FILIPINO JOURNAL

Why schools are failing our children (1)

Commentary

By: Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I

Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:36 am | Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Despite its claim to being research-based, the present K-12 curriculum actually ignores language-in-education findings
when it provides for the use of the first language (L1) as medium of instruction for only up to Grade 3 and thereafter, with
no transition whatsoever, shifts to English and Filipino as second languages (L2s) for instruction. The scheme clearly
underestimates the role of oral language development in the early grades as a strong foundation to learning to read and
write in both the L1 and in the L2. The provision for the L1 as a separate subject is laudable but cannot make up for the
deleterious effects of the early-exit nature of the K-12 curriculum.

The challenge of language-minority students in the United States who cannot read and write proficiently in English led the
Department of Education in 2002 to create a panel to address this problem. One of the panel’s major findings is that oral
proficiency and literacy in the L1 are crucial determinants for literacy in English.

The research suggests that the disparity between the word-level and text-level (comprehension) skills of non-native and
native English learners can be traced to the difference in their oral language proficiency. Oral proficiency in English is not
a strong predictor of English word-level skills among non-native English speakers, but is strongly associated with
comprehension and writing skills for these students.

Children’s ability to learn an L2 is enhanced when their L1 is the primary language of instruction throughout the
elementary grades. L1 fluency and literacy lay a cognitive andlinguistic foundation for learning additional languages.
When the child fully develops his cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in the L1, this can provide a successful
transfer of the communication ability in the L2. If you have reading ability in your L1, this ability can be transferred to the
L2; you do not have to learn to read again.

According to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, six years of L1 education is an absolute minimum but eight years is better. She found
that in Ethiopia those who had eight years of mainly L1 medium and who have studied Amharic (the dominant national
language) and English as subjects produced the best results in science, mathematics and English. Those with six years
were not as good, and those who quickly shifted to English, fared the worst.

A UP College of Education study in 2004 made by Prof. Lourdes Mae Baetiong shows that the CALP threshold level in
written Filipino is approximately reached in Grade 6. More importantly, the same study shows that the stronger the
development in the L1, the stronger the proficiency in the L2.

In contrast, in the submersion model (which is what we have now) children are trained to mechanically repeat what their
teacher is saying but fail to decode and understand the meaning of the utterances. The submersion model further assumes
that the child will automatically master the language of education during the process of education. What is happening now
in most of our schools is a lot of decoding but without understanding. This is one of the reasons our schools are failing our
children.

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, data from the 2008 Functional Literacy and Mass Media survey (FLEMMS) tend to
show that the submersion model really does not work.

Consider the following:

1. Some 5 million of the 9.6 million elementary graduates had no comprehension skills.

2. Another 5.2 million of the 12.8 million students who had reached high school had also no comprehension skills.

3. Nine million Filipinos could not compute.

4. Twenty million Filipinos (3 out of 10) did not understand what they were reading.
These are the underlying reasons I sponsored House Bill No. 162, otherwise known as the Multilingual Education and
Literacy Bill. The bill promotes the use of the L1 as MOI from Grades 1 to 6. It advocates the strong teaching of English
and Filipino as subjects before these become the MOI in high school with the L1 as auxiliary medium. It also pushes for
the intensive pre-service and in-service training of teachers and materials development in the L1. It also provides that the
language of teaching must be the language of testing.

My proposal accords with one of 10 things President Aquino promised to fix in Philippine basic education. This concerns
the rationalization of the medium of instruction. The President believes that we should become trilingual as a country and
that we should “learn English well to connect to the world, learn Filipino to connect to your country, and retain
your mother tongue to connect to your heritage.”

We live in a multicultural and multilingual world. All languages are equal to the task of accessing and constructing this
world. But I believe we should educate our people primarily in their first languages or L1 and not in English or in Filipino
which are second languages (L2) to most Filipinos.

Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I represents the second district of Valenzuela City and is a deputy majority leader in the House
of Representatives.
No new college freshmen enrolling in 2016
Sunday, 15 January 2012 16:30 Dennis D. Estopace / Reporter

COLLEGES and universities across the country would have no freshmen enrolling by 2016, dislocating teachers of general
education courses and may impair revenue of private schools.

“It’s a cause of worry, I agree, but only for those who are not prepared or have not been preparing for the K+12,” Education
Secretary Armin Altamirano Luistro told the BusinessMirror.

Luistro explained that teachers currently teaching the general education subjects, like English 101, should be encouraged to
teach in senior high school, one of the additional years under the K+12 program.

The model proposed by the DepEd, the K-6-4-2, involves Kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of
junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and two years of senior high school (Grades 11 to 12).

During a forum by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines where Luistro spoke, academic professionals also
noted that the K+12 program would also impact on salary structures as well as tuition.

Education Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Francisco M. Varela said that education officials couldn’t do
anything with the latter “as we don’t regulate tuition.”

“You’re really free to set that,” Varela said during the open forum.

Varela added that it is only the public schools that would be financially back-stopped by the government.
“Private schools would have to do that on their own.”

Still he added that the government is “studying these at present, including the price points because we need to balance what
could be the cost if government were to provide financial support.”

Adamson University Legal Affairs Office Director Agnes V. Rivera noted that by 2016, the school would lose 5,000 freshmen
and expect displacement of its faculty members teaching general education subjects.

A department chairman of the Miriam College who spoke on conditions of anonymity told the BusinessMirror that they
don’t expect all teachers to opt to teach in senior high school.

“Some are saying they’re going to explore higher studies, like finish their masters degree or doctoral degree.

Some, well, the school may not be able to absorb,” the source, said noting that some teachers would see the move as a
demotion.

Luistro said that is just a matter of nomenclature, but that “actually, walang mawawala, and the displacement need not
happen.”

The 20th president of De La Salle University said during the forum that there’s a need to move away from the traditional
notion of teachers and that some leeway should be given.

“A teacher in a sports academy, for example, can hire a coach; a chef to teach omelet. They need not be called teachers,”
Luistro said, adding that this is how some schools for indigenous peoples practice. “We can call them resource persons.”

Luistro told the BusinessMirror after the forum that the impact to the economy would be more positive, with an expected
1.1 million work force entering the market by 2018. “And these are not just your ordinary workers; they would be highly
skilled and needed by the economy.”

Luistro said during the forum that the K+12 program will be implemented this coming school year 2012-13, which will start
in June.

The DepEd briefing material said that the new curriculum for Grades 1 and 7 (high-school Year 1) will be implemented in
SY 2012-13 and will progress in the succeeding school years.
Luistro said the first batch of senior high-school graduates will be in 2018 while the first batch of K+12 graduates will be in
2024.

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Friday, December 2, 2011

Unheralded high achievers

Corporate Securities Info
By: Raul J. Palabrica Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:46 pm | Thursday, December 1st, 2011
Metro Manila-based colleges and universities are no longer assured of their graduates dominating, if not topping,
government licensure examinations.

Last Monday, the Inquirer reported (as front page news, mind you) that graduates of the Catanduanes State Colleges
bagged the top three places in the board exams for civil engineers given earlier this month.

They bested graduates of the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Technological Institute of the
Philippines and Mapúa Institute of Technology who used to lord it over these tests.

Although this is not the first time that alumni of the lone state college in Catanduanes made good in the exams, bagging
the top three slots may be considered phenomenal considering the quality of the competition.
What makes the results more interesting is, the Top 10 consisted of graduates of “promdi” (the snooty Manila-inspired
description for people who come from the provinces) schools in Bulacan, Davao, Mindoro Oriental and Zambales.

The feat merited the publication of the photos of the three Catanduanes graduates in the Inquirer, a privilege often given
only to topnotchers of the bar exams.

This fixation with the law profession, which dates back to the country’s colonial past, is prevalent also in other broadsheets
and media outlets.

Education

The results of government licensure tests in recent years have shown that graduates of private and public educational
institutions outside Metro Manila are no longer the pushovers they were once thought to be.

The “Imperial Manila” syndrome (or the impression that anything that comes from the national capital is better than the
rest of the country) has engendered the belief that only Metro Manila schools are capable of providing quality education.

Sleek publicity about graduates of these schools dominating board exams and famous personalities touting their links with
so-called elite campuses have bred feelings of inferiority among students who, for financial or personal reasons, opt to
study in their hometowns.

This sense of inadequacy is further reinforced when province mates studying in Metro Manila who come home for the
holidays strut around with superior airs or engage in activities that tend to show that their rural counterpart have much to
learn from them.

To aggravate matters, advertisements for new hires in private companies often state their preference for graduates of
certain Metro Manila schools. The subliminal message is, those who got their education elsewhere are better off trying
their luck in companies with less demanding academic credentials.

Recognition

The prejudice for certain graduates can also be felt in companies whose key executives or human resource personnel are
fanatically devoted to their alma mater.
These are the types whose rooms are lined with knickknacks that show their school logo, or who skip work to attend
basketball games that involve their school teams, or who instinctively come up with petty remarks when positive
statements are made about their school rival.

Thus, if the alumni of, say, UP, Ateneo or La Salle, are in positions of influence in a company, expect them to give priority
to applicants whose curriculum vitae include their school.

When confronted about this discriminatory attitude, they usually give the excuse that they know what their fellow alumni
went through before getting their diploma so they have more confidence in their ability to take on the jobs applied for.

Bluntly stated, the “other school” graduate is an unknown factor whose skills have yet to be tried or tested, so why take the
risk.

If at all, exceptions are made from this elitist posture only when the applicant is too good to be left off to competitors, or
has a backer who cannot be turned down without adverse consequences.

Unless he holds a key position in the company, his “peculiar” academic credentials will nonetheless give rise to subtle acts
of discrimination or put him out of the loop when fellow alumni in the staff talk about school-related matters.

Review

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that provincial residents prefer to come to Metro Manila for the education
that, in their mind, would assure their passing the licensure exams for their chosen professions and, in the process, be
assured of gainful employment in the future.

The exemplary showing of graduates of provincial schools in these tests should spur companies that still hold traditional
views about Metro Manila-acquired education to undertake a serious review of their employment policies.

Thanks to the Internet and other modern means of instruction, the quality of education incolleges and universities outside
Imperial Manila has im proved tremendously.

In fact, the results of the periodic assessment examinations conducted for primary and secondary students all over the
country consistently show that many of the students in the provinces outshine their Metro Manila counterpart in
mathematics and science.

It helps that the provincial students are not bothered by the problems of traffic congestion, pollution and other
distractions that Metro Manila residents have to bear with as part of their daily living.

The provincial students have to thank their stars that, considering their less stressful living conditions, they are able to
focus on their studies better and, as a result, are able to go toe to toe with graduates of Metro Manila-based schools in
government licensure examinations.

Next time the results of these tests are published, it would be interesting to find out how many graduates of provincial
schools are in the Top 10.

(For feedback, please write to rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph.)

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DepEd issues guidelines for mother tongue teaching

Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:13 am | Friday, December 2nd, 2011
 Education Secretary Armin Luistro

Citing studies that say the language used at home is the most effective in teaching, the Department of Education (DepEd)
has released guidelines for developing learning materials for schools that prescribe one’s mother tongue as their medium
of instruction.

By producing educational materials that suit the specific needs of learners, Education Secretary Armin Luistro
said educators would get “better learning outcomes.”

He said the DepEd came up with the guidelines to “synchronize and decentralize the production of ‘indigenized’ teaching
and learning materials and the monitoring and evaluation of the DepEd’s mother tongue-based multilingual education
(MTB-MLE).”

“It is the easiest way for children to access the unfamiliar world of school learning,” Luistro said in a statement, citing local
and international studies that show the effectivity of using a learner’s mother tongue in teaching.

Educators say students lose interest in learning when the mother tongue is disregarded in favor of an unfamiliar language.

The MTB-MLE program—which bridges the disconnect between the language used at home and at school—is being
carried out from preschool up to Grade 3 and in the alternative learning system. Niña Calleja
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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Why schools are failing our children (1)

Commentary

By: Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I

Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:36 am | Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Despite its claim to being research-based, the present K-12 curriculum actually ignores language-in-education findings
when it provides for the use of the first language (L1) as medium of instruction for only up to Grade 3 and thereafter, with
no transition whatsoever, shifts to English and Filipino as second languages (L2s) for instruction. The scheme clearly
underestimates the role of oral language development in the early grades as a strong foundation to learning to read and
write in both the L1 and in the L2. The provision for the L1 as a separate subject is laudable but cannot make up for the
deleterious effects of the early-exit nature of the K-12 curriculum.

The challenge of language-minority students in the United States who cannot read and write proficiently in English led the
Department of Education in 2002 to create a panel to address this problem. One of the panel’s major findings is that oral
proficiency and literacy in the L1 are crucial determinants for literacy in English.

The research suggests that the disparity between the word-level and text-level (comprehension) skills of non-native and
native English learners can be traced to the difference in their oral language proficiency. Oral proficiency in English is not
a strong predictor of English word-level skills among non-native English speakers, but is strongly associated with
comprehension and writing skills for these students.

Children’s ability to learn an L2 is enhanced when their L1 is the primary language of instruction throughout the
elementary grades. L1 fluency and literacy lay a cognitive andlinguistic foundation for learning additional languages.
When the child fully develops his cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in the L1, this can provide a successful
transfer of the communication ability in the L2. If you have reading ability in your L1, this ability can be transferred to the
L2; you do not have to learn to read again.

According to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, six years of L1 education is an absolute minimum but eight years is better. She found
that in Ethiopia those who had eight years of mainly L1 medium and who have studied Amharic (the dominant national
language) and English as subjects produced the best results in science, mathematics and English. Those with six years
were not as good, and those who quickly shifted to English, fared the worst.

A UP College of Education study in 2004 made by Prof. Lourdes Mae Baetiong shows that the CALP threshold level in
written Filipino is approximately reached in Grade 6. More importantly, the same study shows that the stronger the
development in the L1, the stronger the proficiency in the L2.

In contrast, in the submersion model (which is what we have now) children are trained to mechanically repeat what their
teacher is saying but fail to decode and understand the meaning of the utterances. The submersion model further assumes
that the child will automatically master the language of education during the process of education. What is happening now
in most of our schools is a lot of decoding but without understanding. This is one of the reasons our schools are failing our
children.

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, data from the 2008 Functional Literacy and Mass Media survey (FLEMMS) tend to
show that the submersion model really does not work.

Consider the following:

1. Some 5 million of the 9.6 million elementary graduates had no comprehension skills.

2. Another 5.2 million of the 12.8 million students who had reached high school had also no comprehension skills.

3. Nine million Filipinos could not compute.

4. Twenty million Filipinos (3 out of 10) did not understand what they were reading.

These are the underlying reasons I sponsored House Bill No. 162, otherwise known as the Multilingual Education and
Literacy Bill. The bill promotes the use of the L1 as MOI from Grades 1 to 6. It advocates the strong teaching of English
and Filipino as subjects before these become the MOI in high school with the L1 as auxiliary medium. It also pushes for
the intensive pre-service and in-service training of teachers and materials development in the L1. It also provides that the
language of teaching must be the language of testing.

My proposal accords with one of 10 things President Aquino promised to fix in Philippine basic education. This concerns
the rationalization of the medium of instruction. The President believes that we should become trilingual as a country and
that we should “learn English well to connect to the world, learn Filipino to connect to your country, and retain
your mother tongue to connect to your heritage.”

We live in a multicultural and multilingual world. All languages are equal to the task of accessing and constructing this
world. But I believe we should educate our people primarily in their first languages or L1 and not in English or in Filipino
which are second languages (L2) to most Filipinos.

Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I represents the second district of Valenzuela City and is a deputy majority leader in the House
of Representatives.
http://bit.ly/uND7t5

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Why schools are failing our children (2)

Commentary

By: Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I

Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:19 pm | Friday, November 25th, 2011

Many Filipinos think that a learned person is one who can speak English fluently. This is clearly a residue of our colonial
mentality that looks up to a foreign language as superior to Philippine languages.

This kind of thinking has seriously undermined students’ learning in Mathematics, Science and the other subjects. In
2008, the UP National Institute for Mathematics and Science Education (UP Nismed) stated that “most students, even
high school seniors, (cannot) understand what they are reading and (neither can they) do the necessary calculations to
solve scientific problems.” According to UP Nismed, one of the culprits for this sorry state is the language of instruction
(LOI).

The Philippines participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests in 1995, 1999,
2003 and in 2008. During those years, most of the world prepared for and took the tests in their first
or native language (L1). Our country chose asecond language (L2), which is English, in each occasion and came out a
consistent bottom placer in these tests.

According to UP Nismed figures, an overwhelming 91 percent of Filipino test takers use English in their homes sometimes
or never at all. If English is the language of learning, then we would expect Filipino students who always speak English at
home to score higher than those who seldom or never use English as a home language.

Our 2003 TIMSS scores, however, paint a different picture. Filipinos who never use English at home scored higher (320)
than those who always speak it (317). Those who sometimes speak it at home outperformed (377) those who almost always
speak it (343). Of the four groups, those who always speak English at home scored lowest.

The 2007 TIMSS results show Asian countries like Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea dominating the field.
Non-Asian countries like Hungary, the Russian Federation, England, Italy, Latvia, the United States, the Czech Republic
and Kazakhstan also performed well, but most of them do not speak English as an L1.

People are not aware that there is a correlation between L1 use in education and economic development. According to
Steve Walter of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, countries whose population have access to L1 education are the most
developed, while those countries whose people are denied L1 education are the least developed.

In crafting the curriculum for the K-12 program, education authorities must seriously consider the current language-in-
education research.

The most pressing issues are as follows:

1. The curriculum should underscore the goal of basic education as learning to read, speak, write and think fluently in the
L1 on academic topics in pre-school and throughout the elementary grades. In contrast, the old system recognizes the
acquisition of English and Filipino as the first priority in judging children’s achievement.

2. It should recognize that oral language development is a prerequisite for both L1 and L2 literacy. The old approach has
been to teach English and Filipino as if these were the L1 of most Filipino learners. As many educators have said, we don’t
learn an L2 by learning to read that language. Building L2 comprehension and teaching children how to verbally respond
appropriately in the L2 should be the focus of L2 learning in the early grades.
3. It should affirm that creating a strong foundation in the L1 requires at least six years of formal schooling in the L1 as
LOI (but eight years is better). It should also provide for the L1 as a subject all the way up to the secondary level, rather
than up to Grade 3 only, as specified under the Singaporean and Malaysian models.

4. It should reinstate Science as a separate subject beginning Grade 1, instead of merely integrating science concepts into
the English or “Makabayan” subjects.

To effectively implement an L1-based K-12 curriculum, the Department of Education and

other education stakeholders must do the following:

1. Provide pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers can engage in effective pedagogy in both L1
and L2 and have enough knowledge of the subject matter for the academic level they teach. In this regard, a strong
partnership with tertiary education institutions is imperative.

2. Create a model kit of L1 materials in all the subjects initially from K-3 and in the biggest Philippine languages and ready
language communities. The kit shall contain the irreducible minimum of types of teaching and learning materials that an
L1 teacher needs, including exemplars, teacher’s guides and reading primers.

3. Promote policies that position parents as first teachers and that encourage parent and community involvement in the
L1-based MLE program.

This coming Feb. 16-18, 2012, the 2nd Philippine Conference-Workshop on MTBMLE will be held at the Punta Villa
Resort in Iloilo City. One of the event’s highlights is the launching by the DepEd of its model set of L1 materials in all
subjects from K-3. Demo-teaching sessions and workshops on how these materials are to be used will be held.

Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I is the representative of the second district of Valenzuela City and a deputy majority leader in
the House of Representatives.

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Tanco Group acquires 40% of PWU for P450M

To add 5 campuses, boost student population
By: Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:33 pm | Friday, November 18th, 2011

The group of businessman Eusebio Tanco has invested P450 million in Philippine Women’s University, giving it a 40-
percent stake in the nearly century-old educational institution.

In a briefing Friday, PWU president Jose Francisco Benitez said the infusion would allow the school to renovate its
buildings and upgrade its equipment.

PWU’s curriculum would still be largely the same, he said, but some improvements would be made to ensure that courses
offered would be able to keep pace with technological changes.

“We have a lot of dreams for the university. The entry of the Tanco group strengthens and liberates the university to
pursue those dreams. It opens the door to everything that we’ve always wanted to do. Sky is the limit,” he said.

Tanco group spokesperson Monico Jacob said they aimed to increase PWU’s student population from the current 4,000 to
15,000 over the next five years.

The university’s reach would also be expanded over the medium to long term with the addition of five new campuses
in Metro Manila and even in the provinces, Tanco said.

Jacob said the Tanco group also planned to strengthen PWU’s basic education offering as well as set up schools of law and
of health, nutrition and wellness. The university’s existing graduate school of business and liberal arts and humanities
offerings would also be improved.

“We want to give their arts programs a digital component. I want to see an integration of arts of sciences,” Jacob said.

He said other members of the Tanco group, particularly the STI Education Services group, would also benefit from the
PWU buy-in.

“The benefits are not one way. We’ll adopt best practices from both sides. We’ll also learn from PWU,” he said.

Other Tanco group companies, such as preneed firm PhilPlans, would also benefit from the acquisition. Jacob said PWU
could be recommended to plan holders who would be looking for a school for their beneficiaries.

Apart from PWU, Tanco said his group was in discussions with other educational institutions for possible acquisition,
mostly those in Northern Luzon and the Visayas.

http://bit.ly/vROqc5
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

CEU plans new purchases, education facility in Cebu

Tuesday, 15 November 2011 18:38 Miguel R. Camus

LISTED Centro Escolar University (CEU) is keen on expanding its education business with planned acquisitions and a
new education facility in Cebu City.

In a press briefing with reporters on Tuesday, CEU president Maria Cristina Padolina revealed that the company is interested
in acquiring a Metro Manila-based hospital to complement its health and science course offerings.

She said while CEU is not in any active talks for the proposed acquisition, the company is targeting a tertiary hospital with
at least 50 beds.  

“A hospital would be a good complement to our health sciences program,” Padolina said. “We will use it largely for education
purposes.”

About 60 percent o CEU’s 21,000-strong student population is taking health and science courses such as pharmacy, medical
technology and dentistry. These courses, along with tourism and IT-management, have help offset the slowdown in demand
for nursing courses, Padolina said.

CEU is also planning to build a facility in Cebu City starting next year to cater to students taking post-graduate studies. She
said the new campus, which would be CEU’s fifth, will need an initial investment of P50 million.

CEU is also open to a possible expansion in Mindanao, she said. The company operates campuses in Makati, Manila and
Bulacan.
Net income in the six months of its fiscal year ending September declined 3.66 percent to P115.42 million as revenues slid
1.6 percent to P631.38 million on lower tuition earnings. This, despite the increase in tuition at an average of 3 percent this
year.

Shares of CEU, which is controlled by businessman Emilio Yap, rose 5.26 percent to P10.

(Miguel R. Camus)

http://bit.ly/tvIhQw
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Out-of-school youth: time to shift gear

Posted on November 10, 2011 06:43:30 PM

Jackson L. Ubias, IDEA

THE ANNUAL Poverty Indicator Survey bares some statistics that should be cause for alarm. It reports
the incidence of out-of-school youth (OSY) in 2010 at 15.5 percent, equivalent to six million Filipinos.
Eight years ago, the incidence was at 14.7 percent or equivalent to 4.8 million Filipinos, representing an annual average
growth of 2.5 percent from 2002 to 2010. OSY were family members aged 6 to 17 years old who were not attending school
and those 18 to 24 years old who were not connected to school or work and have not earned a college or any post-high
school diploma.

Decomposing the statistics by income quintile, the OSY rate is expectedly highest for the poorest 10 percent of households
at 20.6 percent, significantly higher than the national rate. The rate remains higher-than-national for the second quintile
at 17.8 percent. The incidence of OSY continually diminishes with income; with this, the slowing in educational attainment
and education inequality could promote wider income inequality in the future.

A little over three fourths of the OSY are in the 16-24 age band or family members who should be attending or have
completed tertiary schooling. The high cost of education is the leading barrier to school attendance as cited by 31.8 percent
in the group. They face problems gaining college diplomas; simultaneously, their lack of college diploma aggravates their
prospect of being gainfully employed.

While the prospective income of an individual depends on wide-ranging socio-economic attributes, it is indisputable that
education is a crucial factor to easing access to job opportunities and higher wages. The increased income implies more
taxes that the government can collect to finance public goods for the benefit of the many. This should provide the
motivation for the government to strengthen its subsidy program for higher education, say scholarships, to those who
cannot afford to attend school.

It is surprising that even as basic education is deemed free and compulsory as ordered by the Free Public Secondary
Education Act of 1988 and the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, a third of the OSY belonged to the 6-15 age
band. A fourth of this group cited high cost of education as the reason for not attending school. The costing might have
considered indirect costs related to school attendance like transportation and allowances for meals and school
projects. Complementary infrastructure should help minimize indirect costs to education while programs like the
conditional cash transfer to poor households could guide their resource allocations for education as the cash transfer is
conditional on the school attendance of a child.

What comes as an interesting result of the survey is the high prevalence of lack of personal interest among the 6-15-year
old OSY as the reason for not attending school. The rate is at 46.6 percent and is more prevalent among boys. While
incidence is smaller for the 16-24-year old OSY at 21.2 percent, the pervasiveness of lack of personal interest towards
schooling among OSY is worrying.

On the demand side, perhaps OSY have underestimated the economic value of education. For actual investment on human
capital to take place, costs should at least match the expected returns. The incidence of lack of personal interest could
imply that the gains in productivity owed to education are hardly reflected in wages. Signaling theory supports this, stating
that education does not necessarily improve a person’s productivity but merely uses it to signal that he or she possesses
high productivity. In reality, however, this may not apply as there has been evidence that increments to wages has been at
15 percent for an additional year of schooling in the Philippines, higher than the average 5 percent return in the 28 country
samples used by Trostel, Walker, and Woolley in their study(see Trostel, P., Walker, I. & Woolley, P. (2002). Estimates of
the economic returns to schooling for 28 countries. Labour Economics, 9, 1-16.).

A look on the supply side of the problem may shed clearer indications. It could be that schools are ineffective in addressing
the needs of students. One of the biggest problems in the local public school system is congestion. More often, this
problem is construed as thinning the quality of education. Both shortages of classrooms and teachers could have robbed
students’ passion for learning.

The trend in OSY incidence should be reversed. Failure to educate the youth could cost an opportunity to enhance
economic growth and trim poverty. On the condition that higher educational attainment fosters more rapid economic
growth, it is investments in education now --particularly in comprehensive scholarship programs, school buildings, and
quality teaching-- that sustains investments in human capital towards higher economic in the future.

The Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis (IDEA), Inc. is a non-stock, non-partisan institution dedicated
to high-quality economic research, instruction, and communication. For questions and inquiries, please contact Remrick
Patagan via ideainc.mail@gmail.com or telefax no. 920-6872.

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PHL is next WLP hub in Asia, says training group

Sunday, 13 November 2011 16:03
Roderick L. Abad / Special Features Writer

THE Philippine Society for Training and Development (PSTD) has announced their “ambitious yet doable” plan to make
the country a workplace learning and performance (WLP) hub in Asia.

“PSTD’s vision is to make the Philippines a WLP hub in Asia and eventually, the whole world,” PSTD President Milalin
Javellana told the BusinessMirror in an interview during the press launch of the Gawad Maestro Awards last week in Ortigas.
“We are pushing for it because even now we still hear the word training rather than learning and development.”

WLP is the new paradigm for training, which connects learning with performance. It can have different learning
interventions, such as coaching on the job and e-learning, which are appropriate in the workplace. If done properly, this
leads to both enhanced individual and organizational performances.

While WLP is just developing in the country, PSTD Board of Trustee and PSTD Academy Chairman Fe Marie Cabantac said
the Philippines has the potential to become the training destination in the region because of competent Filipino trainers and
world-class facilities.

“In fact, countries are already starting to come to the Philippines for their training requirements,” she noted, citing Bhutan
as having its recent training conducted in the Meralco Management and Leadership Development Center.

As an advocate for WLP, the president of the 46-year-old training and development organization disclosed that they are on
the process of developing a certification, which their more than 400 corporate members and individuals clamor for.
“We want to be the certificate body for [WLP in] the Philippines. We target to launch it first quarter of next year,” Javellana
said.

PSTD had already developed and tested the 12 competencies for WLP certification last year. At present, the group is
deliberating on their crafted four certificate levels.

The levels for WLP certification, according to PSTD Vice President and Convention Chairman Elvie Tarrobal, are based on
the “transition or ladderized progression of a trainer.”

According to her, Level 1 is for professional trainers, who can design, analyze and evaluate training programs of lasting value
to the organization, while Level 2 is for managers, whose interventions are geared toward meeting the objectives of an
organization.

Levels 3 and 4, Tarrobal said, are for organizational champions and experts, respectively.

Besides working on the certification for WLP, PTSD advocates on that paradigm shift by coming up with the Gawad Maestro
Awards 2011.

The first WLP citation honors and recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have demonstrated leadership
and creativity in improving overall business performance.

The awarding ceremony will be held on Nov. 21 at the Grand Ballroom of the Diamond Hotel in Manila, with no less than
international ballerina Liza Macuja-Elizalde as the guest of honor.

The categories for the awards are Outstanding WLP Professional, Outstanding WLP Manager, Outstanding WLP
Organizational Champion, Outstanding WLP Program/Intervention, and Outstanding WLP Leader Extraordinaire.

The Maestro Awards, according to Javellana, is a prelude to PSTD’s hosting of an international convention in November
next year called the “Asian Regional Training Organization.”

“We want to highlight [through the convention] the Philippines has good practices in WLP. So we can be speakers in that.
The awardees can be the benchmark. The international leagues can visit these companies and see how they practice and
adopt it,” she said.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Filipinos in Australia vow to help build classrooms

By Tina G. Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:44 am | Monday, November 7th, 2011

Members of the Filipino community in Australia have pledged to support the Department of Education’s (DepEd) TEN
Moves (The Entire Nation Moves) program, which seeks to raise funds to build 10,000 public school classrooms all over
the Philippines.

Citing a report by the Philippine consulate in Sydney, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Education Secretary
Armin Luistro met with around 90 Filipino community leaders in a forum held at the consulate in October.

The community leaders expressed support for the TEN Moves initiative, the DFA said.
Apart from TEN Moves, Luistro also told the community leaders about the DepEd’s K+12 Basic Education Program, which
aims to lengthen and enhance the quality of basic education in the Philippines.

According to the DepEd, 68,000 classrooms need to be built to accommodate the students in a 10-year basic schooling
program from kindergarten to junior high school.

Budget constraints, however, allow for the construction of only 58,000 classrooms, a shortfall of 10,000 rooms.

TEN Moves aims to look for two million Filipinos who will donate P10 a day for 10 months. This would total P6 billion
which could build 10,000 classrooms. The campaign will end on Oct. 10, 2012.

Filipinos based overseas can participate by donating US$10 a month or $100 for 10 months. Partnerships with the US-
based Philippine Development Foundation and similar organizations around the world are being established for the
purpose of reaching out to Filipinos overseas, according to the TEN Moves website.

Luistro’s visit to Sydney was part of a study tour sponsored by the Australian Agency for International Development.

He was accompanied by Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Patricia Licuanan, Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority Deputy Director General Teodoro Pascua, Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo and DepEd
Assistant Chief Lotus Postrado.

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LIVING AND LEARNING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE
IS A CALL
MARCH 15, 2016 PAUL ARIAS

In support to the Department of Education’s MTB-MLE, President Benigno S. Aquino III said, “We should become tri-
lingual as a country. Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country.
Retain your dialect and connect to your heritage.”
The K to 12 Basic Education System has brought about changes in the Philippine education. One of the salient
features of the K to 12 curriculum is the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). It has been
implemented for four years since 2012. How has it been doing? How have pupils, teachers, and parents adapted to
this new policy?
MTB-MLE is the use of the learners’ first language, local language, dialect or vernacular language as a medium of
instruction and as a subject area. DepEd Order No. 16, s. 2012 required all public schools, specifically in Kindergarten,
Grades 1, 2, and 3, to implement the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education as part of the K to 12 Basic
Education Program. It was set to also support the goal “every child a reader and a writer by grade one.” Its main target
is “proficiency through language.”
This move of the Aquino administration is supported by various researches and surveys both here and abroad. In a
foreign study, it was established that countries like China and Japan use their native language in schools thereby
making them a well-developed nation. They don’t mind if they falter in the use of the English language.
In a series of Philippine-funded projects like the Lingua Franca Project and Lubuagan Project, which was implemented
in 1999, they reported that 921 schools including those for children of indigenous people have been modeling MTB-
MLE with support from local programs like Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), Third Elementary
Education Program (TEEP), Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP), and Summer Institute of the Philippines
(SIL).
This policy by the department springs from the notion that language is directly related to learning. One does not learn
in a language that he does not understand. Hence, pupils from Kindergarten to Grade Three are taught using the
major mother tongue of their region like Iloko, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Tausug. These are the same languages that
the learner has acquired and has been using in their homes. Further, the local culture and tradition will be preserved
and enhanced. MTB-MLE brings the child closer to his culture.
Despite these good intentions, issues have been thrown against MTB-MLE. First, the additional mother tongue as a
subject area lessens the time allotted for the children to learn and master English or Filipino. Well that may be true
but still the learning of second language like English and Filipino are still taught gradually until Grade Three which
means that they are not abolished as subject areas.
Second, it causes poor performance in English because they weren’t given more time as compared to the previous
pupils who were products of the former education system without MTB-MLE. As a matter of fact, the use of MTB-MLE
develops the child’s comprehension which is very vital in reading more than mere word recognition.
Third, there are not enough instructional materials to teach the local language. To solve this, teachers have been
taught and trained to construct textbooks and story books during national and regional seminar-workshops. In this
way, teachers can actually create their own big books and later share these to fellow teachers.
Fourth, children are becoming miniature adults. They now open up and express their opinion in conversations
participated in by their parents, teachers or some adults in their community or in school. It’s quite funny and ironic how
they use some vernacular expressions and gestures formerly used only by older people in the society. Some believe
that this appears rude for a child to join in an adult dialogue. Perhaps, let’s just put it this way that they are now better
able to express their own views, a sign that they are growing, learning, and becoming more responsible.
Fifth, what really happens in an MTB-MLE class is that pupils are learning a whole new language with words and
terminologies they never heard of. Some terms produce confusion to the parents, pupils, and even to the teachers
probably because these local lexicons are too old or too deep.
Sixth, pupils coming from the private schools have a hard time speaking and learning the mother tongue thereby
failing in this subject. These pupils are used to speaking English at home. They couldn’t even hurdle the Filipino
subject. So, the MTB-MLE is but an added burden.
Finally, parents clamor that MTB-MLE is like learning at home, so why send the child to school to learn a language
that he already knows.
Like any new system, MTB-MLE has loopholes and challenges serving as room for improvement. I am of the opinion
that this is going somewhere, to something better. The proponents of the MTB-MLE and the K to 12 in general planned
for this with only the good intentions in mind. In any endeavor, the beginning is always the hardest part. We’ve only
just begun. Let’s support the MTB-MLE program. Let’s live and learn the local language.
By 1987, all schools in Singapore are using English as a medium of instruction. Singapore's education
policy however requires schools to offer a choice of Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil as the second language.
This second language may also be used as the medium of instruction for social studies. The English
language was seen as the unifying factor since no ethnic group in Singapore can claim ownership of
English. Singapore also saw that English was becoming the language of choice in science and
technology. Since 1990, the number of households speaking English in Singapore has risen: The
Philippines, on the other hand, has been changing its language policy for decades. Presently, there is
even an online petition asking for the removal of the current chairperson of the Commission on the Filipino
Language:
The situation in the Philippines is similar to that of Singapore. The new DepEd K+12 curriculum is
embracing the Mother Tongue - Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). Students in the primary years
are taught all subjects (except Filipino and English) in their mother tongue. This is dramatically different
from that of Singapore. The requirements, first of all, on teachers are more diverse. Teachers need to be
able to teach math and science in the mother tongue of their pupils. Of course, not having science as a
formal subject in the early years, teachers then do not have to worry about teaching science in the native
tongue during the first few years of elementary school.

Singapore's approach is a lot more practical. Since the mother tongue is only taught as a language and
culture subject, one need not worry about what mother tongue should be used in any given school. The
choices are there and schools simply need to have a teacher or a group of teachers (depending on the
demand) who can speak fluently and teach the mother tongue. Math and science teachers simply have to
know how to teach their subjects in English. The school does not make a choice on what language should
be used as the medium of instruction. This has practical aspects especially in a place where there is
significant heterogeneity in languages. Take, for example, the following region in the Philippines: (The
following tables and figures shown here are copied from Jose Ramon G. Albert's (National Statistical
Coordination Board, Philippines) article, "Many Voices, One Nation: The Philippine Languages and
Dialects in Figures"
DepEd K+12 aims to teach students in the Philippines their mother tongue, English and Tagalog (Some
call this language Filipino or the national language while some claim that the national language, Filipino is
really a mix of the above languages). Looking at the above figure, one should not be surprised why such
language policy in the Philippines still causes people to be angry.
As we know, English is universally known as the most common way to communicate with other people. We must learn
English so that we can understand and connect with the different masses. We must learn Filipino so that we can
comprehend and connect with our fellow Filipinos. We must retain our dialect so that we cohere and understand our
heritage. We must retain our culture and practices because they have a significant value to us Filipinos. This gives us out
identity.

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These tells about Languages that we need to be preserved. We should speak English, which is the International language
as a second language and Our First Language; Filipino and enrich it, as well as connecting to our Beloved nation. While
also retaining the other tongues from other parts of our Country and connect to the heritage that it possess and the rich
culture.

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