Educational System in the Philippines

Philippine School of Interior Design—Ahlen Institute
Lot 15, Blk. 86 – Phase V, AFPOVAI, Bayani Road
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City

What Ails the Philippine Society Today?
The Current Education System in the Philippines

Submitted By: Kiana Miguela B. Umali
Submitted To: Ms. Maria Congee Gomez
June 28, 2014
Education—a single word that branches out to countless opportunities and prospects that can lead each and every individual to a greater and brighter future. Learning is one of our sources of gaining and being enlightened with knowledge, development and improvement that is of course given to us by our facilitators or teachers. Yet, we cannot say that we gain knowledge only inside our schools, but rather in the daily basis of our lives—this could possibly be when we encounter new thing; if we are currently facing a challenge or when we have successfully conquered one. “Knowledge is power” and so does the person whom hold this treasure.
We all know that education is important for everyone, and it is essential for each to successfully attend school. It is truly important for it is our rope to the goals that we desire to reach, and without it, we wouldn’t be able to contribute to and within our society.
Education has changed drastically over the years, given the fact that our world becomes more and more advanced with technology. This equipment’s are used not only for transportation or communication but rather is applied as well to most schools in the Philippines. A great deal of institutes uses tablets as a replacement for books—now they could hold 5 books and several notebooks in one piece of technology, not only that, but they could possibly do multiple activities with this such as writing reminders, playing educational games, and it could also be a way to communicate with fellow students and teachers. Furthermore, Philippines are enhancing its educational system by adapting the K-12 system that most countries have. ‘Through this program, people may expect better-trained citizens who could be competitive with knowledge and skills’. (http://www.informatics.edu.ph/iconnect/k-12-changes-philippine-educational-system/)
People believed that applying k-12 in our educational system would enhance many of the skills and intellectual abilities of the students. We are known to be one of the few countries left to have the ten year basic education—6 years in elementary and 4 years in high school. This program was acknowledged to give recognition in both mathematics and science subjects, for students to further tackle in these courses, which are the most applied subjects in offered jobs.
Most of the population in the Philippines shows poverty stricken people, laying truth about how most of the population of children does not go to school. Yet we have a good deal of public schools for each and every youth to go to, but then again it still seems like to remain insufficient, the question is—should the government spend more on education?
Just like imitates and replicas of things and such we see in the Philippines, indeed shows off the quality of our country—poor. Who do we usually blame? The government. Is it really their fault? No. But the people who are in the government are. We could call them selfish, as what best describes them for they lack of goodness—goodness that they should be showing to the people and to the society.
Each and every year the expenditures and budget of the government changes, either it becomes higher or lower but usually higher than the year before. Ordinarily, they would set goals and priorities on where they want the budget to be spent on. According to my research, these budgets are divided depending on the department and its part in the society. The summary of the allocations include the budget by sector, which will be received by the Social Services; the budget by expenses class, which is given out to the Infrastructure and Other Capital Outlays; the budget by region; and lastly, the budget by department and special purpose fund.
According to the Summary of Allocations, it shows the budget by Department and Special Purpose Fund, where it shows that DepEd has the largest amount of fund given as of 2013. (See http://budgetngbayan.com/summary-of-allocations/ for more details.) It is known that this department has the leading reserved money for projects and such, yet nothing is changing in the educational system in the Philippines. Despite the fact that it indicated the money that they will spend on education related factors, we all know that the government’s top priority is not entirely on education, but rather to what will benefit them as themselves rather than to what will benefit the society.
As we all know, the Philippines consist of Public and Private schools—which some are held or supported by DepEd, but some are self-sustained. Even though the Department of Education offers a helping hand to public schools, nothing is happening to those youth who cannot go to school.
We still have a huge amount of children who cannot attend school due to poverty, for they cannot afford to pay any of the miscellaneous fees and other aspects that public schools require. First of all, this type of school should not necessitate for the parents to pay for it is a public school. Normally, every expense are paid by the government—just like in the United States, however it is not the same in our country. Another problem would be the popularity of students in all levels are high or perhaps because the number of public schools in the area itself is too low, where they try to fit as much as a hundred children in one classroom—some don’t even have chairs and books.
This is the Philippines then, and this is the Philippines now. If the government promise a progress within the boundaries of education, either it is the slightest change or a huge one but both are never maintained till the very end.
The gap between a public and a private school is very wide for private schools are capable of supporting themselves; even the students who attend this type of schools are self-sufficient, where they have the power of money, unlike the students who go to public schools, which only relies on what the school gives them.
In fact, private schools are the only schools that probably have progress in terms of the educational system, since they are the only ones who have enough money to do so. We know that half of these schools are already using tablets instead of books and notebooks, computer software instead of pencil sketches and Manila paper, and even intercom for those who are in the staff and facilities. Nonetheless, these are the only changes that schools can do—nothing more.
These things have a lot of impact in the society and the country as well. If you think of it, limited educated children versus a high popularity of well-educated children—which one is better? Of course we’ll choose the high popularity of children that are educated for they will be the next generation that will be influencing and handling the country. What kind of people would leave their country to the hands of individuals that are insufficient and uneducated? None.
What we do and what the government do reflects what our society will become, and what our country’s reputation will be to other neighbouring countries. And the continuous failure for education will not help out to lift our nation from deficiency.
Our present educational system speaks for what kind of government we have. Education is not just about learning what’s written inside the book, but what is beyond it.
Everyone knows that our country is composed of people who are in the lower class or rather those whom are hanging on a single strand in the boundaries of lower and middle classes. Yet, the government does nothing at all. Don’t they think that rooting or funding education might be the answer to all of this? Youth are fresh bloods, they could be as innovative and creative as they can be; What if these children are the future designers, doctors, engineers and whatnot; and what more would they become if they had the proper education that was needed?
The benefit does not only go to those who are educated, but rather to the society because these children hold what the country will be in the next few years. Who knows what might happened if the nation falls under the wrong hands, to those who are not properly accomplished, the ones who does not have the right values and ethics. The more well-educated people we have, the better chances we have on economic development or improvement as a whole.
Some people would say that it is irrational to spend more on money education—building more infrastructures and sports centres for students, some think that money does not equal to a better education or paying teachers more would not make the students get higher grades, but I personally think that our government should spend more—and this time for real—on education for our country is in dire need of it. Maybe I would have agreed on spending money for education as unreasonable, but our country, not at all. Our government do have a large amount of funds to spend on education, but the question is, do they spend it for education or do they pocket the money and leave the students empty handed? Either way, our country needs to improve the educational system and the only way to do so is for our government to realize that the future leaders of our country could be one of the children that cannot afford to attend school.