Breaking the math and language barriers in Philippine education

I AM THRILLED TO NOTE THAT MY READERS COME FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE NOT ONLY FROM MANILA, BUT ALL OVER THE WORLD. HERE ARE SOME E-MAILS I RECEIVED, LAST NOVEMBER 2005 TO JUNE 2006, FROM BALIUAG, CEBU, CALIFORNIA, TEXAS AND AUSTRALIA.

On echo-echo training

From Michael San Luis, Oakland, California – I am a regular reader of your husband’s column, as well as yours, they are very informative and engaging. I am a product of Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a public or state university. I can repeat the same words that education is one of the keys to achieve our goals.

I moved to California, three years ago to work. I am a proud father of a 7-month old baby boy, Joshua and I’m amazed how he watches Einstein’s Baby Mozart DVD very attentively. As early as now, my wife and I are preparing for his preschool education. I would love to hear your advice on how to choose and supervise his schooling here in America. How similar is your methodology as compared with preschools here? I’m making notes from your articles.

Regarding echo-echo training in the Philippines, I remember my boss’ advice that ideas should be readily transferable in some form. I cannot imagine how you would compress your trainings in one day. I can only suggest that this can be documented in DVD or VCD with a teacher’s manual. As a parent, I would pay or invest for materials such as those.

ONE DAY "ECHO" TRAINING DOES NOT WORK WITH PROGRAMS ON BEHAVIORAL TRANSFORMATION.

Breaking the math barriers

From Tricia Gullas, Cebu – I never fail to read your articles. The Cosmic Math Book for ‘EFA’ Teacher Quality Education (03/09/2006), struck me as I am a mother of three preschoolers – two of them enrolled in Kumon Math. At 7 years old, my son already knows division with remainders. But, based on your article, I assume your students in OB Montessori must be very advanced yet unburdened by their lessons because of the way they are being taught. How I wish you would have an OB Montessori branch in Cebu City. If not, I hope we can attend workshops of your Cosmic Math training.

CONGRESSMAN GULLAS HAS PLANS TO LET ME ESTABLISH A MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL IN CEBU, LIKEWISE WITH DR. VELASQUEZ, CEBU NORMAL UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT.

From Eva Perocho, Sucat Evangelical Christian Academy administrator – As an administrator, it has always been my policy to improve my teachers’ skills knowing what is lacking in our educational system and forever trying to move ahead for the sake of our students.

Our school is the educational arm of the Sucat Evangelical Church. I read your article about the Cosmic Math Book and I would like to have access to training and the materials. Though our school uses the conventional method, we don’t stick to it religiously. I keep on looking for avenues to improve our teaching habits that would make the children learn fast, especially in Math and reading. We cater to the middle income group, but by God’s grace we still could manage our finances and somehow give our students and teachers the quality of education that would make them compete in the outside world.

Advocacy to improve level of English in our country

From Ms. Mercy Ramos, San Benildo Integrated School Principal, Baliuag – First, let me congratulate you for your UNESCO post. Secondly, many thanks for the articles you write, especially on Education, particularly on the Pagsasarili preschools. We have the same advocacy to improve the level of English in our country.

Our school, San Benildo Integrated School is a small De La Salle-supervised school in Baliuag, Bulacan that has just started. We have an intensive English campaign and conduct classes in English. Our students can understand, but they cannot spontaneously converse in English outside of the classroom. It is understandable since we are in the heart of the Tagalog-speaking world and our parents seldom talk to their children in English at home. Part of the campaign is to train our teachers to be good speakers and be able to teach English well in the classroom. We would also like to train the barangay day care teachers as an outreach project.

I was so thrilled when I saw your article, How GMA Can Break the English Language Barrier. I wish I could learn more about it and that my teachers can have a taste of how your teachers do it. Then, we promise that we will be part of your advocacy of reaching out to public schools. We plan to offer training for the nearby barangay day care centers and even provide spoken English classes to barangay council members.

TO MS. PEROCHO AND MS. RAMOS - IF YOU GIVE ME A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR SCHOOLS’ HISTORY, ITS POPULATION, COMPLETE OR PARTIAL LEVEL OF PROGRAMS FROM PRESCHOOL TO HIGHSCHOOL, AS WELL AS NUMBER OF TEACHERS, I COULD INCLUDE YOU IN THE TRAINING COURSES WE ARE CONDUCTING. (Cosmic Math course for Ms. Perocho and English for Ms. Ramos).

Breaking the English barrier

From Mrs. Elvi Rodriguez –I enjoy reading about your ideas in fostering family ties and your teaching programs. I was a chemist and a math teacher and now am a housewife. I was recently asked by some parish volunteers to teach reading English to children living in depressed areas near our parish. I have no idea how to go about this since my background in teaching is teaching Math. I never even taught my children how to read. I think my students will be school children in public elementary and high school, who are at preschool level in reading. Some mothers will also be sitting in. Could you help me please? Thank you for your generous help.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT OUR PAGSASARILI MOTHERCRAFT LITERACY HOUSE FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. (3 cor. Eisenhower and Annapolis Streets, Greenhills, San Juan, tel. no. 7239066 c/o Mrs. Concepcion Suarez)

From Peter Anderson, Australia – I read the STAR everyday on the net and find it interesting. I always read your husband’s effort. Your column, How GMA Can Break the English Language Barrier (01/12/2006), should be on the front-page. It is the best thing I have read in years. Give Max a kick and get him to reprint it again in a more prominent place. He should also make every pollie read it and understand it.

WITHOUT GIVING MAX A KICK, HE FREQUENTLY PLAYED UP MY EDUCATION ARTICLES ON FRONT PAGE. THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENT.

Wanted English lessons to qualify for call center jobs

From Danitess Matthey, San Antonio, Texas – I moved here in May last year, after I got married to my American fiancée whom I met working as a consultant for a big call center for US Telco, which we service in Accenture.

In 2002, I started working for a call center when I was hired as an American accent and technical trainer for an outsourced Dell technical support provider. Even as I thought my English was very good, I still see the big difference when I observed how our phone agents interact with the American customers. We may be speaking the same English language, but still we can’t communicate well due to the American slang lingo, as well as the way we construct our sentences and conversational street Taglish.

While we have the advantage of being a nation of English speaking (or at least understanding, if not speaking) people, the work force who can support this big demand for outsourcing companies is really waning. With not enough qualified agents to hire, the outsourcing companies are looking at China and actually are already moving there. Soon, China will take away all these job opportunities.

You hit the nail right on the head with your article. The Philippine government has to do aggressive actions to keep these jobs coming in, by doing something about our curriculum, from elementary to high school, to trade schools or vocational to college. They should also start offering cheap, inexpensive schools that will hone our people’s skills to communicate in English. They should have done this years ago, when the call center business started to come in.

I am living in the States now, but my heart is still in the Philippines. I hope and pray the Philippine government will do something about this now. Thank you and more power to you.

CHINA INVESTS GENEROUSLY ON SENDING THEIR YOUNG TEACHERS TO LIVE IN THE USA TO MASTER "AMERICAN ENGLISH". IT WOULD BE WISE FOR US TO ENCOURAGE FILIPINOS BORN IN AMERICA TO COME HOME AND TEACH.

‘I wish i had a teacher like you when i was younger’

From Jose Valdez – I wish I had a teacher like you when I was younger. That way, my basic foundation would have been very good. Anyway, the young people will certainly benefit and I wish your article would be read by teachers so they can fine tune their teaching strategies – if they recognize that they are wanting in that department still.

A THOUSAND THANKS, MILLE GRAZIE, TO ALL MY READERS FOR THE COMPLIMENTS.

(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph or pssoliven@yahoo.com)