Test the teachers more

About two weeks ago, this column expressed much skepticism in assessing the graduates of our tertiary institutions, the four-year products of our proliferating colleges and universities in this country. Unable to think logically, analytically poor and wanting much in communication skills, most college graduates gain diplomas without also earning a higher education. In the sciences, the arts, mathematics and philosophy, few of our college graduates do well in competition with those of other countries. One suspects that these few became functional college graduates not because of the country’s educational system but in spite of it.

More evidence has surfaced pointing to the educational system as being the culprit for the poor state of education in this country. The 2000-2001 National Elementary Achievement Tests (NEAT) results have been recently publicized and they point to the singular failure of the educational system in teaching event those in the elementary school the most basic numerical and literacy skills.

The elementary students taking the tests could answer less than half of the standards questions in mathematics, science and English. They could cope with only slightly more than half of the questions for the socials sciences and the national language, Filipino.

Given such a profile for those in the elementary schools, testing at the secondary level produced predictable results. High school student administered the National Science Ach. Test (NSAT) recorded similarly disappointing the scores. They managed to answer just about half (51 percent to 57 percent) of test questions in English, mathematics and social studies.

For both the 2000-2001 NEAT and NSAT, the students tested had mean percentage scores below 50 percent in English