LEARNING FROM PAST EDUCATION REFORMS

by

PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ

MANILA, Philippines — Any country in the midst of quagmire welcomes change. Unfortunately, not all change is for the better.

This is why it is so vital for the government, in its effort to reform Philippine education, to learn from past mistakes.

President Noynoy Aquino’s goal is crystal clear: bring Philippine education to the 21st century. He meets the problem head-on by transforming the current 10-year system (i.e., Grades 1 to 6, and 1st year to 4th year high school) to become the K-12 system with a 13-year required academic program (i.e., Kinder, Grades 1 to 12).

But what is there to learn from the past?

ABORTIVE  NCEE: ENTRENCHED LACK OF QUALITY

One such effort was the imposition in the 1970s of a college qualification through the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). Those who did not meet the grade cut-off were forced to give up their dream to enter college and instead proceed to vocational courses.

The theory was that the colleges would produce quality graduates since those to be admitted as freshmen were well-prepared. Those unqualified to enter college, thus, were better off in the vocational fields.

Merely raising the bar, however, became useless because it did not solve the problem of quality itself that was virtually unshakable. Worse, an unintended net effect was the creation of a label that the vocational tract is a mark of failure.

The policy proved inutile as the yearly cut-off grade was lowered because more students did not meet it. Its eventual abolition only strengthened the resolve of many to obtain a four-year degree to avoid the stigma of vocational courses. This led to the establishment of commercialized colleges trying to address market demands, further intensifying the crisis of quality.

BOTCHED BILINGUAL POLICY: FAILURE TO UTILIZE LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Another reform was the bilingual policy intended to make Filipinos proficient in both Filipino and English.

The theory was that subjects related to being a citizen like Filipino, Social Studies and the Arts could best be taught and learned in Filipino, while subjects that could make one competitive in the world of work like English, Math and Science could best be taught and learned in English.

More than three decades later, Filipino students in general are still known to be weak in all these subjects! For instance, Filipino students almost always rank very low in international education studies and surveys in their age brackets in English, Math and Science.

The bilingual policy failed to consider the simple linguistic fact borne of research that people learn best and faster in their own native tongue. A foreign language competing with a local language in the minds of young people is a sure way to raise children in schools half-baked and with severe issues regarding their cultural identity.

Ideally, teaching in various areas using two or more languages could help develop critical and creative thought since multilingual learning could facilitate rewiring of the brain. But this assumes high-standard teaching which, of course, was virtually absent in the country. In the end, bilingualism only damaged the Filipino as a student for its failure to make his mind and heart whole.

REFORM WITH EYES WIDE OPEN

Based on these failed reforms, the Philippines should learn that it pays to study well a measure, not only in terms of the theory behind it but also in terms of its practicality, prospective efficacy and potential drawbacks. To be merely intoxicated by the promise of a potential harvest leads to waste of time and resources.

In the case of the K-12, is the government doing everything it can in order to prevent foreseeable mistakes?

Has the DepEd already learned enough from earlier errors to ensure that policy makers and implementers consider glaring factors that could undermine the success of K-12?

Is the K-12 going to be a solution or a simply catalyst for new problems to evolve, just like what happened to both the NCEE and the bilingual policy?

There are ideas which really look bright, beautiful, logical, relevant, sensible and promising. However, a policy could also turn out to be producing the opposite of its intended outcome. Worse, such policies could even create new situations that might be more difficult to unlock, if not more embarrassing to live with, than the initial problems it sought to solve. The only antidote to these, then, is utmost lucid thinking no less.

An alumnus and former faculty member of UP Diliman, PROF. ROLANDO S. DELA CRUZ  is President of the Darwin International School System. He studied in Osaka University (Japan), the University of Cambridge (England) and at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands).

NOTE: THIS IS A REPOSTING OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE MANILA BULLETIN ON 29 MARCH 2012.

(SOURCE: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/355720/learning-from-past-education-reforms)

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/355720/learning-from-past-education-reforms