⌛ Banks

I might be able to make another suggestion if you have a premier PayPal account 6 months old or older you can request up to 2 debit cards that will allow you to withdraw 10,000PH for only $1 since its a flat rate charge per ATM withdraw no matter how much you take out its pretty cool. This is what me and my wife use to send money to family makes it easy for us to just transfer money into our PayPal account and let them use the debit card to take out cash.

 

WOw! good for you.. luck you guys. we are still on our way. But looking forward for the big plan. I would probably have to end up opening up at PCi bank or any good banks there and just transfr money. Good to know that you are there already. What area of Dumaguete you guys settled? my husband and I are planning to visit there and check things out. It's nice to know people there already:-).. thanks for all the info. i wil keep intouch....

ecelle

 

Ecelle, don't worry too much about what the Dude is saying.
Normally he is a nice guy and mostly he only wants to joke a bit (and drink a little bit).
But........I think he is right.
Take it easy ...... it is'nt that difficult here unless you can't adapt to the many different STANDARDS here.
But being a Filipina yourself, that can't be a problem.
Have a nice time here next month and find your nice place to stay.

 

Thanks... that is something i and my hubby need to look into... thanks a bunch for the info...

 

yeah. I kinda figure it out about thedude. I am not really worrying about my self of worrying at all...it's all about my kids.. I m sure they will have fun especially they will be near the beach. I am down to earth person. I can adapt to anything easily. i go with the flow as long as it's for a good cause.:-) most important for me is their education, so as mine. But, don't need to worry about that anymore since Silliman University is a good school:-)

Thanks a bunch...

 

Wait, I'm not quite done yet.

Good thing I wasn't drinking while reading this, I would have spit my drink all over my screen.

Sorry, but you can't make such a blanket statement based on the experience of one student. Standards are hardly a way to measure the quality of a school. Increase the standards all you like, that won't make the school better or automatically live up to those standards. You didn't even mention the names of the schools you are comparing.

U.S. universities dominate the world rankings. The U.S. has the largest economy and is among the most innovative countries in the world. The kids who fill these schools and go on to contribute to that economy come from that K-12 system that you are referring to. U.S. schools must be doing something right, but sure, they could certainly improve.

Of course, there are some really crap schools in the U.S. It's a large country and public schools make their money from the local taxes. There is a huge gap between schools in the most jacked up neighborhoods where kids learn their math skills from buying / selling drugs and the most up-scale neighborhoods where even the public schools might rival the the best private schools.

My guess is that your child was simply not matched up well. For example, you can't jump from high school Algebra to Calculus without stuffing some courses in between unless you are willing to put in the work to bridge the gap on your off time. Maybe your child is struggling because of a different testing system? Maybe she struggling due to language and / or cultural differences?

Whatever the differences, I think the experience will be a net positive. School is all about learning, and living abroad is a great learning experience. Also, there are a ton of resources for learning on the internet. I think your children will have the best of all world's here.

 

to reedee

forgot to quote to you, reedee

 

Welcome to Dumaguete Marie! But, in the interest of Ecelle and other parents, I must correct you on this. The academic standards in the Philippines, on the whole, are FAR below those of the US or any first world country. It would be a terrible disservice to lead parents to believe otherwise. I think, unfortunately, Ecelle will find that even the private schools here lag first world standards terribly as well.

I strongly suggest that you consider that you daughter's troubles may not have been due to an 'advanced' Philippine educational system, but rather to cultural/language differences or maybe a learning disability.

Did you ever sit through one of her classes? Were they conducted entirely in English? Or perhaps they used 'Taglish'? In my experience, virtually no teachers in public or private schools here have a full command of the English language so they revert to their vernacular whenever they aren't sure what to say. Clearly, this would cause the non-vernacular speaking students problems. (Don't I recall you mentioning on another post that your daughter had trouble with learning Tagalog and you were looking for an all-English speaking school??)

I suppose it is possible that you came from an awful school system in the US and found an incredible private school in Manila, but based on my experience, I doubt it. Further, I am certain that no one experienced with quality first world education would mistake any of the schools in Dumaguete, public or private, for being 'advanced' based on a global standard.

 

Filipino education is better than American Education. Why? because I lived in the state for 23 yrs. and through my observation with the kids/students, most of them can't even spell a single word or do the math. YES, they speak English that's about it. My niece came to the state 12 years ago. On her first year here they been bullied from there classmates, perhaps there filipino accent. That didn't take too long because my niece prove them that she's not a dummy. She graduated in middle school w/ high honors and Valedictorian in High School. Now she's taking Medicine and her grades still A's no B's "WE ARE PROUD OF HER". I'm telling u right now we have good Colleges/Universities in Dgte. that meet the high standards. KUDOS to that.

 

well, this is a rather poor statement for US standard. I am nine years hear and checked out plenty of different education facilities. I can only compare with european system and what I found here in the PI is nothing else than SHOCKING.

The math of a 4th grader here goes barely higher than coloring bananas and apples and sharing them with 4 friends.

The "high" level of university graduates here reflects in every-days life.

No matter if you read job applications (and I read plenty of them), need to talk to a business - manager or pay your bill in a resort, where graduated people need 1 calculator and an assistant to find out that 3 drinks (40 each) are 120 Peso.

Again, I can't compare to US education, but if this here is "advanced to US" than I am sure each student in Europe is after grade 6 already super-brain without any competition in the states or anywhere...