Horrors! 6 of 1,000 pass high school entry test

[BoEinG_747]

WITH only six out of 1,000 elementary school graduates getting passing marks to enter high school, Sen. Edgardo Angara yesterday said it is about time the government considers a massive reform in the educational system.

The senator noted that the Kaakbay sa Pag-aaral, a non-government organization, reported that only two out of every 100 fourth year high school students are fit to enter college.

Angara, former president of the University of the Philippines, said Filipino students performed poorly in Math, Science, and English as reflected in the results of the National Elementary Assessment Test, National Secondary Assessment Test and National Achievement Test in recent years.

"This means there is something basically wrong with our education system," he said, adding the low budget allocation for education is one
of the reasons for its deterioration.

Angara said education spending in the Philippines trails behind its Asian neighbors, with only 2.5 percent of the country's gross national product.
" …Existing budget will not be able to fill the shortages classrooms, desks, textbooks, and teachers. The estimated additional budget required to compensate for this shortage amounts to P23.6 billion," he said.

Angara said the forthcoming debate on the 2006 budget of the Department of Education in the Senate would provide the venue for a deeper look into the needs of the educational sector and the appropriate solution to the problem.

He said the government should address the shortage of physical facilities, particularly classrooms and textbooks. This is aggravated by the shortage of teachers and uneven distribution of teachers among schools, aside from the issue of teachers' declining competency and mastery of the subjects.

[Bogeyman]

Among the few competent teachers we have around, mukhang bumababa na ang morale nila, and it's showing through the students. Naalala ko pati yung mga textbooks natin na mali-mali ang information.

[BlueBimmer]

kakahiya naman yan!

[111prez]

grabe! in sweden, education is free for all citizens from elementary up to the university.

in their elementary and high schools, libre pa ang pagkain sa eskuwelahan and the government pays the parents an allowance for each child sent to school. and despite all these freebies, they have not compromised their standards

their taxes are high but its working. and most of all, their national budget is positive, not deficit (one of the few euro countries to do so)

kailan kaya mangyayari ito sa pilipinas. hayyyyyy

[BoEinG_747]

kailan kaya mangyayari ito sa pilipinas. hayyyyyy

sir 111prez....sarap nga sana pero malabo mag yari sa pinas ito..

dami pa din naman na mahihirap na gusto mag aral

at may kakayahan ang isipan



hindi kaya dahil sa noodles na kinakain ng mga iyan .

or kulang sa iodized salt...hehehhe

[carlocaraddict]

scary naman yan

[kinyo]

why am i not surprised?

[orly_andico]

i have many relatives including my parents who work in the school system (from elementary to college). this is not surprising.

i myself am a product of public schools from elementary to college, but i had the good fortune to go to some of the very few good public schools (PSHS and UP). for the vast majority of students in our country, education is very much NOT like that.

for example -- UP gets more than 50% of the annual budget for SUC's (state universities and colleges). Granted that most of this budget goes to operating the PGH charity wards, but still -- you can see why UP is generally good even though it's public, while all the hundreds of other state universities have to share what are essentially the scraps from UP.

it's all about budget. and government. i myself come from a family of educators, but i'd be crazy to become a teacher. due to poor compensation, only the most motivated and idealistic of people become teachers. them, or those who can't get another job. my aunt has told me that in her experience, she has gotten 4th year high school students WHO CANNOT READ.

why does this happen? because the teachers have this belief, that by passing students even if they don't deserve to pass, these students are moved off the schools and into the job market where they become someone else's problem. also, failing a student can have repercussions. pinoys have such a twisted view of the educational system that the degree is paramount, nevermind if it's deserved. so you get cases where teachers are harassed/threatened/etc. if they don't pass students. so to rid themselves of problems, and avoid getting bodily threatened, the teachers pass the students even if the latter can't tie their shoelaces.

and we wonder about chronic unemployment... many of the so-called graduates in our workforce aren't fit to be employed.

[orly_andico]

and another thing.. it's easy to blame the government for being so corrupt, but a bigger problem is that PEOPLE DON'T PAY THEIR TAXES. The government's 2006 budget is 1.3 trillion pesos (or, about $24 billion).

funny thing is, the Philippine's GDP is $430 billion! (according to the black hats from the CIA World Factbook 2005). that means only about 5% of the local economic activity gets taxed. that's REALLY REALLY LOW. and this is solely due to rampant tax evasion. salary-earners bear the brunt of the tax load (for you professionals out there, you're carrying a tax load of 45% -- about 35% from your income tax, and 10% from VAT, soon to be larger). that means that fixed-income people who are by no means rich, are taxed HALF THEIR INCOME whilst corporations get away with creative accounting practices and avoid corporate income tax.

moral of the story: if tax collection were even twice as good as it is now (10% collection rate rather than 5%) all our budget woes, even with massive corruption, would disappear. We'd have money for schools, for paying off our debt, for feeding the poor.

the Philippines IS a poor country, but do you know what the GDP of Malaysia is? $230 billion. almost HALF that of the Philippines. but they managed to put up the Petronas Towers (of course their population is 1/4th that of the Philippines). but still, our country is by no means a lightweight. tax evasion (which is indicative of a lack of patriotism) and not corruption, is what's crippling us.

[Blackraven]

and another thing.. it's easy to blame the government for being so corrupt, but a bigger problem is that PEOPLE DON'T PAY THEIR TAXES. The government's 2006 budget is 1.3 trillion pesos (or, about $24 billion).

funny thing is, the Philippine's GDP is $430 billion! (according to the black hats from the CIA World Factbook 2005). that means only about 5% of the local economic activity gets taxed. that's REALLY REALLY LOW. and this is solely due to rampant tax evasion. salary-earners bear the brunt of the tax load (for you professionals out there, you're carrying a tax load of 45% -- about 35% from your income tax, and 10% from VAT, soon to be larger). that means that fixed-income people who are by no means rich, are taxed HALF THEIR INCOME whilst corporations get away with creative accounting practices and avoid corporate income tax.

moral of the story: if tax collection were even twice as good as it is now (10% collection rate rather than 5%) all our budget woes, even with massive corruption, would disappear. We'd have money for schools, for paying off our debt, for feeding the poor.

the Philippines IS a poor country, but do you know what the GDP of Malaysia is? $230 billion. almost HALF that of the Philippines. but they managed to put up the Petronas Towers (of course their population is 1/4th that of the Philippines). but still, our country is by no means a lightweight. tax evasion (which is indicative of a lack of patriotism) and not corruption, is what's crippling us.

I'm keeping this in mind.

Pero going back, is that really our GDP?

Kung ganun, it is so high and if that were the case, we should be debt-free and out of poverty by now (since we would only need 1/5th or 4 trillion pesos worth of that amount and the bad state of our poor country would be gone.)

But what is happening?

Singapore only has 4 TIMES LESS than what we have but they are way way better than us in EVERY ASPECT!!!

Also, despite having a GDP total of $234.5 billion, Hong Kong's Debt is only 2 PERCENT of their GDP!

Corruption, tax evasion, tax collection inefficiencies, etc. but there could be more.

All in all, what happens next?

EDIT: Sigh...... must continue reading Business section in the newspapers.

[oldblue]

sayang lang ang inubos ng oras ng mga batang yan from grade 1 to 6, pati tax na ginamit sa kanila sayang.

[gearspeed]

parang yung pinalabas last week sa imbestigador.sabi pa nga nung ininterview dun ng GMA7 hindi na daw naaabsorb ng mga student ang mga pinag aaralan nila..

[GasJunkie]

I guess the saying is true, when you are hungry everything else takes a back seat.

[niky]

ONE THING you guys have to know about public schools (aside from PSHS and UP... UP din po ako!) is that the system just doesn't work. I've spent time training at Public Schools, and a lot of my pupils have trouble even reading at the grade 6 level.

The major problem is that the cumulative effects of mismanagement in early grades, non-participation of parents in education, and dropping out and absenteeism due to poverty show up by the time the students are "elevated" to grade 6. Many students are merely "promoted" to the next grade, no matter how poor their ability, because the school is overloaded or the child is too old to stay in that grade level. It's very sad.

And some of our so-called "better" private-schools aren't any better in terms of academics...

[nicolodeon]

ONE THING you guys have to know about public schools is that the system just doesn't work.

The major problem is that the cumulative effects of mismanagement in early grades, non-participation of parents in education, and dropping out and absenteeism due to poverty show up by the time the students are "elevated" to grade 6. Many students are merely "promoted" to the next grade, no matter how poor their ability, because the school is overloaded or the child is too old to stay in that grade level. It's very sad.

And some of our so-called "better" private-schools aren't any better in terms of academics...

Maybe this holds true for pubic (and private) school system for the last 5-10 years. In my time (this was like ages ago), this was not the case.

[oldblue]

it's in the student na talaga. given all those obstacles & lack of resources, if a student wills it there is a way. kasi dami naman ako nakikita na matatalino na dyaryo pa nga pero galing lang sa mababang paaralan ng isang probinsya.

it's just isn't healthy to blame the govt., parents, r peers, teachers. it's just like finding an excuse to justify what he/she turned out to be.

[niky]

It's not as simple as "where there's a will, there's a way." In an ideal system, only the truly disinclined to study will fail. Given no chances, those who are already weak in one area or another, the dyslexic, the slow, those who are poor at math, will NOT be able to thrive, no matter how hard they try.

Only those who are truly and exceptionally gifted and/or motivated can escape our system. In a better system, those who are motivated to succeed but academically weak will be able to do better. I should know, I suffered in school before because I was very poor in math. With the right teacher, though, and learning environment, I was able to overcome it. I aced the Math portion of the UPCAT without even touching my scratch paper thanks to good tutoring...

But with private schools more concerned with getting better board results and flunking out those who may deserve to pass but who are just average, and with public schools only concerned with promoting students quick enough to graduate them so that they can accept new students, where does that leave the average student?

I've seen students who failed merely because they weren't "smart enough" for one school or another, but given a chance at another environment, they managed to graduate AND pass (and sometimes TOP) the Board Exams for their profession.

I know, malayo na yan sa grade school, but with the CHED and DECS penalizing private schools with poor students (aptitude and exam ratings), and public schools not doing anything to help them, you can't help but feel very sorry for these kids who NOBODY is giving a chance... just because they're "stupid".

EDIT: Additional rant: The fact that Ateneo has a rigid entrance exam for preschool, a qualification exam for their grade school students, to remove the merely "good" students from their high school batch and keep only the "exceptional students", just to prove that they have the best graduates... tha's just plain BULLSH*T right there. Had a cousin who was traumatized by that... being told that even though he passed grade seven, he wasn't good enough for his own school.

[boybi]

EDIT: Additional rant: The fact that Ateneo has a rigid entrance exam for preschool, a qualification exam for their grade school students, to remove the merely "good" students from their high school batch and keep only the "exceptional students", just to prove that they have the best graduates... tha's just plain BULLSH*T right there. Had a cousin who was traumatized by that... being told that even though he passed grade seven, he wasn't good enough for his own school.

bullshyet nga yan. kung kaya nilang gawing super talino ang isang mahina ang utak come graduation, yan ang proof na they're a great school.

[V-dub*chic]

thats pretty sad...

[BoEinG_747]

tha's just plain BULLSH*T right there. Had a cousin who was traumatized by that... being told that even though he passed grade seven, he wasn't good enough for his own school.

...yess that a lots of B.S....


imho