POLICYNOTE:10WAYSTOFIXPHILIPPINEBASICEDUCATION

POLICY NOTE: 10 WAYS TO FIX PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION

Commentary Philippine Daily Inquirer February 2010

10 ways to fix Philippine Basic Educationby Benigno S. Aquino III

Philippine education is in crisis and we need not argue that point.What we need is a president with a basic education agenda, willing tomake the hard decisions. This is what needs to be done.

1. 12-Year Basic Education Cycle

We need to add two years to our basic education. Those who canafford pay for up to fourteen years of schooling

before

university. Thus,their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 12 years for our public school children to givethem an even chance at succeeding.My education team has designed a way to go from our current 10years (6 elementary, 4 high school) to a K-12 system in five years startingSY 2011-12. Kindergarten (K) to Grade 12 is what the rest of the worldgives their children.

I will expand the basic education cycle in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration (2016).

2. Universal pre-schooling for all

All over the world, pre-schooling is given to all young children as thefirst year of basic education. We don’t solve this deficiency by renamingday care centers as pre-schools. We need to build a proper pre-schoolsystem and make this available to all children regardless of income.

All public school children (and all public schools) will have pre-schooling as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016.

POLICYNOTE:10WAYSTOFIXPHILIPPINEBASICEDUCATION

POLICY NOTE: 10 WAYS TO FIX PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION

3. Madaris Education as a sub-system within the Educationsystem.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters ask for an education system thatrespects their culture while providing a technically sound curriculum inEnglish, Filipino, science and math. Madaris education with subjects inArabic Language and Islamic Values Education can be integrated in our public school curriculum as additional subjects with the view to keeping our Muslim Filipino children in school.

I want a full basic education for ALL Muslim Filipino childrenanywhere in the country.

4. Technical vocational education as an alternative stream insenior high school.

Half our high school graduates want to work upon graduation but donot have enough technical education. We need to provide an educationalternative to better prepare students for the world of work. Technical,vocational education must be re-introduced in our public high schools withtrade tests and skills rating (TESDA or other acceptable work standards) asthe final examination for students looking at HS as their terminal course.

I will re-introduce technical-vocational education in our public highschools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.

“Every Child a Reader” by Grade 1

At the core of our children’s non-learning problems is the inability toread properly. By the end of the next administration (SY 2015-16), everychild passing pre-school must be a reader by Grade 1.Essential to this, we must build a library infrastructure in our schools,procure reading books (from our Philippine publishing industry to supportlocal authors and publishers) and train our elementary teachers on how toteach reading.

POLICYNOTE:10WAYSTOFIXPHILIPPINEBASICEDUCATION

POLICY NOTE: 10 WAYS TO FIX PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION

By the end of the next administration, every child must be a reader by Grade 1.

6. Science and Math proficiency

We need a strong science and math curriculum that starts as early asGrade 1 with instructional materials and properly trained elementaryteachers. To build a culture for science and math, I will bring back thescience and math clubs movement with elementary and high schoolscience/math fairs.

I will rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools so that wecan produce more scientists, engineers, technicians, technologists and teachers in our universities so that this country can be more globally competitive in industry and manufacturing.

7. Assistance to private schools as essential partners in basiceducation

Private education must be a partner in producing quality education inthe country. I intend to expand GASTPE (Government Assistance toStudents and Teachers in Private Education) to a target of 1 million privateHS students every year through education service contracting (ESC) whiledoing away with the wasteful education voucher system (EVS) of thisadministration.

I will expand government assistance to private education. A strong private school system will strengthen our public schools by providing parents an alternative and not adding to the overcrowding.

8. Medium of Instruction rationalized

UNESCO has proven that young children learn best in their mother tongue before moving on to English in higher grades. I fully support theUNESCO-tried and tested formula on mother tongue instruction. From pre-school to Grade 3, we will use the mother tongue as the medium of instruction while teaching English and Filipino as subjects.From Grades 4-6 (7), we will increasingly use English as the mediumof instruction for science & math and Filipino for Araling Panlipunan (social