Government & Education Best Posts in Thread: PUBLIC SCHOOLS: the BETTER OPTION

In a way, it is good because we have law-abiding citizens but on the other hand, it perpetuates complacency,subservience, & often blind obedience.

 

One problem with education here in my (continental European) eyes seems to be related to the prevailing school system, where just about everything is different from what I was used to before living in the Philippines.
1. There's just two types of secondary education, either you attend "high school" or (the lucky few) go to "science high school".
It means that especially in Junior High you have students with a very wide range of talents together in one class room.
Inevitably that leads to the "average student" determining the (lack of) pace of instruction. Some in the bottom half of the class won't be able to keep up anyway, and most near the top of the class will be staring out the window most of the day. Untimely dropouts will thus occur at both ends of the spectrum, and most of those who graduate will be struggling in tertiary education.
2. Schools and teachers are downright negligent in communication with/to parents. Often a "teacher conference" for the afternoon is announced to students in the morning of the same day (which must be hell for parents who both work), School vacation schedules are also last minute (so don't make fixed travel plans) , and grades (report cards) are always late (my niece, whose 2nd year in college (NORSU) is supposed to start next week still didn't get her grades for the first year that ended in May).
3. In the grading system here being "considerate" seems to have taken priority over clarity. In my time in school you'd get a 9 or 9.5 if you were exceptional,
above 6 was adequate, and if you totally messed up you got a 1 or 2. Here I thought at first that they have grades up to 100, so I figured 75 must be pretty much ok, until I learned nobody gets under 70 lol. I still haven't figured it out completely.

 

And I have seen too much very poor quality teaching in public schools to rate them. I would rather home school.

 

Untrue. It is not “only a matter” of voicing things out. Things aren’t always so simple. Math was conducted in the mother tongue method of teaching and the teacher could not interrupt her lessons to accommodate the needs of one student who could not understand the dialect. The teacher was obligated to teach in Bisaya because the tests were going to be administered in Bisaya. The teacher made the student take a walk outside the classroom to just kill time and that’s how his parents found him.

 

One of the big changes covid-19 has caused is seen and felt in the education sector. DepEd was hard bent in opening classes in spite of the health threat and parents’ protest. To minimize the perceived health risk, DepEd came up with a different method of delivering instruction sans face-to-face interaction: online teaching-learning. Truth is, this methodology is new to both teachers in public and private schools. Teachers used to actual physical interaction with students will have difficulty switching to this new mode of instruction. Result? Poor quality of instruction. Those enrolled in private schools are not getting their money’s worth inasmuch as school fees remain the same or are secretly increased while students do not get to avail of services they are made to pay for like dental fees, intrams fees, misc., laboratory fees , etc It’s practically a rip-off. Wiser parents have made better decisions by enrolling their kids in public schools or making them do homeschool instead of paying for something that translates to nothing in the end.

 

To me, it is saying something like (from a government perspective, not by the people) 'We don't really want you here, but will put up with you for the money'.

 

I pointed out in another recent post that my 'foreign alien' is an intentional tautology - it is a hang-up of mine that they refer to us foreigners as 'aliens' when in my country we call their citizens Filipinos or, sometimes, immigrants (and let them have every advantage we give to our own citizens - sometimes more!).

 

I could tell many stories of poor teaching in public schools - and again, I do this from knowledge and experience (of Western teaching as a student and teacher) and seeing the work of a High School student here.

But two spring to mind:

1. The science fermentation experiment I set up for my wife's daughter (age 14) as a school project, which lay in the corner of the classroom, untouched and never referred to by the teacher (the student claims), until one day it was thrown out.
2. The teacher who texted her class at 8 pm on a Sunday with a list of items required for the next morning! I contacted the teacher and asked why she was unable to tell them on Friday before they left school, instead of when the stores were closed. She was apologetic (of course) and her only excuse was that she had just prepared her lesson plan.

Add to the two above, my wife's daughter's scruffy workbooks never marked by most of the teachers and frequent closing of schools for sports events, and you have a system that is very poor.

My wife's daughter at age 17 was awarded Honours, but knows very little (I put her educational attainment at about age 11 for UK equivalent) and is not that bright - but she cleans the classroom, polishes the floor and puts the chairs up!

I note that schools seem very interested in 'show' - putting up glossy photos and banners outside the establishment - but not so good at achieving much of quality inside!

 

Public schools aren’t really an option for those kids who don’t know the local language. I heard that their Math classes are even done in Bisaya. I know of several Filipino parents who put their kids in public schools this year only to get that harsh reality check and had to pull out their kids a couple of days after.