⌛ Prospects for children in Philippines

Sorry mate, just had a look at this thread again. Have to agree again that it is hard to survive on a government pension in Australia. If you have your own place paid for...might be manageable if you are frugal...if not - you're stuffed. And if not - why not? Not like you just fell out of a tree and decided to go on the government pension at retirement....you would have had many years to plan for it. Pay off the house, put some in super.....etc...I've run into several FW's who have blown their bucks on Bali, horses, and houses for their ex's.....If your not ready - work some more....

Much as I like vegemite (tried Mighty Mite? - I've made the switch)...IF you do have a Perth property you can sell it easy enough and make more than enough to get a decent rural property....Pemberton, Narrogin, Merridin, Northam, Toodyay, Gingin...a hundred nice places to live...At least there your kids would have an Australian education - and be able to move on to university if they do well enough. And the wife is likely to find a job too...

Last I heard Centrelink will cut off the supplemental portion of the pension (I believe that is around $50 a fortnight) once overseas residence appears established. But the main pension keeps on going....Medicare is the worry though...There was an expat Aussie from the Philippines who came back after several years away in retirement in PI on TV a while back I saw....he needed urgent cancer treatment and Medicare told him to get stuffed...he wasn't getting it....don't know how it ended. He should have said he was Afghan.

Lastly, do not think that working at a call centre is going to be a saviour for your kids....It's a crap job with terrible hours...I wouldn't wish it on anyone. We've got a couple relatives doing it - and they do it because they have to....I've worked graveyards for yonks in the airline industry...but I got paid decently for it....but it sucked and I hated it too...Your kids, and wife, will have a far better life here in Oz rather than desperately chasing pesos - along with a hundred million others...

 

People, people, please, chill out! There's American English, Indian English, Hong Kong English, British English, Australian English, etc, etc,. The Spanish spoken is Spain is different from the one Spoken in Mexico which is also vastly different from the one spoken in the Dominican Republic. Welcome to globalization! So can we just get along and muddle through our various interactions with people who are different from us.

As for education... Reality check. The US, as one of the richest nations in the world, usually performs in the lowers ranks of education. I'm an English teacher in the US and I am Filipina-American. Just yesterday, one of my students couldn't place the US on the map and needed help. Another kid asked if Japan was an island or a peninsula. Another kid thought Asia was a country. Granted, I'm teaching summer school and these kids needed to make up their grades but these are high school aged kids and they had their own laptops in front of them. None of them knew how to find the information in their books or through the internet. HOW THE HELL DID THESE KIDS GET OUT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL?!?

So let's keep it in perspective. The Philippine educational system is far from the greatest but it's also a third world country of 7000 islands and 80+ dialects. Considering that most Filipinos have at least a rudimentary handle on English is a feat. In contrast, the US is the richest in the world and most school aged children can't place their own countries on the map and have trouble with basic math. I'm willing to bet that most Filipino kids are able place the US, the Philippines and China on the map and solve basic math problems.

Also, schools in US are in such need for science, math and special education teachers that they're recruiting Filipino teachers. There are at least half dozen at my school as I type. No, their English isn't perfect but then again, the students don't have a command of the English language either. Hell, they can barely read (the students, that is).

So does the Philippines have a good educational system? Probably not. Are there good schools? Most likely. Does the US have a good educational system. Debatable. Does it have good schools? You bet, if one can afford to live in an affluent suburb with a good public schools. A recent NY Times article reported that parents pay more than a $1 million dollars for their apartments so their kids can be placed in good neighborhood schools (e.g. the upper west side or in Park Slope, Brooklyn). Or one can shell out $10,000+ a year for private school.

The point is, it's the same system in the US as it is in the Philippines. Those with the means have access to a good education. Those who don't have the means have to put up with what they have. I'll tell you this though, from my personal observation, Filipino kids in terrible schools are more motivated to learn and definitely more respectful of education. That, my friends, go a long, long way.

Oh, one more thing. The US has excellent universities but who can afford them? More and more parents are sending their kids to college in other countries because they can't afford the colleges here. So what's the point of a good university education if only a few can afford them?

 

So there you have it......

You're kids will have just as good if not better education in the Philippines (than US)....On top of that, your kids will be more motivated to learn & achieve. The prosperity of education here is simply endless......

You guys can decide if that info is realistically palatable.

 

Obviously you haven't spent any time here at all, have you? I'm sorry, this statement is the most hilarious one I've seen in a long while! Most Filipino adults cannot find the Philippines, US, and China on a globe.

As for math, most Filipinos may not be able to do simple addition and subtraction, but jeez just watch them multiply!!!!

Larry

 

But if I want my children to speak correct English, USA is still preferred.

I think that has more to do with the fact that most state budgets are in a mess and they cannot or will not pay teachers a decent wage. I was considering rounding out my working years as a teacher as I am eligible for the troops to teachers program but after looking at the salaries for teachers in most states it is not really the best choice for me at present. Kind of like when I worked for the city, really rewarding work but the low pay drove me out.

Community colleges in the US I think are still the best education deal to be found anywhere. After that most state colleges are still tops but the question is will they remain that way with so many budget cuts. If only we blocked out the no taxes crowd maybe things would not be going down hill these days.

 

What ???? you want to tell me teaching 4th grader to wash their hair and 6th grader to plant veggies which are sold by the teacher to the canteen for additional income is not world-standard ???

How could i miss that...

for multiplication, you always can txt a porigner fwend and ask him ...

 

"I think that has more to do with the fact that most state budgets are in a mess and they cannot or will not pay teachers a decent wage. I was considering rounding out my working years as a teacher as I am eligible for the troops to teachers program but after looking at the salaries for teachers in most states it is not really the best choice for me at present. Kind of like when I worked for the city, really rewarding work but the low pay drove me out."

Sorry, mate, but with the state of US economy these days, teaching is a coveted job. Starting salary for an NYC public school teacher is about $45,000 a year and $50,000 if the teacher has a masters degree. Despite this relatively decent wage and excellent benefits, cities across the US are scrounging for science, math and special ed teachers. NYC is middle of the road when it comes to teacher pay. New Jersey is higher, as is Massachussetts. Higher yet in Canada and that country is also having trouble filling those posts.


"Community colleges in the US I think are still the best education deal to be found anywhere. After that most state colleges are still tops but the question is will they remain that way with so many budget cuts. If only we blocked out the no taxes crowd maybe things would not be going down hill these days."

Community colleges have the highest drop-out rates in terms of higher education. It's a fact, look it up. They might be a great bargain but somewhere, somehow, a lot of its students cannot and do not earn an associates degreee. Obviously, something is going wrong.


As for this statement...
Obviously you haven't spent any time here at all, have you? I'm sorry, this statement is the most hilarious one I've seen in a long while! Most Filipino adults cannot find the Philippines, US, and China on a globe.

As for math, most Filipinos may not be able to do simple addition and subtraction, but jeez just watch them multiply!!!!

Excuse me but I grew up in the Philippines. I lived there til I was 12 and have spent a lot of time there since leaving some odd 20 years ago. I think the more relavant question is WHO THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN HANGING OUT WITH? You must only speak to the least educated and least exposed segment of Philippine society. You should broaden your horizons a bit, judging by this comment. If Filipinos are so unpalatable to you, why are you living there? Or do you deliberately surround yourself with the dredges of society so you can feel better about yourself. Pathetic.

The basic point is this: the Philippines is a third world country. Do you really expect a first world educational system? That's simply unfair. AND first world nations, particularly the US, don't always have good educational systems. I hear Sweden and Norway have excellent systems, as does Germany. Wanna move there? However, I can't go anywhere in the Visayas without meeting a German expat so obviously, something about the Philippines appeals to them.

"for multiplication, you always can txt a porigner fwend and ask him ..."

Go ahead and mock Filipino English! But how's your Cebuano? Or your Tagalog? Do you speak either language fluently and without grammatical error?

 

well, it is absolutely not about what I speak, it is about (like stated before) that young people (and I don't expect that from older) can't speak the official language of their own country properly.

I speak/write my own countries language pretty fluent and also the official business language in the Philippines. :p ... please don't blame me or any DI-member that your countrymen/women are not able to do the same..

All you do is the typical Pinoy thingy... looking for 100 excuses.

The first and most important for improvement is to accept that things are pretty much fu@#cked up instead of showing false pride and blaming each and everything, why things are like that.

And the most stupid argument is ALWAYS : why you are here , go if you dont like" this is absolutely pathetic...

You can read many posts here why people like it here.

The outstanding culture, world-class medical facilities,high standard education, superb food in the PI is none of it.

 

Ok, I'm willing to take that bet myself. Are you here now? I will buy a globe, and we can sit down together and figure some basic math problems. We can then set up in places where we can talk to students at random, shall we say public high school level? Is 30 kids enough to prove to you how ignorant your statement is?

I have P10,000 that says most cannot show where the three aforementioned countries are, or cannot solve basic addition, subtraction multiplication, and division.

So, will you put your money where your mouth is?

Larry

 

Well, of course the education system is screwed up. Duh! Pick up any local newspaper and you’ll find a news article or an op-ed piece lamenting the state of Philippine education. True, the country doesn’t have world class medical facilities. What do you expect? It’s a third world country! Graft and corruption? Please, the Philippines is infamous for it. You think Filipinos don’t know how screwed up the situation is in their own country? Why do you think thousands upon the hundreds of thousands left in order to seek their fortunes elsewhere?

Of course there are hundreds of reasons to live there. However, to expect first world services in a third world country is ridiculous. But to mock the people and the country for lacking said services is insulting to the people and the country. Maybe you’re not encountering false pride from Filipinos but indignation.

As for Filipino English? Yeah, there are a lot of quirks to it…sometimes painfully so. But English has always been evolving. I’ve taken more than a few graduate level courses in linguistics at a very good American university. I stand what I said earlier: English is spoken differently all over the globe. I’ve done my fair share of travelling and I’ll tell you this: a New Yorker may have difficulty understanding someone from Louisiana though both persons speak English. A northern Italian speaks differently from a southern Italian though they both speak Italian. And don’t get a Spaniard started on how Dominicans speak Spanish…you’d never hear the end of it.

I’m not making excuses for the inefficiencies of the Philippines. Nor am I blaming you or anyone else that Filipinos speak grammatically incorrect English. For the record, the Brits say the same thing about Americans and as English teacher in the US, my students certainly don’t speak grammatically correct English either. Just please, lighten up and lay off the jabs and insults. It’s not necessary nor is it very nice.