1 post tagged “philippine education”

I just read a commentary by Aniceto M. Sobrepeña on "Making education a national priority" in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. While I accept that the government and private sector should prioritize the quality of Philippine education, I don't completely agree on his approach. Before we can even dwell on the possible solutions to the state of Philippine education, I think we have to ask what exactly is its goal.

What is the goal of education?

I reckon that in the general scheme of things, the goal of education is to produce responsible and productive citizens, skilled and competent in their chosen professions. Education is the key, learning is the process. In this line of thinking, we can ask the right question: How will the government and private sector make sure that learning really takes place among the students?

Mr. Sobrepeña proposes "a goal that focuses on performance and on students actually and measurably learning better" (emphasis mine). He proposes that schools make a goal of raising their standard grade to the "path of 75" with the campaign line "No school below 60." I know there's nothing wrong with this, it's a reasonable proposal. What I don't understand is why everybody focuses more on a student passing and 'getting high grades' than actually learning or having the initiative to acquire knowledge.

From an unschooling standpoint, I already have reservations on the "testing approach". Albeit testing is one of the many methods that can show whether a student is progressing or learning, it is still flawed. Tests will often only tell you how well a student studied or memorized facts before the test, it does not guarantee you that the student will remember it months after he's taken the test. I clearly don't see the point if the goal of every student is just to pass tests and get high grades. I don't think that's true learning.

I believe the government and private sector should focus on true learning and nurture, instead, the self-government of a student. When I say 'self-government' it means the self-discipline or self-will of students to study. Students should be given the freedom to decide to want school or to want to study in school and learn. If the students who are in school today are studying in school out of their own volition, meaning they weren't forced, then what they're learning is meaningful to them and excelling is easy. Here's an analogy: a person decides that he likes cars and wants to know more about them. He will learn how to drive a car, know what's the fastest, or most popular, or most expensive car, know the difference between a sedan and a suv, know what kind of parts to buy for his car, etc. Does learning take place easily? Yes, because it was his own decision to like cars and know more about them. This is the same with academics. Learning (definitely and almost always) takes place when it is meaningful and relevant to a person.

What's actually difficult is creating that environment for the students. An environment that nurtures students' love for learning and self-will to excel. And I think that's where Mr. Sobrepeña, the government and private sectors should be focusing on, not on just passing grades or getting high marks.