Environmental Education Should be Taught

Environment gives us the air we breathe, water to drink, food we eat, and shelter for ourselves.
It can also help on the economical aspect just like our beaches and mountains in the Philippines.
However, it is important to take note that even our environment has its own limitation. Due to human
activities that degrades the environment and greediness of some people, environment is starting to
have payback with all of the human doings. The air we breathe, water to drink, the food we eat can be
contaminated because of the pollution in the environment. Scientists say that the Earth is getting
warmer and warmer rapidly because of the human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and the
accumulation of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Lualhati (2019), stated that majority of the students in Batangas State University were not aware
on the environmental issues and policies in the Philippines. The study also found out that only moderate
number of students out of 127 surveyed participates in waste management and environmental
initiatives. It is very alarming number considering that the students responded on the study belongs to
tertiary level of education. It speaks volume on the lack of environmental education here in the
Philippines. Missing concepts in environmentalism will just produce students who have low level or lack
of environmental awareness. Garcia and Lunasing (2016), declared that person who lives in a society
who has environmental consciousness can be a person with high level of environmental awareness.

With all these things mentioned above, I think environmental education should be taught to the
students to raise their environment awareness. I firmly believe that we can start at the very young age.
Sensitizing and teaching them at the very young age on the stage of the environment can really help
raise their awareness in terms of how can environment affect them, how does it affect other people and
what they can do about it. With these, students will now know the importance of recycling of materials
and proper segregation of the waste products. Using this foundation, we can continue teaching them on
the higher level by teaching them government policies needed to be followed, tools and, innovation to
raise their awareness and hopefully encourage and inspire them to save the environment for the future
generations.

References
Garcia, E. C., & Luansing, B. (2016). Environmental awareness among select graduating college students
in Region IV-A. LPU-Laguna Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 5(1), 1-10.

Lualhati, G. P. (2019). Environmental awareness and participation of Filipino pre-service teachers.  JPBI
(Jurnal Pendidikan Biologi Indonesia), 5(2), 345-352.
 STUDENTS CAN`T READ PROPERLY AFTER 11 YEARS OF SCHOOLING

At a young age, our parents are already teaching us how to read by just simple enumerating the
letters in the alphabet or even reading some syllables in the Abakada book. As we grow older, we need
to make a jump from reading basic syllables to reading words to sentences and finally, understanding
sentences are trying to say. Literacy is very important aspect on a person`s life because it greatly
contributes on how the person will interact and function in the society.

There will be no learning if there are no reading. How can we get the idea that the authors and
books are trying to convey if we can`t read? How can we make sure that we are not being fooled by
signing some random papers? How can we communicate with others if we can`t read? I know that I`ve
mentioned it before but I have to give emphasis on the importance of literacy particularly reading in
how we will deal and function in our society. As a Senior High School teacher, it is really frustrating to
see students who are struggling on reading some basic words that even an elementary student can
easily read. School is part on the majority of their life, and you expect them to have an easy time just
reading, never mind understanding what they have just read to be only be disappointed on the reality.
Teachers on the basic grade level are having a hard time teaching their pupil how to read because of the
fact that some are advanced enough with that lesson, and some are lagging behind on the reading
lesson. Which leads us to the responsibility of the parents to at least teach their children at the very
young age how to read so that teachers will not be confused on how to deal with their different types of
students. Another factor that leads us to students who can`t read after so many years in school, is the
ratio in the number of students to a teacher. According to The Global Economy, student-teacher ratio on
the elementary school in the Philippines on the year 2017, is on 29.08 Teachers cannot focus on all of
their pupil and teach them all how to read because of they are greatly outnumbered with the additional
factor of time constraint.

The Department of Education should focus more on hiring basic education teachers because it is the
most crucial part on the learning progress of a children. I believe that the Department of Education
should stop their mass promotion program and focus on the quality and not the quantity of the students
produced on every school year. I also believe that the skill and capacity of a teacher should not be
judged on how many students passed on his/her class but on the quality of the students he/she
produced after the school year because it forces the teacher to just pass their students who cannot
read.

Reference

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Philippines/Student_teacher_ratio_primary_school/#:~:text=The
%20latest%20value%20from%202017,is%2021.79%20students%20per%20teacher.
 THINKING SKILLS OF STUDENTS NEED TO BE DEVELOPED

Thinking skills are the mental activities we use to process information, ideas, make connection
with the past information and ideas and to create new ideas. We also use thinking skills when we try to
analyze problems, ask question, make plans, and execute those plans. Everybody has thinking skills, we
can sharpen it through are experiences, but most often than not, we sharpened this tool of us in the
school where we face different challenges commonly on the academic aspect of education. Do students
really develop their thinking skills? Does our education prioritize developing it? Or we just evaluate the
students based on some numerical standings?

Ramos (2018), revealed that 45 Senior High Students of LFG-Diamantina National High School
got a mean score of 28.01 in the Critical Thinking Test which belongs to Beginning Thinker in the Critical
Thinking Skills. He also mentioned that critical thinking skills of the students are not yet fully developed.
The study proves that the students did not attain the proper critical thinking skills on their lower level of
education. Mean score of students assigned on the instruction with creative activities is numerically
higher than the students assigned on the instruction without creative activities (Ramirez and Ganaden,
2008). With these numbers, it is very obvious that Senior High School subjects and teachers need to
infuse critical thinking skills to help them assess and solve the problems are they proceed in their
journey of life.

According to Marquez (2017), a person`s mid to late formative years (5 to 8 years old) are very
important for the development of their critical thinking skills. This give importance and responsibility to
the basic education to develop, encourage, and habituate children to think critically on their early year
level. However, it is not being given enough emphasis because our education focuses on numerical
standings that mostly promotes lower order thinking skills such as remembering and memorizing.
Another problem mentioned by Marquez (2017), is that teaching in the Philippines is limited to the
didactic approach and there is not enough reflection the lessons discussed inside the classroom. Maybe
it because didactic approach in teaching is much easier as compared to the reflective approach because
of the limit of time that must be spent for every lesson. Which lead us to I think is another problem is
quantity of lessons students and teachers must tackle for every school year in order to meet and
finished the curriculum standard imposed by the Department of Education. With these different
reasons, I believe that we should make a little change in our education system and focus more on
developing the critical thinking skills of the students to produce not only laborers but also critical
thinkers citizen that may help our country.

References
Marquez, L. P. (2017). Critical Thinking in Philippine Education: What We Have and What We
Need. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS), 15(2).
Ramirez, R. P. B., & Ganaden, M. S. (2008). Creative activities and students’ higher order thinking
skills. Education quarterly, 66(1).

Ramos, J. J. R. (2018). Critical Thinking Skills Among Senior High School Students and its Effect in Their
Academic Performance. International Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 3(2), 61-73.

SEX EDUCATION SHOULD BE ADDED ON THE CURRICULUM

How many times did we use Algebra in real life? When is the last time we use some quadratic
equation in our whole life? I`m willing to bet unless you are a teacher and scientist that you are having a
hard time remembering it. As hard as Algebra is, it is very important in our life, but so as sex education.
Even if you promised yourself that you will be only sexually active when you are married, it is important
to have knowledge on the sex anatomy, contraceptives, calendar method and other topics about sex
education.

The United Nations Population Fund stated that the Philippines has a sharp rise in teenage
pregnancy over the last two decades in the year of 2013. Moreover, the Philippine Statistics Authority,
conducted a survey in 2016 and revealed that 35.5 percent of young male Filipinos and 28.7 percent of
young female have already engaged on premarital sex at the age of 15 to 24 years old. Furthermore, 2.6
percent are pregnant with their first child at the time of data survey. Another risk of lack of knowledge
about sex education is the transmission of the HIV. According to the Department of Health-Epidemiology
Bureau, 29 % of new HIV cases in the Philippines in 2019 were 15-24 years old at the time of testing. Sex
is natural and will happened with or without sex education. Imagine the life of the youth with kids and
also their children because they don`t know what to do in that kind of situation. Imagine if they know
that they should use condom when they will have sex. Research show that sex education is beneficial in
the decreasing in the number of teenage pregnancy and HIV prevention.

I can`t understand why conservatives always say that sex education only encourages the youth to
explore sex. With that logic, driving lesson encourages their students to wreak havoc on in the streets
and should be stop. I think sex education should be added on the high school curriculum and it should
be mandatory. Why would you deprive the students some important knowledge that they need and can
use later in their life?

References

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2016/04/04/a-third-of-pinoy-youth-had-premarital-sex/#:~:text=OVER
%20a%20third%20of%20Filipinos,females%20have%20engaged%20in%20PMS.

https://www.themostpopularlists.com/2019/07/the-philippines-has-highest-teenage.html

https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/storage//advfy/documents/fssexcur.pdf