Ideally, education should not simply be a matter of getting good grades. Or even passing grades. It should not just be about finishing one level and going into the next. Education is about learning. Youngsters who receive their grade school and high school diplomas but who are not equipped with the basic skills they should have learned are simply diploma-holders; they are not educated. It has been talked about often enough–by educators, media men, economists and even businessmen. Grade school graduates cannot even read and write properly nor perform the basic mathematical operations with passable skills.
No, it isn’t these young people’s fault. The failure to acquire real education is rooted on the continuously deteriorating public elementary and high school education system in the Philippines. The deterioration has many aspects:
1) physical
2) economic
3) moral
The lack of classrooms and facilities, the overcrowded classrooms meant for thirty but being shared by fifty pupils, the lack of real laboratories for public high schools, the shortage of qualified teachers are only some of the manifestations of the physical deterioration of our public schools.
The unabated corruption in government in the bidding and procurement of school supplies and equipment, and the lack of budget to upgrade and maintain whatever rudimentary equipment exists are only some of the economic problems that have been there for decades.
Public school teachers are among the lowest paid government employees. So little compensation for such a huge responsibility of teaching our children and making sure that they will be prepared–and competitive enough–to assure them of ample employment opportunities.
Now, there is this thing called the “bridge program”. Last May 25 th, some 1.3 million grade school graduates took the High School Readiness Test (HSRT), a supposed gauge of their aptitude. Those who pass may enrol in high school; those who fail will have to take the one-year “bridge program”–an extra year to prepare for high school. The figures are dismal.
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