Education

Philippines is a developing country. It can be seen in the increase of establishments, the growing number of tourists and the attraction of foreign investors and businessmen. One contributor for the country’s development is education. Many foreigners choose to study in the Philippines. They are attracted to the country’s high quality of education that comes in low prices compared to other countries. Philippines is also an English speaking country and foreigners find it easier to adapt to the warm Filipino culture because of this, survey says that there is a yearly increase in the number of foreign students with South Korea having the largest number of enrollees.
The tuition fee in schools in the Philippines ranges from 700Php – 3,000Php. For foreigners, if converted to their currency, the tuition fee is cheap. But for Filipinos whose average monthly income plays around 10,000Php – 12,000Php, education is expensive. They see education as a luxury and not a necessity.
In the Philippines, the quality of education varies with the financial status of the student. Most of the schools that offer high quality education are costly. Foreigners can afford it and call it low priced but an average Filipino family opts to enroll their child in a public school.
In other countries, being enrolled in a public school is better because it means you have high grades. In Australia, there is only one state university. It is well funded by their government. It has state-or-the-art facilities and the teachers are of high caliber. Only students with high grades can enter this school. But in the Philippines, many state universities are established. Because of this the budget is divided to smaller amounts and is distributed to the different schools.
Public schools are funded by the government thus their services, if not cheap is offered free while private schools are expensive. Their facilities also differ because private schools can afford state-of-the-art facilities and provide a learning conducive environment. On the other hand, public schools just wait for sponsorship or the government’s allocated budget which is even not enough as salary for teachers. Also, because of over-population, the teacher to student ratio in public schools is 1:60 or 1:70 in two shifts per day which is beyond the ideal 1:25 or 1:40 on one shift per day. Public schools use gyms and open spaces as makeshift classrooms where noise from pedestrians and vehicles cannot be ignored. The teachers try to adjust to these situations and use microphones or shout. Teachers are also forced to handle two or more subjects which are even outside their specialization. This poses a threat to the quality of education they can provide to students.
Public teachers are unsung heroes of the country. They are the ones suffering because of the government’s lack of prioritization. A teacher’s wage is not even enough for them to live a decent life but they still continue their profession. .