The long and short of it

Alan is 17 years old, a second year high school student of a public school in Cavite. He’s called “Kuya” by his classmates, being the oldest in his class. Alan could not attend school regularly because he had to work odd jobs whenever there was a family emergency. His mother, the sole breadwinner, does laundry for better-off families. His father abandoned them when the youngest child, now aged four, was born. Alan, the eldest in the brood of six, has one fervent hope: that he can graduate at least from high school and find a good job. He worries about the plan to stretch primary education from 10 to 12 years. As it is, he took so long to reach sophomore year. What will happen to his younger siblings if two more years are added? They’ll never finish, said Alan.

Over dinner with two former Deans, the topic turned to whether they believed that adding two years to primary education would make Filipino students more globally competitive. Both answered thoughtfully. “Maybe”, they concurred. “But this cannot happen overnight”, said one. “To try and railroad it would be like adding more salt to a dish that lacked the basic ingredients,” she added. In fact, “it shouldn’t happen in P-Noy’s tenure because there are far too many basic problems that he must address first,” said the other. “It would already be a great accomplishment, if he could just improve the quality of education in the next six years.” The two deans avowed that their views were shared by majority of the education community.

Exactly what fundamentals are not in place? In the latest Philippine Human Development Report, out of 1,000 children who enter Grade 1 in the public school system, only 650 will complete elementary; 580 will continue through high school, where only 430 will graduate. Two hundred thirty will enroll in college and 120 will obtain a degree. Only one degree holder will come from a poor family like Alan’s. The 880 dropouts would be predominantly from socio-economic class E, the poorest of the poor. As of 2007, a total of 5.8 million youth from ages six to 14 are out of school. They will eventually join the labor force as unskilled, uneducated and underemployed workers. The cycle of poverty continues.

Those who manage to stay in school are not without immense challenges. As of today, we still lack schoolhouses, classrooms, teachers and textbooks. That’s just the infrastructure. Let’s talk about the quality. Aside from inadequacies, the problems are compounded by schools and classrooms that are in disrepair, textbooks with as many as 500 alleged mistakes, malnourished and hungry students unable to absorb the day’s lessons from some teachers that have no business teaching. Just recently, a female teacher was accused of hammering the finger of a misbehaving student, while a male teacher has escaped from the country evading charges of rape. Apparently, he had turned a 13-year-old student into his sex slave! The parents, barely literate and educated themselves, are too overwhelmed with day-to-day survival to be able to pay much attention to their children’s education. Yet they firmly believe that it is the only way out of destitution.

Is it a reasonable goal therefore, to prolong lower education by two years so our graduates can compete in the international market? We haven’t even sufficiently prepared our youth to be able to get a decent job in our own country. This is truly a situation where the way to hell might be paved with good intentions. So what miracle can Philippine education realistically hope for within P-Noy’s term?

In the poorest and worst neighborhood of New York, one such wonder happened. Two teachers, David Levin and Michael Feinberg founded an experimental public school called KIPP [Knowledge Is Power Program] Academy. It was free and open to any student willing to commit to the program.

In 1994, KIPP was first introduced in South Bronx, where 90 percent of the students qualified for “free or reduced lunch”, a federal program for families that earned too little for food allowance. Fifty percent were African Americans, the other half Hispanics. Seventy-five percent came from single-parent homes.

A typical KIPP day begins at 7:25 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. The first class is a half-hour of thinking skills, followed by 90 minutes of English, 90 minutes of Math, one hour of science, one-hour of social science, one hour of music twice a week with one hour and 15 minutes of “Orchestra” added. After 5 p.m., there’s homework, sports or detention. On Saturdays, students come in from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then an extra three weeks of summer is added with classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The grueling schedule produced astounding results. Aside from rocking in Math, KIPP alumni have an 85 percent acceptance for college. It has proven that the grip of indigence can be loosened if parents, students and teachers commit to excellence. KIPP has since expanded to 99 other poor cities with the same outstanding outcome. It has been christened the “Miracle School”.

KIPP schools share a core set of operating principles known as the Five Pillars.

1) High Expectations: clearly defined and measurable high prospect for academic achievement and conduct that make no excuses based on the students’ backgrounds. They reinforce a culture of achievement and support.

2) Choice & Commitment: Students, their parents, and the faculty choose to participate in the program. No one is assigned or forced to attend.

3) More Time: There are no shortcuts when it comes to success in academics and life. Students have more time in the classroom to acquire the academic knowledge and skills.   

4) Power to Lead: The principals are effective academic and organizational leaders who understand that great schools require great school leaders.

5) Focus on Results: High performance on standardized tests and other objective measures.

The Department of Education would do better if it searches and adapts global best practices like KIPP, instead of re-inventing the wheel. The cost of adding two more years to primary education is colossal, compounded by a growing population with many existing underserved tertiary areas. KIPP added more hours and took some weeks from summer vacation without adding years. Limited resources, finite time and energies should be focused on arresting the decline of quality education and making sure no child is left behind. Eventually, we can adapt the international model, but for now let’s keep our eyes on the ball. As Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

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