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GRADUATE SCHOOL
Harnessing Technological Theories and Skills for Empowerment
EDUC 606
EDUCATIONAL THRUSTS AND CURRENT TRENDS
First Trimester, AY 2023-2024

CHAPTER 1 – VIGNETTES ON EDUCATIONAL SURVEYS AND PREMISES FOR REFORMS

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This Chapter highlights the surveys and studies leading to educational reforms and renewed interest in issues of quality
performance resulting from quality monitoring (supervision). Effectiveness and efficiency of schools were linked to accountability of
educational leaders.
The goals that are specific to education are defined in Article XIV, Section 3 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Section 3
mandates:
All educational institutions shall include the study of the Constitution as part of the curriculum. They shall inculcate
patriotism and nationalism, foster love of humanity, respect for human rights, appreciation of the role of the national heroes in the
historical development of the country, teach the rights and duties of citizenship, strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop
moral character and personal discipline, encourage critical and creative thinking, broaden scientific and technological knowledge and
promote vocational efficiency.
The goals of education at the regional level reflect those at the national level but are notified to suit local conditions and
concerns. Reforms in the elementary and secondary education including national and international funded programs gave impetus to
the implementation of plans and projects.
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1970 Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education

In 1970 the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) came out with a vital document entitled
Education for National Development: New Patterns, New Directions. The Commission was charged with the responsibility of
undertaking a thorough study and assessment of Philippine education in order to analyze the system’s performance and relevance to
national development goals, to ascertain and recommend ways and means for improving its efficiency within the limits of available
resources and to identify critical areas in Philippine education requiring more detailed study.
The commission noted the following:
● Strength of the Philippine educational system which flowed form the virtually unanimous high regard in which schooling was
held by the people, resulting in some of the highest enrolment ratios in the world and supported by relatively high levels of
public and private expenditures on education.
● The forces and circumstances which had attenuating effects on the system’s capacity to meet peremptory development needs
and which mitigated the optimization of social benefits that could be expected from the system like:
(1) The objectives prescribed for Philippine education, which served as goals of the entire social system and were
unachievable aims for the education system alone
(2) The apparent purpose of the education system in practice which primarily prepared the student for the next high year of
schooling, instead of preparing him for a worthwhile place in society
(3) The rapid state of population increase, which continues to create tremendous pressures on school facilities and resources.
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● The serious distortions and imbalances between popular expectations and educational standards, facilities and enrolment,
supply of graduates and demand for specific manpower skills and location of educational facilities and actual regional
development needs.

Expressively recommended by the PCSPE was the following:

● the restructuring of the educational ladder at the elementary and secondary levels – 6 years of the elementary and 5
years of secondary.
Under the proposal, the three years of the secondary level would provide a core program which would serve as firm
basis for streaming the students into an academic set or a vocational/technical set. The last two years would provide either
college preparation or terminal training for employment and/or further training in post-secondary course designed to produce
skilled and technician manpower.
● That a nationwide network of comprehensive secondary schools be organized and that strong counseling and
guidance services be developed and established in all high schools
Comprehensive high schools were established even without piloting the set-up so that quite a number were only
comprehensive high schools in name. a strong guidance service component would ensure that grouping of students to
academic and vocational streams would not be arbitrary, but again much had to be desired to label the program as effective.

The PCSPE came up with a strong statement that “secondary education was widely believed to be the weak link in
the educational ladder.” The people involved in secondary education labored to improve the curriculum and came up with the 2-2
Plan from 1958 to 1972 but due to lack of teacher training and physical facilities support as well as the culture bias on vocational
education the desired change was not effected. The 2-2 Plan was replaced by the Revised Secondary Education Program (RSEP) in
1973 and the New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) in 1989.
Another milestone in Philippine secondary education was the enabling act providing free secondary education in government
schools effective in June, 1988. This is in accordance with the Constitutional mandate of providing free secondary education to the
Filipino youth of high school age. In its third year (SY 1991-92) there was a noted increase of about 8% in the participation rate in the
government secondary schools.
Problems of oversized classes and lack of classrooms and teachers emerged. As if this was not enough, the clamor from the
local government units for the establishment of high schools in almost every municipality added to the pressure. Due to budgetary
constraints, a program known as Educational Service Contracting (ESC) is being implemented whereby excess students who can
no longer be accommodated in government schools, are admitted in the private schools with the government paying the students,
tuition fees. Hopefully, this set-up would ease congestion in government schools, thereby maximizing resources in the non-government
high schools. As of School Year 1990-1991 about 52,261 first year students were ESC beneficiaries.
In 1992 the Philippine provides free textbooks on a 1:1 basis aside from free tuition in government secondary schools. This
raised the participation rate to about 10%-20% and would hopefully reduce dropout rate from 5.8% to 3%.
While providing access to free secondary education in the rural areas the government thrust on quality education is being
sustained.
At the time of the survey and four years before the enactment of RA 6655 which nationalized all secondary schools and
mandated free secondary education, the capability of the Philippine secondary education sector was being stretched to the breaking
point. It was projected that the first batch of elementary school graduates under the Program for Decentralized Educational
Development (PRODED) would be about 4.0 million compared with 2.9 million in 1984. This would mean a corresponding increase
in the secondary enrolment. It was further predicted that teachers and financing would become inadequate and would be strained to
the limit within the decade.
There was low performance of the secondary education sector; much had to be desired as far as quality education was
concerned. This is supported by research findings revealing the need for higher critical, logical thinking skills, communication skills for
tertiary education, values development and general manipulative skills for the world of work.
The Report projected that due to financial difficulties provincial students would remain in the government schools and families
would move away from private schools to enter less expensive public schools.
Job opportunities for high school students and graduates were predominantly in the lower occupation groups particularly in
the service workers group – 17.2%; production and related workers group with 16.8%; and in the sales group – 16.4%.

Elementary Education

The Final Report on the New Elementary Education Curriculum records the historical background of the reform, to wit:
The need for reforms in elementary education became imperative when the results of Survey of Outcomes in Elementary
Education (SOUTELE) came out. A significant finding for example, clearly showed that the average sixth grader across the nation has
mastered only 50% of what he was expected to learn and that the learned subjects were the 3R’s.
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Experimental Elementary Education Program (EEEP). To implement the recommendations of SOUTELE, the
Experimental Elementary Education Program (EEEP) was launched by the Bureau of Elementary Education in 1978. It was conducted
for two years on an experimental basis. Involved were 1,500 classes in 125 school divisions throughout the country. The EEEP offered
fewer subjects in Grades I-III thereby allotting more time to the development of the basic skills, traditionally called the 3R’s in the lower
grades.
The results of the EEEP pointed to the viability of the experimental curriculum in developing the communication skills of
children in view of the reduction of the number of subjects and the increased time for instruction. The findings showed that the EEEP, if
improved and refined, could produce better results in terms of pupil achievement in comparison to the 1970 Revised Education
Program.
The findings of these major researches strengthened more than ever previous indications that elementary education can stand
considerable improvement. Among other things, these studies gave directions to the development of the 1983 new curriculum.
Program for Comprehensive Elementary Education (PROCEED). The impact of the aforementioned researches paved
the way for the development of a 10-year (1980-1990) Program for Comprehensive Elementary Education now better known for its
acronym, PROCEED.
The Program for Decentralized Education Development (PRODED). To serve as a launching pad for the major reform
envisioned in PROCEED, a Program for Decentralized Educational development which became well-known for its acronym PRODED was
installed. PRODED actually covers the first 4 years of the 10-year development program PROCEED. PRODED is a World Bank-assisted
project geared towards the improvement of the elementary education sector with focus on upgrading the quality of education and
increasing pupil participation and survival rates. This program also attempted to address disparities between and within regions in the
delivery of services and allocation of resources according to the degree of education deprivation of each region.
The Philippines-Australia Project in Basic Education (PROBE) is a five-year education project jointly funded by the
Republic of the Philippines and the Government of Australia through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
PROBE activities were initiated in February 1996 and concluded in 2001.
PROBE (Walsh) aims to improve basic education in English, Mathematics, and Science through upgrading teaching skills. The
project worked with 906 schools; 588 elementary schools, 300 secondary schools in Regions II, VII, IX, X and XIII as well as 14
teacher education institutions (TEIs) – three in each region and two in the National Capital Region. The pupil target groups in the
schools are:
ENGLISH
Elementary Grades 1 to 6
Secondary Years 1 to 4
SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS
Elementary Grades 5 & 6
Secondary Years 1 & 2

The 14 TEIs provided improved teacher preparation programs in English, Mathematics and Science as well as additional
support for the in-service component of the project.
PROBE was designed around four Components which became increasingly overlapping as the project developed and this
fusion was deliberately fostered since it was unrealistic and certainly not sensible to keep them separated. The four components were:
(1) Pre-service teacher education
(2) In-service teacher education
(3) Teacher resource materials
(4) Project management and monitoring.
This section focuses on the discussion of secondary education “widely believed to be the weak link in the educational ladder.”
(PCSPE)

Secondary Education

Curriculum-wise, there were two types of high schools in the Philippines: the general high schools offering a general
education program, and the special high schools offering a special curriculum (science, arts, or vocational curricula). There are more
secondary schools offering the general education program.
On the basis of funding, schools are either government-supported or privately-funded. Since the nationalization of barangay
high schools in 1989, there are now 3,394 government schools (public) and 2,156 private high schools, 60% of which are in the rural
areas.
There are provisions for secondary education outside the formal system. The Continuing Learning Delivery System now
referred to as Alternative Learning System (ALS) is a scheme developed by the Bureau of Nonformal Education (now Bureau of
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Alternative Learning System) to help out-of-school youth to finish high school. Learning modules are used as the instructional delivery
system.
Organizationally, the Philippine educational system is decentralized. The central office or national office is basically engaged in
policy formulation, while the regional and the division offices are implementing bodies. Supervision of schools is done at the regional
and sub-regional levels.
The education sector is the country’s biggest employer. In SY 1991-1992, the public secondary school system had a teaching
force of 87,001.
The profile of the secondary school teachers is as follows:
(1) Majority are females (75%)
(2) One hundred percent have a teacher certificate; and
(3) Sixty percent are bachelor degree holders and forty percent have post graduate degrees.

In mid-1987, the salaries of public secondary school teachers were nationalized. Starting 1988, maintenance and other
operating expenses were funded by the national government.
The 1987 Constitution provides for free secondary education. This is to widen the base of literacy which was placed at 89.8%
in 1989. A major drawback, however, is that secondary education, albeit free, is not compulsory.
To assist poor but deserving students, the government provides scholarships such as the Selected Ethnic Groups Educational
Assistance and Privileges of Sanggunian/Barangay Officials.
As of School Year 1991-92 enrolment in government secondary schools reached 2,695,541 while private high schools
registered an enrolment of 1,512,610.
Some basic statistics regarding attendance are the following:
(1) Transition rate from elementary to secondary is 91.85%.
(2) Enrolment rate is 65.48%
(3) Completion rate is 71.57%
Students drop out for a variety of reasons, the major ones being financial problems, change of residence and illness.
Curriculum development at the secondary level is the responsibility of the Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE) in
consultation with government and nob-n-government sectors, practitioners and field personnel. The Bureau, performing basically a
staff function, defines the desired learning competencies for the different year levels, conceptualizes the structure of the curriculum and
formulates national curricular policies. These functions are exercised in consultation with other agencies and sectors of society, e.g.,
industry, socio-civic groups, teacher training institutions, professional organizations, school administrators, parents, students, etc.
The subject offerings, credit points and time allotments for the different subjects are determined at the national level. In this
sense, there exists in the Philippines a national curriculum. Schools, however, are given the option to make modifications on the
national curriculum (e.g., content and in teaching strategies) to ensure that the curriculum responds to local concerns.
The curriculum is continuously undergoing reforms to ensure its relevance to changing needs and demands. The educational
program at the secondary level addresses itself to meeting the needs of the learners and those of society. To meet the needs of the
learners, the curriculum has been so designed to ensure that the student upon graduation from secondary school shall have learned
how to learn more content, acquire and attain academic excellence as well as the capability to cope with new knowledge and
technology.
Other than the formal subjects, students are encouraged to participate in co-curricular activities. Classroom learning points are
given for participation in co-curricular activities, and these points are considered in the selection of honor students. Co-curricular
activities are managed by students for students with the teacher as facilitator/moderator.
Some innovative teaching-learning strategies are the communicative approach, integrative approach and experiential approach
(especially in values education).
As for instructional materials, the government has established Instructional Materials Corporation. This agency is responsible
for the development, printing and distribution of quality textbooks and other instructional materials.
Applicants for teacher training programs must have completed secondary education and must obtain at least a percentile rank
of 55 in the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE).
The fourth-year degree program in teacher education consists of 99 units (52%) of general education courses, 32 units (22%)
of professional education courses and 30-45 units (26%) of specialization courses. The specialization courses offered under the degree
program, correspond to the curriculum offering at the secondary level.
To be able to teach in public secondary schools, teacher applicants must have obtained a degree in Bachelor of secondary
Education (BSEd). They must, in addition, have passed the civil service examination for teachers.
As a matter of policy, the government believes in the continuous upgrading of teachers’ competencies, for the quality of the
educational program depends largely on teacher quality. In-service training is, therefore, conducted at the national, regional division
and school levels. In addition, professional teachers’ organizations hold either annual or biennial conferences, seminars and workshops,
designed to train teachers on the latest trends and developments in their respective fields of specialization.
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Some problems confronting teachers are low salaries (the average pay is 3,317 pesos or about 120.35 dollars monthly), heavy
workloads, large classes and inadequate instructional materials. These problems are basically rooted in inadequate financial support for
education.
The most serious problems relative to student assessment are lack of financial support, lack of qualified test construction
personnel and difficulties in assessing affective learnings.
Teachers are assessed qualitatively during the school year through classroom observations conducted by the principal,
department head/subject coordinator or the division supervisor. The classroom observation generally focuses on the strong and weak
points of the teacher. A post-conference follows the classroom observation during which the observer discusses with the teacher his/her
observations and comments.
Presently, there us a trend towards collaborative monitoring of teaching-learning. No numerical or descriptive rating is involved
and the focus of observation is the teaching-learning process.
Principals are assessed basically on the basis of their administrative leadership ability. Assessment consists of paper-and-pencil
tests and interviews. The approach has ensured that those promoted are capable.
Schools assessment with regards to facilities is at the discretion of the regional director. Generally, it is the division or the
regional office that inspects the school buildings and facilities.

Rural Education at the Secondary Level

Before World War II in 1941, secondary schools were established only in provincial capitals and chartered cities in the
Philippines. Towards the end of the war in 1943-1944 the government allowed the establishment of provincial high schools outside the
provincial capitals and even in municipalities which became known as provincial and municipal high schools respectively. These schools
were locally funded, meaning the provincial high schools were funded by the provincial government and the municipal high schools by
the municipal government.
In 1962 there was a strong sentiment to make secondary education accessible to the rural folks. The enactment of Republic
Act No. 6054 providing for Barrio High School Charter led to the establishment of barrio high schools in the countryside. A barrio
(village) is a cluster of 20 or more families mostly living on a mountain sides and lakeshores and subsisting mainly on agriculture. About
1,000 barrio high schools were established from 1962-1970. These schools shared resources with existing elementary schools. Some
classes were held late in the afternoon after the classes of the elementary school pupils, thus maximizing resources and allowing the
high school students to help their parents in the farm and do household chores.
In the absence of the administrative personnel due to funding constraints the barrio high schools were attached to the nearest
“mother schools” usually national high schools. The mother school principals administered and supervised the barrio school/s with the
elementary school heads as the assistant principals. Elementary school teachers who have earned units towards specialization were
allowed to teach in the barrio high schools in the absence of qualified secondary school teachers in the area.
The original concept of the barrio high school later called barangay (cluster of families) high school was to offer terminal
secondary education – that students should be ready for the world of work after graduation. But the culture of Filipinos of giving much
importance to college education prevailed such that even graduates of barangay high schools wanted to go to college and take the
National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). Again due to budgetary constraints, the necessary equipment for the vocational
courses and recruitment of qualified teachers to teach both academic and vocational subjects were provided to the barest minimum.
The situation gave rise to problems of teacher recruitment such that teachers were even allowed to teach subjects that were neither
their major nor minor. The more competent teachers preferred to teach in the poblacion (municipality) where salaries were slightly
higher than those given to barangay high school teachers
In July, 1988 an Appraisal of the secondary Education Development Sector was conducted by the Asian Development Bank.
The report echoed the findings of the 1970 PCSPE report, to wit:
The secondary education system in the Philippines needs improvement. A rapid expansion of public high schools
without adequate planning and funding has resulted in a variety of secondary schools offering programs of varying quality.
The system suffers from inadequate management and evaluation capabilities as well. The private sector which plays a
significant role in the provision of secondary education also faces considerable difficulties.

The Appraisal Report became the basic document to improve the quality and efficiency of the secondary education system and
enhance its utility in terms of access and eqity.

The Premises for Development

The Secondary Education Development Program is built on four major premises:
(1) That the Program for Decentralized Educational Development (PRODED) will bring about higher quality and an increased
student input into the secondary education system;
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(2) That new demands will continue to be made on the system by the escalating competitiveness of a growing technological
society;
(3) That unless improved greatly, the capability of the system does not warrant its being able to cope with the demands
placed on it;
(4) That the present performance of secondary education leaves much to be done towards the achievement of the goals set.

All the project efforts were geared towards the overall improvement of the sector performance during and beyond the project
cycle in terms of quality, access, and efficiency. After six years of nationwide implementation of the New Elementary School Curriculum
(NESC) as scheme to evaluate pupil performance all over the country using the pre-posttest design was conducted for Grade VI classes
during the school year 1988-1989. An overall mean score of 47.34 across subject areas was obtained. This was 4.79% higher than the
overall mean obtained by the grade six classes in the old curriculum.

The PRODED graduates in 1989 were the inputs to the New Secondary Education Curriculum (NESC) during the SY
1989-1990.
A. The Development Plan
The plan period for the NSEC covers ten years, 1983-1993. The first phase from 1983 to 1988 is preparation for the
entry of the graduates of the NSEC who are expected to be in place in the high schools in 1989. The second phase from 1989
– 1993 will be the first implementation years of a new secondary education program with an adequate support system to
ensure quality instruction.

B. Capability Building
Within the first phase of development it is envisioned that every high school with at least 200- enrolment will be
developed to be able to provide the threshold requirements for the proper implementation of the curriculum. For this, the
planning and management teams who were trained at the INNOTECH have made regional plans and are expected to activate
themselves for this capability building. Priorities have been set by the teams. The leader school concept for development was
initiated through the selection of Regional Leader Schools (RLSs) and the training of their managers in 1984. By 1994, it is
further envisioned that the RLSs shall have strengthened their capability to undertake continuing staff development programs
on their own. This is part of the institutionalization of staff development at the local level. Teacher trainors and SEDP fellows
trained locally and abroad will form the corps of resource support.

C. Curriculum Improvement
Central to the study was the existing curriculum and its implementation. Admittedly, there are a great number of
variables affecting the performance of the school system. However, it is the educational content itself, the curriculum that
shapes these variables, particularly the institutional capability requirements for its proper implementation. The determinants
for these are the societal and the learners’ needs that the educational program must meet. These were identified through the
studies that were conducted. The most significant needs identified were for greater focus on values and productivity
development. In anticipation of better quality graduates of the NESC the need for and more content-oriented programmed
was also identified.

D. Staff Development
(1) A total of 44,446 private high school teachers and 126, 564 from the public high schools were mass trained over the last
four years covering the period 1989-1992. The data are based on teaching assignments of teachers especially in the
newly nationalized high schools where teachers had to undergo training twice or thrice.
To sustain the capability building, a continuing in-service training for teachers (INSET) has been programmed for the next
five years.
(2) Series of trainings were also conducted for principals in the Advanced Management Development Program (AMDP); for
supervisors and SSHTs in the Supervisory Skills Enhancement Program (SSEP); for teachers-in-charge and
officers-in-charge in national high schools.
(3) Local and foreign fellowship for SEDP trainors, teachers and supervisors across regions were likewise conducted. A group
of 15 Secondary Education Division chiefs/assistant chiefs, regional supervisors, assistant division superintendents
in-charge of secondary education and a BSE staff underwent HRD training in Australia; a total of 16 selected teachers and
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SSHTs across regions are undergoing a masteral degree program in the University of South Australia. Among their role
expectation is to coordinate the sustainability and institutionalization program of SEDP.