Philippine Basic Education

Warren Cornwall of  news.sciencemag.org  used this title first for one of his news articles, "Autism rates are up, but is the disease really on the rise?", but later changed it to " Autism rates are up, but is it really on the rise? " The word "disease" was dropped from the title after readers posted comments such as " I thought this was a science mag.... Autism is NOT a DISEASE " and " Autism is not a disease - it is a neurological difference ". Above copied from Muck Rack The main point of Cornwall's article is that autism diagnosis is on the rise, as he cites a study from Penn State University : "This graph shows the number of students (per 10,000) diagnosed with autism (blue) and intellectual disability (red) in special-education programs in the United States from 2000 to 2010. The increase in autism diagnoses during this period was offset by decreases in the diagnosis of intellectual disability, suggesting that ...

Poverty significantly impacts education. Yet the line defining who is poor differs from one country to another. In the United States, a household of four persons living on less than $15 a day is considered poor while in India, that same household has to live on just $2 a day to be regarded as living below the poverty line. Poverty is often relative but its effects on education seem universal. Using the standards of a developing country, I grew up poor. Forget about clothing, my parents worried about having food on a daily basis. Deprivation was not just imagined. It was real. My parents were working hard from dawn to dusk (and sometimes, from dusk to dawn) to ensure that we had food for that day. How one could focus on academics when mere subsistence was a major concern made me take schooling one day at a time. Goals were less lofty. I was just focused on learning each lesson in school each day. And spending time in school was really a break from being and feeling poor. Schools might...

Recognizing the important factors influencing learning outcomes in school can bring us to the right starting point. It is necessary to realize that what schools can do is limited. Results from standardized exams in elementary schools, independent of how we view these exams, are still informing us of something profoundly wrong in basic education. When a great majority of third grade pupils in the Philippines fail to pass the National Achievement Test, we need to open our eyes and ears, and acknowledge what is truly going on. What we are seeing and hearing is no different from what Colbert King writes about in the Washington Post (We simply have to remove the word "black" from King's statement): Beginning at least in the third grade, an overwhelming majority of black students are on a track that leads in the wrong direction — away from college-level work or a career after high school graduation. Accepting this reality makes it possible for us to read closely what King s...

This is a repost from 2013. It is disheartening that by simply updating the year, what this post says still sounds applicable. The year 2015 is about to end. Another year has gone by. While it is usually the time to reflect on how to make things better, it is also en excellent opportunity to look back. "Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and infinite labor in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in the permanent things which we create in common." - Albert Einstein  “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” - Brad Paisley These two quotes crystallize the intersection between past and future. That point is always the day at hand, the present. This b...

" The bat has to get rid of the large tree by echolocation or else it will bump and hurt its head." This statement is one of the the 775 errors  Antonio Calipjo Go , an academic supervisor at Marian School of Quezon City, has found in a learning material for Grade 4 science published by the Philippines' DepEd. The book which is about 300 pages long has more errors than pages. It comes at a cost of 82 million pesos (about 2 million US dollars).  Above copied from Wrecking Ball Reacting to Go's expose, Dean Bacobo posted the following on Facebook : The Senior High School years of DepEd's K to 12 are scheduled to begin in about six months. Surely, producing a decent science book for Grade 4 is a much easier task than adding two years at the end of high school. Yet, the grade 4 Science Learning Material is a clear testament of the gross incompetence of the Philippines' Department of Education.  Sadly, DepEd's K to 12 is not the only legacy of t...

As another year winds down, it is only timely to pause and reflect on what this past fifty weeks or so have shown and taught us. Remaining critical of an ill-thought curriculum tests our perseverance and commitment to good basic education. It is frustrating. It does not make sense. Our criticism, however, must remain within cogent arguments. One thing this past year and so many other years have been showing us is that addressing challenges in education involves much more than the curriculum. Poverty can not be ignored. The number of poor families in the Philippines remains high. About a quarter of Filipinos live on one dollar a day . How poverty is inversely related to education outcomes must be kept in our thoughts. A recent report card from the state of Iowa  tells of the same story. Iowa's Department of Education has rated its schools based on the following criteria: Proficiency:  The percentage of students scoring proficient or better on reading and mathematics assess...

During the Christmas Eve mass I attended this year, the priest ended his homily with Linus' line: "That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." The priest highlighted in his homily what was unique about the Christian faith: "God is with us". Peanuts creator Charles Schulz deciding against the advise of the show's producer and lead animator made Linus quote straight from bible when asked by Charlie Brown about what Christmas is really about: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." There are indeed so many instances in Schulz...