Trends, Issues and Policies in Philippine Education System

1. Trends, Issues and Policies in Philippine Education System

4. The Philippine Education System at a Glance

5. The Philippine education system can be described as a dynamic one. It has undergone several stages of development from the pre-Spanish era to the present. Dating back at the pre-Magellanic period, the Philippine education was informal, unstructured and without method. Learning was more experimental than theoretical.

6. During the Spanish era, education was done by missionaries for the elite and for religious instruction. The enactment of Education Decree of 1863 marked the beginning of primary education for boys and girls in each municipality and a normal school for male teachers. Primary instruction was free and Spanish instruction was compulsory. Education was inadequate, suppressed and controlled during that period. When the Americans came, they established a free public school system. Instruction was done in English to train people for the duties of citizenship and democracy, by non-commissioned officers and chaplains.

8. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports was created via Education Act 0f 1982, which later became the Department of Education, Culture and Sports by virtue of Executive Order 117 in 1987. The structure of DECS remained unchanged until 1994 when the CHED, and in 1995, when TESDA were established, to supervise tertiary degree programs and non-degree technical-vocational programs, via RA’s 7722 and 7796, respectively.

9. The Educational Ladder

10. The Philippine Education delivered its programs through the formal and non-formal and informal ways. The new entry age for elementary education, starting SY 1995-96 was 6 years old; the secondary education, 12-15 years old; and tertiary education, 16-19 years old. The formal education ladder has 6-4-4 structure, or 6 years for elementary education; 4 years, secondary; and 4 years for tertiary education, except for some courses like engineering, law, medical sciences with 5 or more years of schooling. Pre-school education is optional. Some private schools offer seven years of elementary education, while others require pre-school or kindergarten education.

11. Non-formal education is an alternative system that is focused on OSY and OSA. Its main thrust is on literacy education and training for employable and/or productive skills, coupled with citizenship training.

12. Philosophy of Education The philosophy states that education shall develop citizen who believe in God, love their country and fellowmen and actively participate in building a just Filipino society and conserving and developing the nation’s human and material resources.

13. Vision of Philippine Education The vision can be quoted as “We have seen the Filipino nation of the future in the best of the Filipino today. Nurturing, enhancing and articulating the best in us are the central tasks of education”.

14. Aims of Education Education shall aim in the fullest potentials of all individuals, the only sure way of achieving our common and shared national goals. It should develop all socially valuable talents of persons as its contribution to building an adhesive, peaceful and progressive society. From this educational experience, students are expected to emerge as respected and valued participants in the global community because of their world class experience and excellence in ability.

15. Mission of Education Basic education intends to provide universal access to quality and relevant education through formal, informal and non-formal channels. It shall develop in the young Filipino, including the disadvantage groups of children with special needs and extremely difficult circumstances, the knowledge, the skills and attitude necessary for active and successful participation in the economic, political, socio-cultural, spiritual and moral life in just and humane society.

16. Mandates The mandates of the Philippine education can be gleaned from the Education Act of 1982; the 1987 Philippine Constitution; and Executive Order No. 117. Education Act of 1982 mandates that the education system to (i) provide for a broad general education that will assist each individual in the peculiar ecology of his own society to (a) attain his potential as a human being, (b) enhance the range and quality of individual and group participation in the basic functions of society, and (c) acquire the essential educational foundation of his development into a productive and versatile citizen; (ii) to train the nation manpower in the middle level skills required for national development; (iii) develop the profession that will provide leadership for the nation in the advancement of knowledge for improving quality of human life; and (iv) respond effectively to changing needs and conditions of the nation through a system of educational planning and evaluation.

17. The 1987 Philippine Constitution explicitly provides in Art. XIV, Sec. 1, stating that the “State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all”. The Executive Order No. 117, S. 1987, identifies that DECS to become primary responsible in the formulation, planning, implementing and coordinating the policies, plans, programs, and projects in the areas of formal and non-formal education in all levels, be it elementary, secondary, tertiary, technical-vocational, non-formal, sports and culture; supervise all educational institutions, both public and private and provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete, adequate and integrated system of education relevant to the goals of national development.

18. Organic and Management Structure of DECS The DECS is divided into two major structural components: the central office and field offices. The central office has five (5) service units, namely: (i) planning; (ii) financial management; (iii) administrative; (iv) Human Resource Development; and (v) technical services. It has four (4) bureaus, namely: (i) Bureau of Elementary Education; (ii) Bureau of Secondary Education; (iii) Bureau of Non-Formal Education; and (iv) Bureau of Physical Education and Sports. Its five (5) centers are identified as (i) School Health and Nutrition Center; (ii) National Education Testing and Research Center; (iii) Educational Development Projects Implementing Task Force; (iv) National Educators Academy of the Philippines; and (v) DECS Learning Materials Center.

19. Cultural agencies attached to DECS are the (i) National Museum; (ii) National Library; (iii) National Historical Institute; (iv) Record Management and Achiever’s Office; and (v) the Commission on Philippine Languages. The field office consisted of regional and sub-regional offices. The regional offices numbering 16, including the ARMM is headed each by a regional director; a regional secretary for ARMM; 134 provincial and city school divisions, each headed by a school superintendent; and 2,128 school districts, each headed by a district supervisor. As of 1996-97, the 46,644 schools established nationwide are categorized as 36,640 elementary schools; 6,411 secondary schools; 1,276 post secondary schools; and 1,287 higher education institutions (HEI’s). Of the 46,644 schools, 39,154 are government schools; and 7,490, private schools.

20. Problems of Philippine Education Ever since the Philippine education system was established, problems were always part of its operation. The problems besetting the modernized education system are those that pertain to (i) access to basic education, (ii) quality of basic education, (iii) weaknesses and/or ailments of the public school system, and (iv) underinvestment in education.

21. Access to Basic Education In 1992, there were 12,956 or 30 percent of 43,302 barangays without elementary schools and only 11,800 or 35 percent of 34,081 existing elementary schools offer only primary education. Seventy five (75) or 4.9 percent of 1,537 municipalities were without either public or private high school; 175 or 11.4 percent municipalities were without public high school. in 1990, participation rate among the 7-12 years old was 82.9 percent only. This translates to 1.5 million school-aged children who are outside the formal school system; and about 4 million of the 45,447 million population, 10 years old and above were illiterates.

22. Quality of Basic Education The quality of basic education has been immensely affected by these inadequacies in terms of (i) school buildings, teachers, instructional materials and equipment have not been fully provided in schools; (ii) achievement levels in elementary and secondary education fall below standard. The possible causes of poor quality of education are traceable to: (a) reduction in the contact hours for academic subjects under the new elementary and secondary curricula; (b) poor quality of instruction owing to the poor student input to teacher’s education program; (c) pedagogical processes or student-teacher interaction in classroom is generally characterized by one way flow where teachers delivers the lesson; (d) unqualified teachers to teach subjects outside their areas of specialization; and (e) centralized system of academic supervision and management discourages innovations and initiatives at the school level.

23. Weaknesses/Ailments of the Public School System According to EDCOM Report (Making Education Work, 1992), the quality of the Philippine education is continuously declining in terms of basic education failure to (i) teach the competence the average citizens need to become responsible, productive and self-fulfilling; (ii) colleges and technical and vocational schools are not producing the manpower we need to develop our economy; and (iii) graduate education is mediocre and failed to generate the research-based knowledge we need to create more job and raise value of production. This decline has been attributed to a number of causes, namely: (i) low budget, high enrollment; (ii) shortage of teachers; (iii) shortage of classrooms; and (iv) shortage of textbook.

24. Low budget, high enrollment. For SY 1999-2000, DECS budget was P83.35 billion or 18 percent of the national budget. Although budgetary priorities was given to education sector, such budgetary increases in the last few years were not enough to address the influx or blotting enrollment in the basic education levels. In SY 1989-90, enrollment for the public schools has increased by 22 percent while enrollment in the private school has gone down, indicating that more parents were enrolling their children in public schools. This implies that the government should totally support the free basic education.

25. As per DECS estimate, the government would spend an average of P4, 753 for every public elementary or secondary students. This amount would cover more P74 billion of DECS budget and less amount to meet fund requirements to cover shortages for teachers, textbooks and classrooms. Shortage of teachers. Since the beginning of 1990, the number of public school teachers has decreased 13 percent from about 372,000 in 1989-1990 to about 328,000 this year. This is in direct contrast to the growing enrollment in public schools this decade.

26. In the last four years, there was an average of more than 30,000 vacant teaching position in public schools. This school year (SY 1999-2000), at least 19,000 additional teachers are needed to meet the enrollment requirements in elementary and secondary levels. To address this gap, an amount at P1.86 billion is needed to cover shortages at the end of the year, according to DECS. The acute shortage is forcing some mentors to handle two or more grade levels. Latest available data shown that almost 20,500 teachers handle multigrade classes. Public high school teachers are focused to handle a maximum of nine academic subjects. This situation not only drains the energy of teachers, but also affects the learning process of their students. Teachers with excess load naturally tend to relax or rest at some points because of stress and fatigue.

27. Shortage of textbook. On the average, seven students share the use of textbook in each of their subject. in order to achieve an ideal of 1:1 textbook to student ratio, the government needs at least 92.8 million new book. Today, the number of books available in the system is more or less 18.28 million. This translates to roughly P5 billion since the average cost per book is pegged at P70.00. If the government seeks to achieve a 1:1 student to textbook ratio before 2004, an appropriation of P2.5 billion which must increase annually by P500 million should be infused to the system beginning this year. This is almost impossible as the government has yet to release the P850 million for textbooks two years ago.

28. Classroom shortage and more. Instead of decreasing classroom shortage, the past three school years witnessed an increasing demand for classrooms. From 1996 to 1998, classroom shortage has grown an alarming 63 percent. This implies that old school building are rapidly deteriorating while the government is not providing new ones. According to DECS estimates, at least 21,500 new classrooms are needed to accomplish this year’s enrollment for the first two levels. Such classroom shortage translates to P6.6 billion since P305,000 is needed to build new classroom. But again the problem is where to source the needed funds. The situation is even worse in some remote areas. There are 11,420 elementary schools in the country without toilets. There are also 12,956 barangays that do not have a single elementary schools, while about 13 municipalities in four regions do not have public or private schools.

29. Underinvestment in education. This is a perennial problem that is besetting the education system. This situation has been brought about by (i) increase in the education budget from 1986 to 1989 was not sustained in the succeeding three—year period; (ii) real per capita expenditures declined starting in 1990; (iii) the growth in the universal size of the education budget was attributed to the growth of salary input which account for about 80 percent of the total education expenditures; and (iv0 due to lack of funds, the education sector has failed to take advantage of recent technological advances. Computers are practically non-existent in public schools.

30. Trends, Issues and Policies Improving Access to and Quality of Basic Education

31. Establishment of schools. In accordance with the Constitution mandate to make the basic education accessible to all, DECS adopted a priority program of establishing elementary schools in barangay without elementary schools and the establishments of high schools in municipalities without high schools. Between 1992 and 1996, the number of rural barangays without elementary schools was reduced from 6,019 to 4,231; while the number of incomplete elementary schools was reduced from 6,139 to 2,569. At present, out of the 75 municipalities without public or private high school in 1992, only 26 municipalities remain without a secondary school.

32. Creating item position for teacher. From 1992 to 1997, a total of 50,858 items were provided to address the problem of teacher shortage. In SY 1997-98, teacher’s requirement stood at 11,670 to meet enrollment increases. With 7,000 new teaching position authorized in 1997, a backlog of 4,674 teachers remained.

33. Social Reform Agenda (SRA). The SRA is a package of intentions that Philippine Government is implementing to improve the welfare of the disadvantage groups and facilitate their early integration into the political and economic mainstream. It consists of (i) access to quality basic education, (ii) asset reforms and sustainable development of productive resources and access to economic opportunities. DECS is the local agency to work towards the fulfillment of 15 basic reform commitments in collaboration with local government. Under the 1996 Poverty Alleviation Fund, 2,240 nurse items were provided for deployment to the SRA provinces.

34. Entry age for grade 1 and national school enrollment day. Starting SY 1995-96, the entry age for grade 1 was reduced from 7 to 6 years old, thus increasing the number entering grade 1 pupils. To enable DECS adequate time to plan effectively for teaching assignment, classrooms and textbooks, an early enrollment day for entering grade 1 pupils is adopted. The National School Enrollment Day is held on the last Monday of January for every year.

35. Education for All (EFA). The four goals of EFA Plan of Action are (i) early childhood care and development; (ii) universalization of quality primary education; (iii) continuing education; and (iv) eradication of illiteracy. Alternative non-formal education delivery schemes were developed and implemented for selected cultural communities.

36. Non-Formal Education (NFE). This scheme aims to raise the literacy and numeracy skills of the poor to enhance their capacity to engage in self-help and community development activities. It seeks to expand access to basic education by establishing an NFE equivalency and accreditation system and alternative learning program to serve community with high drop-outs and low participation rate. The activities of NFE are focused on literacy classes and skills development.

37. Multigrade (MG). The multigrade schooling program was implemented via provision of MG instructional package, training of teachers and supervisors and monitoring and evaluation of program implementation.

38. Third Elementary Education Project (TEEP). This project is now being implemented in 14 of the 26 provinces identified as part of the SRA. Its objectives are threefold, namely: (i) to improve learning achievement, completion rates and access to quality elementary education; (ii) build the institutional capacity of DECS to manage change; and (iii) actively involve the community and the local government in educational programs.

39. The TEEP begins with capacity building program at the provincial and divisional levels to equip local DECS officials with skills to implement decentralized education administration and school empowerment. This is followed by the formulation of DEDP, a work and financial program which identified activities or an intervention to be done by stakeholders (PTA’s, SA’s, NGO’s and LGU’s). Financial assistance is provided by TEEP once work program is approved. DEDP’s consists of several interventions like INSET for stakeholder participants, school improvements and innovation of facilities (SIIF) and the school building program (SBP) involving LGU’s. The TEEP has a budget consisting P16.9 billion or $569.4 million.

40. SEDP. This was an ADB funded secondary education project completed in 1955. It provided a total of 675 school buildings and furniture packages to various high schools nationwide and distributed 32.69 million copies of textbook and instructional materials. Another project is underway, SEDIP. This project is seen as single intervention in the 10-year basic education cycle covering secondary education in disadvantaged provinces.

41. Lengthening of school days. The number of school days was increased from 185 to not more than 220 days. Science was reintroduced as a subject in Grades I and II. Contact hours were increased in English, Science and Math subjects for the elementary level; and English and Science subjects for high school levels. The replacement of Values Education in the third and fourth year with English, Math and Natural Science subjects was permitted to private schools.

42. Regional science high school and new science curriculum. Science and Technology (ST) were given emphasis via establishment of regional science high school in each of the 16 regions. New science curriculum has been developed by DECS, which was initially implemented in five national high schools. The curriculum for the first year through fourth year would concentrate on academic subjects in science, while fourth year curriculum would focus on hands-on training in instructional and agricultural science.

43. National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT)/National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT). The NEAT was administered beginning SY 1993-94; and the NSAT was conducted starting SY 1994-95.

44. The Ten Year Master Plan for Basic Education (1996-2005). This ten-year master plan was anchored on a policy of decentralization and modernization of the basic education. An initial step towards the modernization thrust was the setting up of a Center for Education and Technology (CET) at the DECS central office in June, 1996. The functions of the CET revolve around the review and development of multi-media instructional materials, curriculum development using multi-media and conducting training programs. A model School of the Future (SOF) was set up at the CET. The SOF is different from a typical high school in terms of the use of more instructional interventions using multi-media technology and the shift in the role of teachers from provider of information to facilitator of learning.

45. Pre-school program. This program aims to provide 5-year old children in disadvantaged areas time for early peer socialization and learning activities before starting Grade I. The program on early childhood experience was integrated in Grade I curriculum. The first eight weeks are spent on games, songs, exercises, and play activities to make children feel that school can be pleasant and enjoyable. The regular Grade I curriculum starts on the 9th of the week. Teachers assigned to the program were trained on the use of ECE instructional materials.

46. Drop-out intervention program. These interventions employed in this program include the provision of multi-level learning materials, parent-teachers partnership, school feeding, provision of school supplies for selected pupil beneficiaries in order to reduce drop-out and improve achievement in elementary schools.

47. Educational testing. To facilitate the re-entry of OSY to the formal school system, DECS administers the Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT) every year. The examination is designed to assess the knowledge, skills and work experience of OSY and averaged youth in school and to determine their appropriate level in the formal system.

48. Project Basic Education (PROBE), Leadership Enhancement for Effective Results (LEADER), and Accelerated Learning Program for Elementary School (ALPES). PROBE was aimed at improving the English comprehension among elementary and high school students and to enhance education in grades V and VI; and in the 1st and 2nd year high school; LEADER was initiated to develop higher levels of learning skills among pupils in Sibika at Kultura/Heograpiya/Kasaysayan; and ALPES provides that public elementary school pupils are promoted to the next level if they pass the ALPES examination showing that they are too intelligent to remain in their respective school levels.

49. Physical Education and School Sports and Health and Nutrition. The Bureau of Physical Education and School Sports would produce books and audio-visual materials for physical education teachers. To complement the use of these materials, the Bureau conducts training for P.E. teachers, coaches and trainers; and health and nutrition revitalized the school feeding program to improve the nutritional status of school children via provision of safe, cheap and nutritious food in the school canteen. Proceeds are to be used to purchase foodstuffs for supplementary feeding of undernourished and indigent pupils.

50. Lingua franca education project. DECS Secretary Andrew Gonzales announced that this Lingua Franca Education Project will replace English with Filipino and three other major dialects as a medium of instruction in elementary schools, starting June, 1999-2000. The project aims to probe a theory that pupils learn faster when the subjects are taught in the vernacular or native tongue. When pupils move on to Grade II and IV, they would be taught in Filipino, except when the subject is English. In Grades V and VI, all subjects will be taught in Filipino except in Math, Science and English classes.