Piloting the Pagsasarili System at Angeles Central Elementary School

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( Part four of a series on Maria Montessori’s Legacy to Mankind )

"We are racing against time" is the underlying tone of the major re-structuring of the UNESCO organization since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York. Major donors, weary of wasted attempts by Third World countries to solve their problems, were withdrawing supports. The Scandinavian countries called for "lesser debates and more focused action" if the 187 UNESCO member states can succeed in complying with Director General Koichiro Matsuura’s three cross-cutting themes: alleviate extreme poverty, using a knowledge society, and reinforcing women empowerment, specially in Muslim countries.

In response to the urgent call of UNESCO DG Matsuura to use tried and tested innovative technology in education, we worked together with the Department of Education Region III Director Dr. Vilma Labrador last September 2001 to pilot the more affordable version of the Montessori system in Angeles, Pampanga – the Pagsasarili program.

UNESCO EFA-Dakar Deadline Year 2015

A kindergarten child, five years old this Y2002 would be Grade I and six years old when the 32nd UNESCO General Conference is held in October. He would graduate from Grade VI in Y2009 and will be a senior graduate of high school by Y2013. Taking a technical course, he should be well employed by Y2015.

The comprehensive education, sciences (social science, science and technology), marine science), culture and communication projects of UNESCO are discussed in the Executive Board of Paris with respective experts every spring and autumn sessions. We, the UNESCO Secretary Generals representing 187 member states are then consulted. This happened last June in Jakarta during the UNESCO Consultative meeting of the five Asian clusters. The biennium plan and budget we drafted is proposed and approved in the General Conference, which is held every two years in Paris.

The DG’s formula is "country clustering". The close geographic collaboration is foreseen as Asia is divided now into five groups: the sub-Sahara States (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, etc.); the India cluster of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and Bangladesh; the Bangkok cluster of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar; the Jakarta cluster of Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia; and, the Beijing grouping of China, Korea, Mongolia and Japan.

Goal: quality Education for All – coined as the acronym EFA, the goal of the campaign was to elevate the quality of education. This would prevent the frequent dropouts in Basic Education, especially in the lower grades, which adds to the number of difficult-to-employ adult illiterates. Launched in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, EFA programs were worked out for 10 years and finally evaluated in Dakar, Africa in 2000.

Results: Increased enrollment. However, poor quality of education persisted. Even if more children are enrolled the retention rate or the commitment to graduate in Grade VI and on to fourth year high school is doubtful.

Thus, UNESCO DG Matsuura is determined that between Y2000 to Y2015 only the "best practice" system in education be used instead of the usual trial and error ways. Labeled "EFA-Dakar Framework of Action", the UNESCO projects in education are henceforth given the time limit of 15 years, calculated to follow-up the educational development of the five year old or even younger preschoolers toward economic independence by Y2015.

Setting the framework for teacher training

Last year, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between DepEd Region III Director Dr. Vilma Labrador and the OB Montessori Child & Community Foundation (OBMCCF) was signed. The pilot project was set up at the Angeles Central Elementary School at Pulong Bulo, Angeles City. The MOA entails the training of the Angeles City Central School teachers to the Pagsasarili system and the use of the Pagsasarili classroom materials.

The Principal Mrs. Fajardo (recently changed with Mrs. Carol Patarata) identified the teachers to be trained: two for preschool, two for Grade I, two for Grade II, and two for Grade III. But due to the increased enrollment in the public school, one Grade II teacher was re-assigned to a non-Pagsasarili class. While the former Grade III pupils from the previous school year were promoted to Grade IV, the experiment now includes this class.

The training is composed of Theoretical training, Practical training with hands-on work with the Pagsasarili materials and the Spiritual training (character transformation based on the trainees’ psychological assets).

The framework of Pagsasarili teacher training

The theoretical training introduces them to the Montessori psychology of the child from which the Pagsasarili system was drawn up since 1983 and used successfully in eight preschools of improved slum areas of Metro Manila. This helped them gain a better understanding of the three Stages of Development of independence from infancy, childhood and adolescence, as well as the corresponding Sensitive Periods of the child. This lays the fundamental understanding that the developmental needs must correspond with the academic work.

The practical aspect of the training involves the hands-on familiarization with the Pagsasarili materials used in the presentation of the lessons in the five areas of Practical Life, Sensorial Arts, Language, Math and Cultural Arts (History, Geography, Botany and Zoology). The Practical Life exercises for sweeping, folding and laundering make use of small brooms, dust pans, as well as dressing frames for buttoning, shoe lacing, and ribboning. Language Arts uses Sandpaper Letters, the Movable Alphabet Charts; Reading booklets or primers. While the materials for Primary level uses the Barn House for grammar. Basic shapes are taught with the Geometric Tracing insets of Geometry.

Preparing the environment – the missing link

While the traditional teachers directly teach the class with books, blackboards or lectures, the Pagsasarili teacher is trained to link the children to work independently with the classroom apparata laid out in open shelves. The Prepared Environment is one of the main ingredients for the success of the Pagsasarili program.

Initially, we tried to make do with the existing pre-war type of classroom furniture – where benches are attached to the desks. Since the Pagsasarili classroom set-up requires four to six children sharing a desk, we thought of re-arranging making two desks face each other. However, to remain consistent with the Pagsasarili standard, we eventually donated old chairs and tables from our schools. Of course, they were repaired and repainted along with the classrooms so now the children are able to work better.

The Pagsasarili grade school classroom allows a class of 40 to work in groups. Each group of four to six children can work on a set of materials, example Puzzle Map of the World, of the Continent, or of the Philippines for Grades I, II and III. Another group could share the Box of Decimal Beads and number cards for unit, tens, hundreds and thousand numeration. Each set can have several games or exercises allowing an average working time with the materials.

Although only 30 percent of the materials of a Montessori class of international standards is used in the Pagsasarili class, it has produced remarkable preschool graduates capable of accomplishing Grade II-III lessons of the traditional Philippine schools. This phenomenon has repeated itself annually within the past 15 years in our Pagsasarili preschools. One can say that this is equivalent to the national Montessori standards, which is realistic and affordable.

The discovery of the ‘new children’

In a matter of one week, the pilot classes of the Angeles Central School showed parallel improvement in its students and teachers. Signs of transformation became apparent. The teachers who were required to speak to their students in English at all times began to have better command of the English language and gained better skills in articulation. Thus, they became more refined in their movement and language. At the same time, the students increased their English vocabulary, reading comprehension skills and oral expression that they participated more in class instead of being just passive learners. The students also gained awareness in practicing proper grace and courtesy.

Ms. Eva Lao, a Grade II teacher in one of the Pagsasarili pilot classes, was very used to communicating with her students in Tagalog or the dialect Kapampangan. When she was required to speak to her students in English, at first she confessed that she felt awkward and lacked confidence in expressing herself before the class to the point that she would fidget and avoid eye contact with her students out of embarrassment. Now, she says, "I have improved considerably. I can speak in front of my class and even to my co-teachers and superiors with confidence".

The introduction of the materials and the Prepared Environment helped the children acquire independence. This is manifested in the students’ ability to correct themselves requiring less adult supervision in the classroom, their ability to choose work, as well as in finishing their cycle of work. While in the traditional classroom setup where the students just sit down on their desks facing the blackboard, students are inhibited in their natural and spontaneous development for oral expression, since they are required to speak only when spoken to, and called to recite by the teacher. With the Pagsasarili classroom setup, the children are kept busy at work, but at the same time allowed to freely express themselves. Thus, they learn to articulate their feelings and thoughts. It is very natural for them to say: "Are you finished with that card? Can I borrow it?" Or we can hear the students say, "That is not the right way. Here, let me show you how."

Parents and teachers are amazed by spontaneous discipline

Teachers of non-Pagsasarili classes started to imitate the Pagsasarili-trained teachers by also speaking in English to their students. They modified their way of teaching by referring to reading materials in the Pagsasarili classroom. They were so impressed with how the Prepared Environment and method conditioned the children to settle down and become interested with their work that they would recommend some of their "difficult" students to sit-in in the Pagsasarili classroom. To control the variables, we needed to get another control group – the Pulong Bulo Elementary School.

The Pagsasarili system encourages the collaboration of the home and the school. A Parent Orientation was conducted among the parents of the students included in the pilot project. Parent representatives were identified. Parents reported that their children manifest independence in doing household chores as well as self-help or practical life activities like setting the table, fixing their own bag and doing their homework. Parents are happy that their child are now more responsible and have improved in their studies. They do not have to resort to nagging their children to help around the house. The children are now more eager to go to school. Cooperation also among the Pagsasarili parents has been noted, too. Some parents even volunteer to help in cleaning the classroom, in repairing classroom furniture and the classroom itself. Some have donated curtains, water jug and electric fans.

These are strong evidence that prove that by conditioning the Prepared Environment the students, teacher and parents become psychologically powered.

Can we bring back the old glory of public schools?

Come November 19 and 20, the "High Level Working Group" (HLWG) of the Ministers of Education of the UNESCO member states have been invited to Nigeria to discuss their individual National Plan of Action for achieving the EFA-Dakar Framework of Action. It is therefore imperative that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo choose the Secretary of Education who has an extensive training and experience in teacher training curriculum development and administrative management of schools "to bring back the glory the public schools were noted for before World War II." The most crucial asset is that he must have risen in the ranks of the Department of Education, such a big complex of personalities and activities, which an outsider will fail to comprehend even in his whole lifetime.

(For more information please e-mail at exec@obmontessori .edu.ph)