ISSUES AND PROBLEMS IN PHILIPPINE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

PHD 01 507

Asynchronous Tsk No. 1 (December 10, 2023)

Read the course material below on the “Issues Regarding the Educational System”.
Write a general reflection/insight from the reading material.

It is an inevitability for certain challenges, problems, and concerns to surface in the

educational sector. Hence, this means that rather than impeding education, the Department of
Education progressively take care of each of these problems. Recognizing that educators are
experts at adaptability and flexibility—two qualities that are essential for resolving problems and
challenges in the classroom—halting on education should never be an option.
Despite being relatively new to this field, having taught for seven years and hopefully for
many more, I can say that from first-hand experience, there are a lot of problems and worries that
we have encountered.
As for the decline in quality of education here in the Philippines which comprises by the
following based on the article below which are, quality of education, budget for education,
affordability of education, drop-out rate, and mismatch. Additionally, I think that there are several
factors that has been affecting the quality of education, as pertaining to what were stated on the
article presented, which we fail to provide to our learners. Respectively, are having (1) Sufficient
educational funds. Personally, this factor is very much crucial in providing quality in education.
Because every move, every project to implement, every activity to carry out, and every learning
facility to sustain requires funds. So how can an educational institution functional well, and provide
better if it is not thoroughly and properly supported? For an instance, the Maintenance and Other
Operating Expenses (MOOE) that are allocated per school are insufficient to meet the demands of
the institution, especially the facilities that will make learners have satisfactory learning
experiences. An enormous amount of school finances is needed annually for the upkeep of the
school's buildings and grounds, not to mention various programs that require funding for learning
and growth. The fact that the public sector's allotted school MOOE is dependent on the enrollment
of a certain institution is also rather bothersome. Yes, eventually the costs will decrease, but that
doesn't always mean the school has "adequate" funding for instruction—funds are still insufficient.
Therefore, why can't it be done by facility or building, excluding the of the number of students
enrolled in each school? The MOOE will be fully developed and maximized in this way. Provided, it
ought to come despite asking that each educational facility has to submit concrete evidence of its
operations, such as invoices, contracts, Inventory breakdowns, bids, etc.
(2) Provision of educational gadgets and learning materials. While educators are
constantly coming up with innovative ways to improve the teaching-learning process, it would have
a greater impact if students were given technology to aid in their academic endeavors. Aside from
books, notes, and modules which are useful, but using educational technology in concurrence with
appropriate usage guidelines and teacher supervision can make a big difference. They'll have
access to an ever-greater variety of materials that they can utilize to further their education. This
project might be carried out through a public-private partnerships in which businesses would fund
schools to provide this instructional technology. Since we are continuously emerging in the
technological era, why not maximize the utilization of technology in classroom instruction. Right?
We are being left behind by other countries in terms of quality, might be because on how we lack
on educational resources to sufficiently deliver quality in the teaching and learning process—and
this has got to stop. Education should never be deprived rather it should be amplified.
(3) Accessibility to Education. I think that having a public and free educational facility
which are accessible from far flung and remote areas should be considered. It can be a simple
infrastructure which can accommodate education itself. This is I think is one of the reasons why
families from the lower end of the pyramid are choosing to not send or having to stop their children
to go in a higher educational facility, because of the location of the school, so instead of using the
money for transportation fare, or for pocket money, it should be used for food and other
necessities. Plus, if the school is located far from those areas, imagine what children need to go
through to attend school—they might be walking for hours, crossing lakes, rivers, and the likes to
be educated. And so I think that having small educational facilities for people from those areas
should be prioritized.
Lastly, (4) Fourth, teachers’ professional development should always be free of
charge and aligned to their forte. Professional development is vital in this day and age.
Whereas, educators should always be three or five steps ahead of their students which means,
that having frequent professional development symposiums for teachers are essential to
maintaining and delivering the high-quality education that each of our educational institutions
offers. Plus, the teachers who should attend the seminar should be aligned to their area of
specialization. It is hard to develop understanding if it is not within our scope of forte. Having
professional development seminars which are aligned to teachers’ specializations will result into
triggering improvement and growth amongst educators in various fields. It will then produce
quality and effective learning experience for learners—holistically and academically.

Submitted by:

LORIEFAE MAE M. POLON

Name of Student
ISSUES REGARDING THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
When it comes to influence, the educational system of the Philippines has been
affected immensely by the country's colonial history including the Spanish period,
American period, and Japanese rule and occupation. Although having been
significantly influenced by all its colonizers with regard to the educational system,
the most influential and deep-rooted contributions arose during the American
occupation (1898); it was during this aforementioned period that 1. English was
introduced as the primary language of instruction and 2. A public education system
was first established - a system specifically patterned after the United States school
system and further administered by the newly established Department of Instruction.
Similar to the United States of America, the Philippines has had an extensive and
extremely inclusive system of education including features such as higher education.
The present Philippine Educational system firstly covers six years of
compulsory education (from grades 1 to 6), divided informally into two levels - both
composed of three years. The first level is known as the Primary Level and the second
level is known as the Intermediate Level.
However, although the Philippine educational system has extensively been a model
for other Southeast Asian countries, in recent years such a matter has no longer
stood true, and such a system has been deteriorated - such a fact is especially evident
and true in the country's more secluded poverty-stricken regions.
Nationwide the Philippines faces several issues when it comes to the educational
system.

Quality of Education

First of which, is the quality of education. In the year 2014, the National
Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE)
results show that there had been a decline in the quality of Philippine education at
the elementary and secondary levels. The students' performance in both the 2014
NAT and NCAE were excessively below the target mean score. Having said this, the
poor quality of the Philippine educational system is manifested in the comparison of
completion rates between highly urbanized city of Metro Manila, which is also
happens to be not only the country's capital but the largest metropolitan area in the
Philippines and other places in the country such as Mindanao and Eastern Visayas.
Although Manila is able to boast a primary school completion rate of approximately
100 percent, other areas of the nation, such as Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, hold
primary school completion rate of only 30 percent or even less. This kind of statistic
is no surprise to the education system in the Philippine context, students who hail
from Philippine urban areas have the financial capacity to complete at the very least
their primary school education.

Budget for Education

The second issue that the Philippine educational system faces is the budget for
education. Although it has been mandated by the Philippine Constitution for the
government to allocate the highest proportion of its government to education, the
Philippines remains to have one of the lowest budget allocations to education among
ASEAN countries.

Affordability of Education

The third prevalent issue the Philippine educational system continuously encounters
is the affordability of education (or lack thereof). A big disparity in educational
achievements is evident across various social groups. Socioeconomically
disadvantaged students otherwise known as students who are members of high and
low-income poverty-stricken families, have immensely higher drop-out rates in the
elementary level. Additionally, most freshmen students at the tertiary level come from
relatively well-off families.

Drop-out Rate (Out-of-school youth)

There is a graved need to address the alarming number of out-of-school youth in the
country. The Philippines overall has 1.4 million children who are out-of-school,
according to UNESCO's data, and is additionally the only ASEAN country that is
included in the top 5 countries with the highest number of out-of-school youth. In
2012, the Department of Education showed data of a 6.38% drop-out rate in primary
school and a 7.82% drop-out rate in secondary school. Castro further stated that "the
increasing number of out-of-school children is being caused by poverty. The price
increases in prices of oil, electricity, rice, water, and other basic commodities are
further pushing the poor into dire poverty." Subsequently, as more families become
poorer, the number of students enrolled in public schools increases, especially in the
high school level. In 2013, the Department of Education estimated that there are 38,
503 elementary schools alongside 7,470 high schools.
Mismatch
There is a large mismatch between educational training and actual jobs. This stands
to be a major issue at the tertiary level and it is furthermore the cause of the
continuation of a substantial amount of educated yet unemployed or underemployed
people. The number of educated unemployed reaches around 600,000 per year. He
refers to said condition as the "education gap".

Reference:https://www.k12academics.com/Education%20Worldwide/Educatio
n%20in%20the%20Philippines/issues-regarding-educational-system