Why schools are failing our children (1)

Commentary

By: Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:36 am | Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Despite its claim to being research-based, the present K-12 curriculum actually ignores language-in-education findings when it provides for the use of the first language (L1) as medium of instruction for only up to Grade 3 and thereafter, with no transition whatsoever, shifts to English and Filipino as second languages (L2s) for instruction. The scheme clearly underestimates the role of oral language development in the early grades as a strong foundation to learning to read and write in both the L1 and in the L2. The provision for the L1 as a separate subject is laudable but cannot make up for the deleterious effects of the early-exit nature of the K-12 curriculum.

The challenge of language-minority students in the United States who cannot read and write proficiently in English led the Department of Education in 2002 to create a panel to address this problem. One of the panel’s major findings is that oral proficiency and literacy in the L1 are crucial determinants for literacy in English.

The research suggests that the disparity between the word-level and text-level (comprehension) skills of non-native and native English learners can be traced to the difference in their oral language proficiency. Oral proficiency in English is not a strong predictor of English word-level skills among non-native English speakers, but is strongly associated with comprehension and writing skills for these students.

Children’s ability to learn an L2 is enhanced when their L1 is the primary language of instruction throughout the elementary grades. L1 fluency and literacy lay a cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning additional languages. When the child fully develops his cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in the L1, this can provide a successful transfer of the communication ability in the L2. If you have reading ability in your L1, this ability can be transferred to the L2; you do not have to learn to read again.

According to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, six years of L1 education is an absolute minimum but eight years is better. She found that in Ethiopia those who had eight years of mainly L1 medium and who have studied Amharic (the dominant national language) and English as subjects produced the best results in science, mathematics and English. Those with six years were not as good, and those who quickly shifted to English, fared the worst.

A UP College of Education study in 2004 made by Prof. Lourdes Mae Baetiong shows that the CALP threshold level in written Filipino is approximately reached in Grade 6. More importantly, the same study shows that the stronger the development in the L1, the stronger the proficiency in the L2.

In contrast, in the submersion model (which is what we have now) children are trained to mechanically repeat what their teacher is saying but fail to decode and understand the meaning of the utterances. The submersion model further assumes that the child will automatically master the language of education during the process of education. What is happening now in most of our schools is a lot of decoding but without understanding. This is one of the reasons our schools are failing our children.

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, data from the 2008 Functional Literacy and Mass Media survey (FLEMMS)  tend to show that the submersion model really does not work.

Consider the following:

1. Some 5 million of the 9.6 million elementary graduates had no comprehension skills.

2. Another 5.2 million of the 12.8 million students who had reached high school had also no comprehension skills.

3. Nine million Filipinos could not compute.

4.  Twenty million Filipinos (3 out of 10) did not understand what they were reading.

These are the underlying reasons I sponsored House Bill No. 162, otherwise known as the Multilingual Education and Literacy Bill. The bill promotes the use of the L1 as MOI from Grades 1 to 6. It advocates the strong teaching of English and Filipino as subjects before these become the MOI in high school with the L1 as auxiliary medium. It also pushes for the intensive pre-service and in-service training of teachers and materials development in the L1. It also provides that the language of teaching must be the language of testing.

My proposal accords with one of 10 things President Aquino promised to fix in Philippine basic education. This concerns the rationalization of the medium of instruction. The President believes that we should become trilingual as a country and that we should “learn English well to connect to the world, learn Filipino to connect to your country, and retain your mother tongue to connect to your heritage.”

We live in a multicultural and multilingual world. All languages are equal to the task of accessing and constructing this world. But I believe we should educate our people primarily in their first languages or L1 and not in English or in Filipino which are second languages (L2) to most Filipinos.

Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I represents the second district of Valenzuela City and is a deputy majority leader in the House of Representatives.

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Why schools are failing our children (2)

Commentary

By: Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:19 pm | Friday, November 25th, 2011

Many Filipinos think that a learned person is one who can speak English fluently. This is clearly a residue of our colonial mentality that looks up to a foreign language as superior to Philippine languages.

This kind of thinking has seriously undermined students’ learning in Mathematics, Science and the other subjects. In 2008, the UP National Institute for Mathematics and Science Education (UP Nismed) stated that “most students, even high school seniors, (cannot) understand what they are reading and (neither can they) do the necessary calculations to solve scientific problems.” According to UP Nismed, one of the culprits for this sorry state is the language of instruction (LOI).

The Philippines participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests in 1995, 1999, 2003 and in 2008.  During those years, most of the world prepared for and took the tests in their first or native language (L1). Our country chose a second language (L2), which is English, in each occasion and came out a consistent bottom placer in these tests.

According to UP Nismed figures, an overwhelming 91 percent of Filipino test takers use English in their homes sometimes or never at all. If English is the language of learning, then we would expect Filipino students who always speak English at home to score higher than those who seldom or never use English as a home language.

Our 2003 TIMSS scores, however, paint a different picture. Filipinos who never use English at home scored higher (320) than those who always speak it (317). Those who sometimes speak it at home outperformed (377) those who almost always speak it (343). Of the four groups, those who always speak English at home scored lowest.

The 2007 TIMSS results show Asian countries like Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea dominating the field. Non-Asian countries like Hungary, the Russian Federation, England, Italy, Latvia, the United States, the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan also performed well, but most of them do not speak English as an L1.

People are not aware that there is a correlation between L1 use in education and economic development. According to Steve Walter of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, countries whose population have access to L1 education are the most developed, while those countries whose people are denied L1 education are the least developed.

In crafting the curriculum for the K-12 program, education authorities must seriously consider the current language-in-education research.

The most pressing issues are as follows:

1. The curriculum should underscore the goal of basic education as learning to read, speak, write and think fluently in the L1 on academic topics in pre-school and throughout the elementary grades. In contrast, the old system recognizes the acquisition of English and Filipino as the first priority in judging children’s achievement.

2. It should recognize that oral language development is a prerequisite for both L1 and L2 literacy. The old approach has been to teach English and Filipino as if these were the L1 of most Filipino learners. As many educators have said, we don’t learn an L2 by learning to read that language. Building L2 comprehension and teaching children how to verbally respond appropriately in the L2 should be the focus of L2 learning in the early grades.

3. It should affirm that creating a strong foundation in the L1 requires at least six years of formal schooling in the L1 as LOI (but eight years is better). It should also provide for the L1 as a subject all the way up to the secondary level, rather than up to Grade 3 only, as specified under the Singaporean and Malaysian models.

4. It should reinstate Science as a separate subject beginning Grade 1, instead of merely integrating science concepts into the English or “Makabayan” subjects.

To effectively implement an L1-based K-12 curriculum, the Department of Education and other education stakeholders must do the following:

1. Provide pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers can engage in effective pedagogy in both L1 and L2 and have enough knowledge of the subject matter for the academic level they teach. In this regard, a strong partnership with tertiary education institutions is imperative.

2. Create a model kit of L1 materials in all the subjects initially from K-3 and in the biggest Philippine languages and ready language communities. The kit shall contain the irreducible minimum of types of teaching and learning materials that an L1 teacher needs, including exemplars, teacher’s guides and reading primers.

3. Promote policies that position parents as first teachers and that encourage parent and community involvement in the L1-based MLE program.

This coming Feb. 16-18, 2012, the 2nd Philippine Conference-Workshop on MTBMLE will be held at the Punta Villa Resort in Iloilo City. One of the event’s highlights is the launching by the DepEd of its model set of L1 materials in all subjects from K-3. Demo-teaching sessions and workshops on how these materials are to be used will be held.

Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I is the representative of the second district of Valenzuela City and a deputy majority leader in the House of Representatives.

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Tanco Group acquires 40% of PWU for P450M

To add 5 campuses, boost student population

By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:33 pm | Friday, November 18th, 2011


The group of businessman Eusebio Tanco has invested P450 million in Philippine Women’s University, giving it a 40-percent stake in the nearly century-old educational institution.

In a briefing Friday, PWU president Jose Francisco Benitez said the infusion would allow the school to renovate its buildings and upgrade its equipment.

PWU’s curriculum would still be largely the same, he said, but some improvements would be made to ensure that courses offered would be able to keep pace with technological changes.

“We have a lot of dreams for the university. The entry of the Tanco group strengthens and liberates the university to pursue those dreams. It opens the door to everything that we’ve always wanted to do. Sky is the limit,” he said.

Tanco group spokesperson Monico Jacob said they aimed to increase PWU’s student population from the current 4,000 to 15,000 over the next five years.

The university’s reach would also be expanded over the medium to long term with the addition of five new campuses in Metro Manila and even in the provinces, Tanco said.

Jacob said the Tanco group also planned to strengthen PWU’s basic education offering as well as set up schools of law and of health, nutrition and wellness. The university’s existing graduate school of business and liberal arts and humanities offerings would also be improved.

“We want to give their arts programs a digital component. I want to see an integration of arts of sciences,” Jacob said.

He said other members of the Tanco group, particularly the STI Education Services group, would also benefit from the PWU buy-in.

“The benefits are not one way. We’ll adopt best practices from both sides. We’ll also learn from PWU,” he said.

Other Tanco group companies, such as preneed firm PhilPlans, would also benefit from the acquisition. Jacob said PWU could be recommended to plan holders who would be looking for a school for their beneficiaries.

Apart from PWU, Tanco said his group was in discussions with other educational institutions for possible acquisition, mostly those in Northern Luzon and the Visayas.

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CEU plans new purchases, education facility in Cebu

Tuesday, 15 November 2011 18:38 Miguel R. Camus 

LISTED Centro Escolar University (CEU) is keen on expanding its education business with planned acquisitions and a new education facility in Cebu City.

 

In a press briefing with reporters on Tuesday, CEU president Maria Cristina Padolina revealed that the company is interested in acquiring a Metro Manila-based hospital to complement its health and science course offerings.

She said while CEU is not in any active talks for the proposed acquisition, the company is targeting a tertiary hospital with at least 50 beds.  

“A hospital would be a good complement to our health sciences program,” Padolina said. “We will use it largely for education purposes.”

About 60 percent o CEU’s 21,000-strong student population is taking health and science courses such as pharmacy, medical technology and dentistry. These courses, along with tourism and IT-management, have help offset the slowdown in demand for nursing courses, Padolina said.

CEU is also planning to build a facility in Cebu City starting next year to cater to students taking post-graduate studies. She said the new campus, which would be CEU’s fifth, will need an initial investment of P50 million.

CEU is also open to a possible expansion in Mindanao, she said. The company operates campuses in Makati, Manila and Bulacan.

Net income in the six months of its fiscal year ending September declined 3.66 percent to P115.42 million as revenues slid 1.6 percent to P631.38 million on lower tuition earnings. This, despite the increase in tuition at an average of 3 percent this year.

Shares of CEU, which is controlled by businessman Emilio Yap, rose 5.26 percent to P10.

(Miguel R. Camus)

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Out-of-school youth: time to shift gear

Posted on November 10, 2011 06:43:30 PM

Jackson L. Ubias, IDEA

THE ANNUAL Poverty Indicator Survey bares some statistics that should be cause for alarm. It reports the incidence of out-of-school youth (OSY) in 2010 at 15.5 percent, equivalent to six million Filipinos.

Eight years ago, the incidence was at 14.7 percent or equivalent to 4.8 million Filipinos, representing an annual average growth of 2.5 percent from 2002 to 2010. OSY were family members aged 6 to 17 years old who were not attending school and those 18 to 24 years old who were not connected to school or work and have not earned a college or any post-high school diploma.

Decomposing the statistics by income quintile, the OSY rate is expectedly highest for the poorest 10 percent of households at 20.6 percent, significantly higher than the national rate. The rate remains higher-than-national for the second quintile at 17.8 percent. The incidence of OSY continually diminishes with income; with this, the slowing in educational attainment and education inequality could promote wider income inequality in the future.

A little over three fourths of the OSY are in the 16-24 age band or family members who should be attending or have completed tertiary schooling. The high cost of education is the leading barrier to school attendance as cited by 31.8 percent in the group. They face problems gaining college diplomas; simultaneously, their lack of college diploma aggravates their prospect of being gainfully employed.

While the prospective income of an individual depends on wide-ranging socio-economic attributes, it is indisputable that education is a crucial factor to easing access to job opportunities and higher wages. The increased income implies more taxes that the government can collect to finance public goods for the benefit of the many. This should provide the motivation for the government to strengthen its subsidy program for higher education, say scholarships, to those who cannot afford to attend school.

It is surprising that even as basic education is deemed free and compulsory as ordered by the Free Public Secondary Education Act of 1988 and the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, a third of the OSY belonged to the 6-15 age band. A fourth of this group cited high cost of education as the reason for not attending school. The costing might have considered indirect costs related to school attendance like transportation and allowances for meals and school projects. Complementary infrastructure should help minimize indirect costs to education while programs like the conditional cash transfer to poor households could guide their resource allocations for education as the cash transfer is conditional on the school attendance of a child.

What comes as an interesting result of the survey is the high prevalence of lack of personal interest among the 6-15-year old OSY as the reason for not attending school. The rate is at 46.6 percent and is more prevalent among boys. While incidence is smaller for the 16-24-year old OSY at 21.2 percent, the pervasiveness of lack of personal interest towards schooling among OSY is worrying.

On the demand side, perhaps OSY have underestimated the economic value of education. For actual investment on human capital to take place, costs should at least match the expected returns. The incidence of lack of personal interest could imply that the gains in productivity owed to education are hardly reflected in wages. Signaling theory supports this, stating that education does not necessarily improve a person’s productivity but merely uses it to signal that he or she possesses high productivity. In reality, however, this may not apply as there has been evidence that increments to wages has been at 15 percent for an additional year of schooling in the Philippines, higher than the average 5 percent return in the 28 country samples used by Trostel, Walker, and Woolley in their study(see Trostel, P., Walker, I. & Woolley, P. (2002). Estimates of the economic returns to schooling for 28 countries. Labour Economics, 9, 1-16.).

A look on the supply side of the problem may shed clearer indications. It could be that schools are ineffective in addressing the needs of students. One of the biggest problems in the local public school system is congestion. More often, this problem is construed as thinning the quality of education. Both shortages of classrooms and teachers could have robbed students’ passion for learning.

The trend in OSY incidence should be reversed. Failure to educate the youth could cost an opportunity to enhance economic growth and trim poverty. On the condition that higher educational attainment fosters more rapid economic growth, it is investments in education now --particularly in comprehensive scholarship programs, school buildings, and quality teaching-- that sustains investments in human capital towards higher economic in the future.

The Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis (IDEA), Inc. is a non-stock, non-partisan institution dedicated to high-quality economic research, instruction, and communication. For questions and inquiries, please contact Remrick Patagan via ideainc.mail@gmail.com or telefax no. 920-6872.

 

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PHL is next WLP hub in Asia, says training group

Sunday, 13 November 2011 16:03
Roderick L. Abad / Special Features Writer 

THE Philippine Society for Training and Development (PSTD) has announced their “ambitious yet doable” plan to make the country a workplace learning and performance (WLP) hub in Asia.

 

“PSTD’s vision is to make the Philippines a WLP hub in Asia and eventually, the whole world,” PSTD President Milalin Javellana told the BusinessMirror in an interview during the press launch of the Gawad Maestro Awards last week in Ortigas. “We are pushing for it because even now we still hear the word training rather than learning and development.”

WLP is the new paradigm for training, which connects learning with performance. It can have different learning interventions, such as coaching on the job and e-learning, which are appropriate in the workplace. If done properly, this leads to both enhanced individual and organizational performances.

While WLP is just developing in the country, PSTD Board of Trustee and PSTD Academy Chairman Fe Marie Cabantac said the Philippines has the potential to become the training destination in the region because of competent Filipino trainers and world-class facilities.

“In fact, countries are already starting to come to the Philippines for their training requirements,” she noted, citing Bhutan as having its recent training conducted in the Meralco Management and Leadership Development Center.

As an advocate for WLP, the president of the 46-year-old training and development organization disclosed that they are on the process of developing a certification, which their more than 400 corporate members and individuals clamor for.

“We want to be the certificate body for [WLP in] the Philippines. We target to launch it first quarter of next year,” Javellana said.

PSTD had already developed and tested the 12 competencies for WLP certification last year. At present, the group is deliberating on their crafted four certificate levels.

The levels for WLP certification, according to PSTD Vice President and Convention Chairman Elvie Tarrobal, are based on the “transition or ladderized progression of a trainer.”

According to her, Level 1 is for professional trainers, who can design, analyze and evaluate training programs of lasting value to the organization, while Level 2 is for managers, whose interventions are geared toward meeting the objectives of an organization.

Levels 3 and 4, Tarrobal said, are for organizational champions and experts, respectively.

Besides working on the certification for WLP, PTSD advocates on that paradigm shift by coming up with the Gawad Maestro Awards 2011.

The first WLP citation honors and recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have demonstrated leadership and creativity in improving overall business performance.

The awarding ceremony will be held on Nov. 21 at the Grand Ballroom of the Diamond Hotel in Manila, with no less than international ballerina Liza Macuja-Elizalde as the guest of honor.

The categories for the awards are Outstanding WLP Professional, Outstanding WLP Manager, Outstanding WLP Organizational Champion, Outstanding WLP Program/Intervention, and Outstanding WLP Leader Extraordinaire.

The Maestro Awards, according to Javellana, is a prelude to PSTD’s hosting of an international convention in November next year called the “Asian Regional Training Organization.”

“We want to highlight [through the convention] the Philippines has good practices in WLP. So we can be speakers in that. The awardees can be the benchmark. The international leagues can visit these companies and see how they practice and adopt it,” she said.

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Filipinos in Australia vow to help build classrooms

By Tina G. Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:44 am | Monday, November 7th, 2011

Members of the Filipino community in Australia have pledged to support the Department of Education’s (DepEd) TEN Moves (The Entire Nation Moves) program, which seeks to raise funds to build 10,000 public school classrooms all over the Philippines.

Citing a report by the Philippine consulate in Sydney, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Education Secretary Armin Luistro met with around 90 Filipino community leaders in a forum held at the consulate in October.

The community leaders expressed support for the TEN Moves initiative, the DFA said.
Apart from TEN Moves, Luistro also told the community leaders about the DepEd’s K+12 Basic Education Program, which aims to lengthen and enhance the quality of basic education in the Philippines.

According to the DepEd, 68,000 classrooms need to be built to accommodate the students in a 10-year basic schooling program from kindergarten to junior high school.

Budget constraints, however, allow for the construction of only 58,000 classrooms, a shortfall of 10,000 rooms.

TEN Moves aims to look for two million Filipinos who will donate P10 a day for 10 months. This would total P6 billion which could build 10,000 classrooms. The campaign will end on Oct. 10, 2012.

Filipinos based overseas can participate by donating US$10 a month or $100 for 10 months. Partnerships with the US-based Philippine Development Foundation and similar organizations around the world are being established for the purpose of reaching out to Filipinos overseas, according to the TEN Moves website.

Luistro’s visit to Sydney was part of a study tour sponsored by the Australian Agency for International Development.

He was accompanied by Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Patricia Licuanan, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Deputy Director General Teodoro Pascua, Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo and DepEd Assistant Chief Lotus Postrado.

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DepEd orders ‘Juan time’ for all schools, offices

By Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:28 am | Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
INQUIRER file photo

In all schools across the country, the bells should ring at exactly the same time.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has ordered all schools and education offices across the country to synchronize their clocks and time recording devices as part of  the government’s program to set a standard Philippine time and beat the habit of being late.

In an order issued November 3, Education Secretary Armin Luistro directed all school heads, regional and Central Office officials to set all clocks and other timekeeping devices to the same time in order to “to synchronize all the activities of the DepEd from the Central Office to the school level.

“All DepEd offices are hereby directed to set all clocks in their offices and school properties, including time recording devices, to match Philippine Standard Time (PST),” Luistro said in DepEd Order No. 86.

The PST may be obtained on the website of the country’s official timekeeper, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (www.weather.gov.ph).

“It is therefore directed that all schedules—class times, meetings, activities, events be based on the PST. These schedules must start on time and end on time,” Luistro said.
The Department of Science and Technology recently launched the “Juan Time” project, which aims to set a standard time for all Filipinos in hopes of encouraging timeliness and to beat the Filipino habit of being late.

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DepEd hopes to rekindle interest in reading

By Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer  
3:37 am | Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 

 

Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
INQUIRER file photo

The Department of Education (DepEd) is hoping to bring back the interest of school children in reading instead of them spending too much time on the Internet.

DepEd has declared November as the National Reading Month and has urged schools and learning institutions to conduct a month-long reading program to revive the youth’s interest in the printed word.

In a memorandum issued this week, Education Secretary Armin Luistro ordered school officials to conduct various reading activities in schools and other learning facilities, among them a Read-a-Thon, “Drop Everything and Read (Dear)” and remedial reading classes for children.

The program is part of DepEd’s move to institutionalize the national “Every Child a Reader” program, Luistro said in his Memorandum No. 244.

“DepEd is initiating programs that would promote reading and literacy among the pupils and students, motivate our youth to learn from the lives and works of eminent Filipinos, uphold one’s own heritage and values and make reading a shared physical experience,” said Luistro in his memo.

He said the program was meant to make reading relevant again to the youth “amidst the growing reliance on the Internet and inclination to online activities.”

Among activities DepEd lined up for November are the Read-a-Thon, which aims to discover outstanding readers in class; the Dear program, which engages students in 15 to 20 minutes of reading daily; and the shared reading or readers’ mentoring program, where older students are encouraged to assist younger readers with reading difficulties.

The National Reading Month also urges schools to hold vocabulary and “A Paragraph A Day” sessions, where students learn one new word a day and read aloud one or two paragraphs every day to boost their speaking skills.

DepEd has also called on schools to conduct reading camps “to highlight the pupils’ talents in communication arts through competitions,” storytelling sessions and other readership development activities.

“Schools are recommended to partner with nongovernment organizations and the private sector to foster cooperation within the community and optimize the success of these activities,” Luistro said in his memo.


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