Victor Ordoñez on education

When he was given an honorary doctorate by De La Salle University last Jan. 26, Victor Ordoñez gave a speech that summarized what he had learned from decades of national and international experience in the private sector, DepEd, the Presidential Commission on Educational Reform, and UNESCO.

He said that there were four “huge gaps” between the different worlds he lived in at various times: teaching, administration, national policy, international advocacy, and others. Here are the gaps, with my reflections.

The first, he said, is “the gap between research and policy.” DepEd does not usually base its decisions on research, even if there are “thousands of graduate theses [in education], many of them gathering dust in libraries.” As a result, DepEd often embarks on projects that education students already know will not work, or DepEd does not do what education students know should be done.

Related to this first gap is “the gap between research and classroom practice.” For example, research says that students that are not taught arithmetic until Grade 5 do as well in Grade 6 arithmetic exams as those taught arithmetic since Grade 1. This means that arithmetic should not be taught until Grade 5, but all our schools still teach it.

Research also says that one cannot learn a language well if classes are held for only one hour three times a week. But that is exactly what our colleges do when they offer Filipino, English, or a foreign language.

The second gap is “the gap between the world’s illiterates and the rest of us.” Illiteracy is one of the main factors in the growth of population. He cited something population experts know by heart: “Illiterate women deliver an average of 6.5 live births; literate women deliver an average of 2.5 live births.” If we are serious about controlling our population, we should stop bickering about artificial contraception and focus on eradicating illiteracy.

The third gap is “the disconnect between standard programs of study and the world of work into which students will find themselves.” This is the notorious mismatch that our business leaders are always complaining about.

He quoted former US Education Secretary Richard Riley (in the YouTube film “Did You Know”): “The top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

One implication is that schools should not focus on technical knowledge but on the basics. One of the reasons I wrote my column last week on teaching without textbooks is that textbooks often become outdated the moment they are printed. The Teaching Without Textbooks Movement says that textbooks, if they teach the basics, need not be revised constantly.

Ordoñez cited more statistics: “98% of urban students [in the Philippines] play video games, but only 37% of their teachers have even tried one.” Every time I give a lecture to teachers on teaching strategy, I always tell them that, if they do not play video games or do not surf the Web every day, they should not be teaching. I always get a shocked, even angry response.

The fourth gap is “the gap between education and peaceful and sustainable development.” He asked, “Why has education not succeeded in instilling a culture of peace and conflict resolution using reason and respect, instead of bombs, guns, and knives as the weapons for handling differences?”

He should have asked Yale University, one of the top five universities in the world, why they produced George W. Bush, who launched a totally unjustified war and ruined the world economy. He should ask the University of the Philippines (of which I am a proud alumnus) why it produced not just heroes, but (as some alumni dared to point out in an alumni homecoming) the graduates who killed those heroes.

Ordoñez pointed out something many university presidents here and abroad have forgotten, namely, the rationale for universities: “The foundation of any bridge on the education side must be a re-statement of what the purpose of the university is. Is it to prepare for a meaningful job, or is it to prepare for a full life in a harmonious society?”

Congratulations to Victor Ordoñez, who added yet another doctorate to his already long list of academic credentials! I hope his words did not and will not fall on deaf ears.

NURSING BLUES: The Feb. 10 issue of The New Zealand Herald carried a story about the Nursing Council of New Zealand being concerned that “the rapid increase in nursing programmes in the Philippines could be at the expense of the quality of nursing.”

CHED has tried unsuccessfully for years to stop the proliferation of nursing schools or nursing programs in established schools. Perhaps the new CHED leadership can do something about this. The nursing boom is over anyway. It is time to think of quality and not just quantity.