science and Math? Poor Teacher Preparation (2) RP teachers are university graduates and formally certified/licensed (like those in best-performing countries) But, RP teachers do little supervised student teaching or practicum in pre-service education prior to licensing, or a probationary teaching period (unlike teachers in best-performing countries) Source: TIMSS 1998, 2003 tests

Teacher Related Concerns (1) Large proportion of teachers in ‘hard-to-staff’ subjects (e.g. S & M) do not have the relevant subject training Absence of performance-related pay makes it difficult to reward top teachers; also, non-differentiated pay scale for teachers makes it (1) difficult to encourage teachers into ‘hard-to-staff’ schools and subject areas, and (2) difficult to attract and retain top teachers into the profession

What explains Poor Achievement in Science and Math What explains Poor Achievement in Science and Math? Poor Time-on-Task Teaching (3) RP has highest amount of instruction time devoted to Math in the world (193 hours/year) versus 107-145 hours in best-performing countries RP spends too much time on other student activities not related to content (reflection of teacher competence) RP spends more time on test and quizzes but not enough on problem-solving and interactive learning. Source: TIMSS 1998, 2003 tests

Student achievement gaps continued . . . . Mission : Produce high-caliber students to compete successfully with the young people overseas and take pride of their own world-class education Task : Fundamental examination of the country’s public education system and fully restructure it to meet the challenges of this century. Lays-out a road map for creating a public education system capable of meeting the challenges our country faces. Too many of our students are not prepared to thrive in this increasingly competitive world.

Quality after-school activities increase academic performance and reduce negative behaviors Extend educational time and use the time more effectively

More On Task Students need more learning time Extending learning time from early childhood through post-secondary education is imperative Education should begin long before children enter the classroom

DepED PROGRAMS

Get All Schools to Continuously Improve EFA 2015 Plan Urgent and Critical Task No.1 and BESRA Key Reform Thrust 1: Get All Schools to Continuously Improve

Investing in the Future continued . . . . Take aggressive step to improve the quality of teaching, and to connect with families and communities so that they can enhance their children’s learning opportunities