This is yet another example of the seriousness with which China is facing the opportunities of globalization, and which in turn makes the challenge for our country ominous. While China immerses its young children in increasingly higher standards of education including English, we are allowing our educational system to rapidly deteriorate and our children to speak our mutant language, Taglish.
The tragedy is that we already had what it took. Our country once had the highest literacy rate in Asia. By 1970, we had reached universal elementary education. In a report on the state of Philippine education, Marites Sison of Inter Press Service writes that in 1995, the Philippines ranked third to the last in elementary math and second to the last in elementary science in an international test taken by half a million elementary and high school students in 45 countries. She cites a 1999 UNESCO study that said as many as 1.7 million Filipino children in the 7-12 age bracket are out of school. "Out of 100 children enrolled each year only 66 will complete elementary school education, 42 will finish high school and only 14 will earn a college degree. Although there are over 16 million enrolled in public elementary and high school, the Philippines spends only one-eighth of what Thailand sets aside for education."
Sison also summarizes the results of a government-sponsored survey called the Teachers’ Assistance for Optimum Well-being (TAO), which corroborated UNESCO’s assessment of the deterioration of the system. "Out of 405,973 teachers polled, 55 percent said their schools had no access to electricity, while 84 percent had no running water. Only 38 percent are provided with toilets. About one-fourth said they taught in classrooms without ceilings; 45 percent of them said they brought their own tables to school, 43 percent brought their own chairs. Those who do have tables and chairs say these are of poor condition and pose a hazard to users... The survey has also pointed out the urgent need to retrain teachers who graduated 20 years ago... The very small proportion of teachers who majored in math or science indicates that a significant proportion of teachers who are teaching the two subjects but are not actually trained to handle them. It also noted that most public school principals are not equipped with managerial skills. In fact, only 22 percent received training for their positions."
The challenge remains how the Department of Education will find the formula that will reverse the flaws in our educational system, including narrowing the gap between private and public schools, regional and city schools as well as wealthier and poorer provinces. Needless to say, finding the money to build school buildings, to train teachers and to achieve the goal of a 1:1 book-to-student ratio to service the ominous numbers of our young population is the greatest challenge of all.
Until such time, joint government and private sector efforts, such as those being initiated in Shenzhen, may be the key. Perhaps, the Teacher’s College of Manila being built by Mayor Atienza can be financed to become a world-class institution, with both government and private capital, including municipal bonds. Cities and towns could likewise take stock of their educational assets and invite prosperous and honest members of their communities to become partners in education. Quality education will generate excellent, bankable graduates who will be assured of jobs, making "Tuition Loans" a viable and necessary enterprise. Or, as Washington SyCip often advocates, tuition in publicly funded schools and universities, like the excellent science high schools or the University of the Philippines, should be socialized depending of one’s capability to pay. The goal would be to free up as much government spending for higher education so that public money can be allocated to the elementary public school system.
What we urgently need is to get the children off the streets and into schools. We must aim to have 100 percent finish high school as a minimum. We must ensure a strong foundation in math, science and fluent Filipino (banning Taglish), to be the basis for a bilingual education in English. Sison quotes Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF who said, "If you want return on investment, invest in children." We have no other recourse but to look for unconventional solutions to what will be our greatest success or our most tragic failure as a nation.