Report on Status of Philippine Education

The Philippine educational system is public-sector dominated in the

elementary level but becomes more privatized as it moves into the
higher levels of learning. The public sector is responsible for 95.2% of
elementary education and 60.8% of secondary education.
7 facts about education system in the
Philippines
• No 1. Filipinos place a very high regard for and value on society where
there is much poverty and where members of narrow affluent classes
are associated with a good education; education is thought to be a
possible ladder for social mobility. However, while we do have an
extensive educational system, what we have ironically perpetuates
inequity rather than provide the equalizing factor.
• No 2. For the poor majority of the Philippine population, earning a
college degree is an arduous climb or, more precisely, an
unaffordable one. The Philippine educational system is public-sector
dominated in the elementary level but becomes more privatized as it
moves into the higher levels of learning.
 The public sector is responsible for 95.2% of elementary
education and 60.8% of secondary education. In the tertiary level,
however, there is a complete reversal of government participation
where it constitutes only 25.3%. This even includes schools offering
only post-secondary, non-degree vocational and technical courses. If
we take those offering higher education alone, the public sector
accounts for only 21.3%.
No 3. The 69.2% enrolment rate jibes with the relatively higher literacy
rate in the Philippines. But being literate does not necessarily mean
being adequately skilled for high-level work. Thus, out of every 100
pupils who enter elementary education, only 63 will be able to
complete the program and of these, only a little more than 40 will
finish high school.
• No. 4. As of 1989, there were some 810 schools providing programs
for higher learning, of which 171 were government-owned. Of these
171 public tertiary schools, 82 institutions are classified either as
state colleges or universities (SCUs with the University of the
Philippines System having nine campuses. At present, the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines has been named the most
comprehensive SCU university system because it has 6 campuses and
10 branches and extensions. These SCUs are supposed to provide a
wide range of programs at affordable rates. The remaining 639
schools, constituting almost 79% of tertiary institutions, are all
privately owned. This has been the basis for calling the educational
system commercialized and privatized.)
• * 2010- 1,573 private institutions
• 607 state run colleges and universities
• Total = 2,108
• No. 5. Eight big private non-sectarian colleges and universities in
Manila account for 50% of the total private tertiary school enrolment
in the national level and 70% in Metro Manila. These are Arellano
University (AU), Centro Escolar University (CEU), Far Eastern
University (FEU), FEATI, Manila Central University (MCU), Manuel L.
Quezon University (MLQU), University of Manila (UM), and University
of the East (UE). Most of the students in these Manila universities and
colleges come from the middle class. Considerable portions come
from the provinces and are crammed in dormitories and boarding
houses, most of which continue to operate despite their sordid
states.
• No. 6a. There have emerged a select few elite colleges and universities in
terms of education quality. These are mostly sectarian universities,
particularly the Ateneo de Manila University, the De la Sale University
(DLSU), and, to a certain extent, the University of Sto. Tomas (UST). Each
institution has its forte: liberal arts and law in Ateneo; business and
computer course at De la Salle; and journalism and medicine at the UST.
These schools are the best private institutions in the Philippines. But they
are available only at prohibitive costs, making them accessible only to the
children of the narrow elite class. The high rate of tuition fees enables
them to hire better qualified teachers, provide the best facilities, as well as
admit students with better high school education, all the while maintaining
a high degree of profitability.
• No. 6b. Therefore, middle-class students who gain access to tertiary
education have to content themselves with inexpensive private schools at
the expense of education quality. The promise, however, is often realized
in the domestic service sector with the graduates working as sales persons
or abroad as domestic helpers and contractual workers. It is only the very
narrow elite class, who can pursue relatively high quality of education in
private elite schools, who land on high-paying management jobs and
business opportunities. It is likewise these elite schools which produce
future leaders of society, both in the economic and the political arenas. As
has been pointed out by many critics, the Philippine educational system
has an institutional mechanism for a “financial-capacity based societal
segregation,” a reflection of the inequitable social structure, and an
institution which ensures the reproduction of such inequitable social
structure.
• No. 7. For every 100 pupils who begin Grade 1, only 67 finish Grade 6; of
the drop-outs, 8% occur between Grades 1 and 2; these people never
become fully literate. The rest drop out between Grades 4 and 6 (DECS
1998). In high school, of an original 100 in Grade 1, only 46 finish high
school. This creates another cohort of out-of-school youth with few
possibilities for gainful employment. In high school, even among those who
survive, achievement in English, science and mathematics is low, with at
best Grade 7 and 8 levels by international standards.
• As shown by the report of the Commission on Higher Education (1997-98),
the trend of courses taken by students in the tertiary level has not changed
for the past 10 to 15 years with commerce and business management
courses on top, followed by education and teacher training, engineering
and technology courses, mathematics and computer science, medical and
health related programs.