EDITORIAL — Old challenges and new ones

This year’s school opening, at least for those schools that could open because they were not affected by Typhoon Carina, saw more of the usual scenes.

There were new students thrilled at their first day in school and looking good in their new uniforms, students who had been to school before and knew what to expect, anxious parents not willing to let go of their kids, and the usual anxious kids not willing to let go of their parents. Of course behind the scenes were teachers trying to manage the chaos of another first school day of another school year.

Because many schools all over the country have yet to open there have yet to be reports of schools not having enough classrooms for their population, or schools lacking teachers. Again, the usual.

Any school year is always a chance to improve our educational system. And aside from the usual old challenges we now have a new one to face.

For the past few years our educational system, as evidenced by our poor standing in international tests on students, has been deteriorating.

As if to further prove this point, we now have the story of a mother who demanded answers from a school why her “intelligent” child was not accepted. The school replied that her child had trouble reading, following basic instructions, and reasoning. And to think the child was awarded honors by the previous school.

Before some of us blame the decline in the quality of education on the worst of the pandemic lockdowns when classes had to be held remotely or by module, they should be reminded that some of the tests were conducted before this time.

So in all likelihood, the quality of our education worsened further during the lockdowns. The fact that our previous Education secretary had her head somewhere else --namely security concerns that didn’t concern her in the first place-- didn’t help the situation any.

But like we said earlier, any school year is always a chance to improve our educational system. Let’s hope the new Education secretary isn’t distracted by other concerns, and that this new school year is the start of something good.