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Producers, not paid for more than a year, have stopped producing lessons for DepEd TV.

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MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education's DepEd TV, a platform for students who don't have access to internet at home, has stopped airing fresh episodes - therefore, no new lessons - since October 2021, Rappler has learned.

"In October, nagsabi kami sa DepEd na mag-stop production. That would mean non-airing of materials. But when we announced that we would stop the production, wala man lang violent reaction o wala man lang big reaction from DepEd," a former DepEd TV producer, who requested anonymity, told Rappler on Friday, February 11.

(In October, we advised DepEd that we would stop production. That would mean non-airing of materials. But when we announced that we would stop production, there was no violent or big reaction from DepEd.)

There are some 26 million basic education students enrolled for school year 2021-2022. Due to the pandemic, starting in 2020, schools in the country shifted to a distance learning system - a mix of online learning, modules, and TV and radio programs. There are 60,000 public and private elementary and high schools in the country.

The educational programs were based on the self-learning modules distributed to students. Ideally, TV lessons should be synchronous with SLMs. The department had allocated P45 million for the first phase of the DepEd TV project.

According to the producer, they were supposed to produce some 5,000 TV lessons for the whole school year, but they had turned in only around 2,000 episodes when they decided to stop the production.

Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua confirmed to Rappler that producers stopped production in October 2021. But he seemed unbothered by the move.

When asked if DepEd did something to convince the producers not to halt production, he said: "They did not advise DepEd. They advised Ei2. DepEd has no contractual relationship with those producers."

But a screenshot of conversation by one of the producers and DepEd Director Abram Abanil, who's also in-charge of DepEd TV, retrieved by Rappler tells otherwise. In the conversation thread, Abanil acknowledged the advise by the producer.

The DepEd tapped Ei2 Tech, a production company owned by news anchor Paolo Bediones, to produce the TV episodes for distance learning. Bediones' production house, however, was marred by controversy as some media workers he contracted for the project reportedly remained unpaid for the work they rendered.

The decision to stop production was not easy, but the source said they had to do it because they had families to feed.

"The learners are the ones suffering. It's a very good project, but because something happened internally, the project was tainted. We patiently waited for two years, even though we were not getting paid, because we were still hoping," the source said.

In a Viber message to Rappler, Pascua said that due to non-production of TV lessons, the third and fourth grading quarters of some 26 million students would be affected.

"There will be no new lessons to be aired, until such time that the project will be successfully procured and the episodes will be delivered. Pending the decision of the BAC (Bids and Awards Committee) on the matter, we are finding other alternative ways on how to address this concern," he said.

Pressed if DepEd was hopeful that that issue would be resolved soon, Pascua said: "I really hope so."

What happened to the producers?

In March 2021, Rappler ran a story about media workers hired by Ei2Tech who complained about delayed compensation, with some staff saying that they had not yet received full payment for the work they had rendered since September 2020. Almost a year after the report, some of the media workers have yet to receive their compensation.

One of the former program managers of DepEd TV, requesting anonymity, told Rappler that some 200 media workers had not received their compensation amounting to P42 million.

The program manager said a total of 116 media workers agreed to file a case against Bediones in the event their attempt at a settlement fails. Their lawyers will also be sending Bediones a demand letter.

"There was no communication from their end. We're looking forward to the demand letter that our lawyers will be sending him. Paolo mentioned to us that his accountant would be communicating with us, but until now there's no clear direction where this is heading," the program manager said.

Rappler reached out to Bediones for a comment on the issue, but he has not replied yet as of writing. In a Pep.PH article on January 27, he said his company was "fully aware of its obligations."

"However, there are also some areas of dispute and compliance which have yet to be resolved, like the non-issuance of ORs, unliquidated advances, non-completion of tasks and no clearance," he said. This is the same reason he told Rappler when we ran the story in March 2021.

Falsified documents

Unbothered by the issues hounding the production house of Bediones, Ei2Tech in joint venture with Radenta Technologies Inc. was shortlisted for a P654-million contract for Phase 2 of the DepEd TV project, and another P30-million deal for a teacher-broadcaster project.

There's one complication, however: for Bediones to get 60 points under the Qualification of Personnel in the Firm criterion, he allegedly used the names of 39 media workers without their consent.

The group of producers Rappler spoke to said they wrote to Education Secretary Leonor Briones, asking the DepEd to withdraw their names and documents from the bid because those were submitted without their knowledge.

Pascua told Rappler that the BAC was still reviewing the disqualification case against Bediones' bid. - Rappler.com

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DepEd TV has been replaying distance learning lessons for months. Here's why.

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MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education's DepEd TV, a platform for students who don't have access to internet at home, has stopped airing fresh episodes - therefore, no new lessons - since October 2021, Rappler has learned. "In October, nagsabi kami sa DepEd na mag-stop production. That would mean non-airing of materials.

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Standardized Test is a way to go to educate student, but what if it's changed to a more holistic approach?

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are other ways than standardized-test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of schools?
In Part One, Holly Spinelli, Tameka Porter, Ph.D., Mary K. Tedrow, and Meghann Seril shared their responses. Holly, Tameka, and Mary were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

In Part Two, Joseph Rodgers, Lorie Barber, Cindy Garcia, and Mike Kaechele contributed their reflections.

Today, Denita Harris, Jennifer Mitchell, Rebecca Alber, and Amanda Kipnis offer their answers.

'Formative Assessments'
Denita Harris serves as a district administrator in the MSD of Wayne Township in Indianapolis. Harris is currently serving in her 24th year in education as the new chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for her school corporation:
Standardized-test scores should not be the only indicator that defines the effectiveness of a school. Schools should be evaluated by using a holistic approach that encompasses all educators are required to do when it comes to servicing students.

The days of solely teaching academics are long gone, if they ever existed. Instead, schools are working to educate the "whole" child. A whole-child approach requires that students' emotional, relational, intellectual, academic, and mental health are cultivated. To my knowledge, there is no standardized test that is able to measure the effectiveness of the number of schools that go beyond schooling students to educating them to thrive in a global society.

When people want to know how effective a school is in educating the whole child, student and family/caregiver voice, academic growth, and student interests/activities, which create a sense of belonging, are key. Student and family/caregiver voices are essential when evaluating the effectiveness of a school. Educators are in the service industry, and like any other industry that provides a service, we should want to know what our students and families/caregivers have to say about the educational services we provide.

We should be asking how our students and families feel when they enter our school buildings. We should want to know if students find the curriculum engaging and challenging or are our students often bored or completely lost when we do not explain things well. Our families could provide meaningful feedback regarding communication from the school and if they truly feel like they are partners in their child's education.

Analyzing academic growth on a frequent and consistent basis by utilizing formative assessments is a much better way to determine how effective a school is in educating students. As adults, we understand that not all students will excel in all things; however, as educators, we have a responsibility to set the bar high, maintain high expectations, and focus on students' assets and not their deficits. When we measure individual growth and make the necessary instructional shifts, we remove the danger of competition and comparison, which can result in low student self-efficacy.

There is an innate desire in all of us to have a sense of belonging and, as a result, be valued for our contributions. Opportunities that allow students to exercise their gifts-sports, drama, speech, sewing, debate, art, etc.-allow students to shine and stand in their truth. Evaluating schools by what opportunities they allow students to get involved in and how many students participate in these opportunities are important in evaluating how diligent and attentive schools are in ensuring every student has an outlet and an opportunity to be a part of the larger school community.

One number on one test should never determine the effectiveness of a school, just like one number on one test should never determine a student's educational trajectory.

'Goal-Setting & Improvement'
Jennifer Mitchell teaches ELs in Dublin, Ohio. Connect with her on Twitter: @readwritetech or on her blog:
Twenty years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, many educators and students agree that with increased standardized testing and the pressures attached to it, in fact, too many students are being left farther behind. What have we gained from these years of attempting to quantify the unquantifiable (what does it really mean to score "435" on an English test that included 30+ multiple-choice questions and several essays?!) and measure unique individuals against poorly defined metrics and each other, with such high stakes that students and teachers feel their futures are on the line over a few spring mornings? Stress, confusion, frustration at the lack of agency, and a sense of hopelessness.

Instead, let's measure students, teachers, and schools by what we hope they do: foster academic and social-emotional growth over time, while affirming the unique identities of each student and staff member. At the end of each school year, are all students and staff more skilled in the areas they've practiced than they were at the beginning? Are they happier and healthier, with a better sense of who they are and how they can leverage their uniqueness to impact the world? Do they feel a greater sense of belonging and connection to their school community?

And when we measure these areas, we need to include the participants in the process. Students and staff members should actively contribute to their own assessments by reflecting on their current skills and emotions, demonstrating and analyzing their growth over time, and setting meaningful goals for continued improvement.

In my English-learner classroom, students take pride and ownership in showing their growth throughout the year with frequent goal-setting and reflection in a variety of key areas:

Daily overview of current learning targets and mini-reflections at the end of each class

Weekly reading goal and thinking tracker, completed every Monday (green boxes) and Thursday (orange boxes)

Writing reflection sheet, completed after every major writing assignment and/or unit

Weekly reflection form including sections on academic and SEL progress, as well as a chance to tell me anything else they want (which often yields incredible insights!)

Some unit-specific goal setting and reflections, such as personalized goals and reflections for our "Slice of Life" blogging unit

Quarterly class feedback forms where students can voice their perspectives about our class activities and environment

Year-end class anthology submissions where each student fills two pages with selections of their best and/or favorite writing to submit to a spiral-bound class anthology; copies are given to all class members, the principal, and kept in the classroom for future students to read!

Year-end annotations of two pieces of their best writing from their anthology selections; students copy the two selections into one Google Doc and use the commenting feature to highlight and explain the writing strategies demonstrated in each piece

A year-end creative display of their reading growth, visually grouping their book choices in some way (by genre, difficulty, how much they enjoyed them, etc.), accompanied by short reflections on the impact of each book on their growth as a reader. Students design their own visual representation; some students have created reading ladders, maps, bookshelves, or interactive digital presentations.

Year-end reflections on their reading and writing growth, analyzing evidence from the above reflections and other classwork

When my students are directly involved in the process of analyzing their own work, reflecting on their growth, and setting informed goals for future improvement, assessment becomes an empowering, participatory, ongoing process. They know where they are with specific skills and how they have improved and they know how to use feedback to inform their next steps. Moreover, they feel supported and capable. That's much more meaningful than any number on a standardized test.

'Digital Portfolio'
Rebecca Alber is an instructor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education. A teacher educator and literacy specialist, she believes education's true purpose is for liberation and transformation:
Standardized tests are typically one sitting and on one day. Along with the pressure of limited time and conditions (fluorescent-lit, cramped classroom, multiple choice only), can this really produce reliable and valid results? It cannot. In fact, no single measure properly captures what a learner knows and can do and who they are. Simply put, a standardized, multiple-choice test is just a single "snapshot" from one day.

What we need is a "photo album" for each learner. Curriculum experts Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe describe this photo album as containing various "photos" (assessments) given in different contexts to reveal a more accurate "portrait" of a child's knowledge and skills. This means presenting students with assessments on different days using varied modalities. But as we know, this takes time, resources, and commitment from a school/district/state. And the single measure, standardized, multiple-choice test is the least expensive (computers do the scoring) and also supports the meritocratic educational system currently and firmly in place in this country-one built around ranking schools and children.

Students with neurodiversity, English-learners, and poor test-takers particularly get a raw deal when a school overrelies on the single measure and modality standardized test to determine its success. (It's important to note that when a school does do this, what is revealed is not actually the limitations of the test-taker but rather the limitations and deficits of the school.)

So, let's circle back to the photo album approach to assessment: What might this look like?

Think digital portfolio. In that portfolio, a student may have artwork, written pieces that are brief and poetic, and longer pieces that are more detailed and explanatory. There may be audio recordings of the student narrating thoughts on new content learned or explaining a new concept or idea and reflecting on the benefits of this new learning. The portfolio could include slide presentations; quiz and test results; problem-solving charts, graphs and reports; multimedia projects; and also self-assessments, along with peer reviews and teacher reviews of the student's work.

Teachers should then be provided with pupil-free days so that they can periodically look through these portfolios together, discuss, evaluate, and determine individual and collective student growth. This data can then be shared and discussed with the school leadership team.

Additionally, when a school is determining how effective it is, the school should survey students, families, and faculty so they can provide feedback to the leadership team on such things as the learning environments and school culture and community.

If our education system moved away from this obsession with the single measure of standardized testing and moved toward a more holistic and humanizing approach to evaluating student learning, think of all the ways this could transform our schools and positively impact children.

School Culture
Amanda Kipnis is a passionate educator who teaches a 3rd-5th grade special day class for students with moderate to severe disabilities in Lemon Grove, Calif. Amanda was named to the 2020 class of Curriculum Associates Extraordinary Educators:
I, along with thousands of other educators, have appreciated the limited pandemic shift away from standardized testing. I know it's only a matter of time before we go back to the "old ways;" however, this pandemic has forced us to think outside the box and find new ways of assessing student growth and analyzing the effectiveness of a school. One topic I find promising is the focus on school culture and its correlation to student success.

Kent D. Peterson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison defines school culture as "the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the 'persona' of the school." School culture is more than just the feeling of a school. It is the soul of a school and includes everything school-related.

School culture and its connection to academic achievement was not truly researched until the 1970s. Since then, we've learned that a positive school climate is correlated with increased student achievement while a negative school culture is associated with decreased student success. Therefore, assessing school culture can give you a glimpse into how students are performing academically.

Fortunately, assessing school culture can be very simple with an anonymous survey. A very simple survey exists that evaluates the three main aspects of school culture: collaboration, collegiality, and teacher efficacy. The School Culture Triage Survey consists of 17 questions and a rating scale from 1-5 (ranging from Never to Always/Almost Always). There are five questions about professional collaboration, six questions about collegial relationships, and six questions about teacher efficacy/self-determination. Questions about collaboration look at how and why staff collaborate and includes determining if teachers and staff discuss instructional strategies and curriculum issues. Questions about collegial relationships look at staff behavior in and out of the school environment and includes asking if teachers and staff tell stories of celebrations that support the school's values. The section on teacher efficacy looks at how staff members influence each other and how they respond to adversity. It includes questions asking if members of the school community seek alternatives to problems/issues rather than repeating what they have always done.

Knowing this correlation exists, many educators find it's frustrating how few staff meetings and professional developments have been devoted to school culture. The good news is that districts focusing on staff and student well-being may influence more than just what SEL curricula they decide to use. The questions in the School Culture Triage Survey also provide concrete ideas leaders can immediately implement to improve their school's culture. With a healthy school culture and high expectations for students, one can only assume a school is maximizing student learning and fostering student success!

Thanks to Denita, Jennifer, Rebecca, and Amanda for contributing their thoughts!

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 10 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below.
I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Let's Dump the Obsession With Standardized Testing (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is: What are other ways than standardized-test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of schools? In Part One, Holly Spinelli, Tameka Porter, Ph.D., Mary K. Tedrow, and Meghann Seril shared their responses. Holly, Tameka, and Mary were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show.

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This is more on how education is compared using tables, graphs, charts, and others to know if it increased or decreased. It is also to know if the learning system in the Philippines is a complete success or not.

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Wilson Macha, Chris Mackie, and Jessica Magaziner, Knowledge Analysts at WES

The Philippines is a unique country. Only slightly larger than the U.S. state of Arizona in land mass, it is the world's second-largest archipelago after Indonesia, consisting of more than 7,000 islands. It is also the world's 12th most-populous country with just over 103 million people as of 2016.

Notably, the Philippines is the only pre-dominantly Christian country in Asia (roughly 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic). Equally notable, English is a national language in the Philippines next to Filipino (Tagalog) and spoken by about two-thirds of the population, although there are still some 170 additional Malayo-Polynesian languages in use throughout the archipelago.

Both the country's religious makeup and its anglophony are the result of colonialism. The Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than three centuries, a fact that shaped religious belief systems, before the U.S. occupied it in 1898 and ruled the country for nearly five decades, until independence in 1946. U.S. colonialism had a formative impact on the development of the modern Philippine education system and various other aspects of Philippine society. With the imposition of English in sectors like education, news media, and trade, the Spanish language became marginalized and faded. In 1987, Spanish was dropped as an official language and is today only spoken by a small minority of Filipinos.

Deteriorating Human Rights Situation

In 2013, the Philippine government initiated the extension of the country's basic education cycle from ten to twelve years - a major reform that former Education Secretary Armin Luistro has called "the most comprehensive basic education reform initiative ever done in the country since the establishment of the public education system more than a century ago". Over the past two years, however, news from the Philippines was mostly dominated by extralegal killings, after populist President Rodrigo Duterte, elected in 2016, unleashed a brutal "war on drugs" that Human Rights Watch has described as the " worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos". In a quest to eradicate the sale and use of drugs, more than 12,000 people, including many innocent victims, have been gunned down by the country's police, armed forces and vigilantes without any form of legal process. Most of the victims are poor and from the country's congested cities.

Other recent developments included an intensification of the armed conflict in the southern region of the country, in which separatist rebels and Islamist terror groups like Abu Sayyaf are fighting for greater autonomy or the creation of an independent state for the Muslim Moro minority (officially 5 percent of the population, primarily located on the island of Mindanao). Heavy military fighting in 2017 triggered the imposition of martial law in the Mindanao region, with President Duterte publicly contemplating the extension of martial law to other parts of the country - an announcement that raised the specter of a further erosion of civil liberties in the Philippines.

Economic Outlook and Poverty

The deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines has so far done little to slow economic growth. The Philippine economy is booming and has, in fact, grown faster than all other Asian economies except China and Vietnam in recent years. In 2017, the country's GDP increased by 6.7 percent and is projected to continue to grow by more than 6 percent annually in 2018 and 2019.

By some measures, economic growth in the Philippines is socially inclusive: according to official statistics, the country's poverty rate decreased from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015. The World Bank noted that between ".... 2012 and 2015, household income among the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution rose by an average annual rate of 7.6 percent". At the same time, poverty remains a major and pervasive problem in the Philippines, with efforts to reduce the problem progressing slowly and lagging behind improvements made in other Southeast Asian countries. Income disparities are rampant and economic growth is mostly concentrated in urban centers, while many rural regions remain plagued by extreme levels of poverty. According to the Asian Development Bank, close to 25 million Filipinos still existed on less than USD $1.51 per day in 2010.

Problems in Education and Education Reforms: An Overview

In 2017, the National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines published the Philippine Development Plan, 2017-2022, detailing the country's aspirations for the next five years. The plan envisions the Philippines becoming an upper-middle income country by 2022, based on more inclusive economic growth that will reduce inequalities and poverty, particularly in rural areas. Human capital development is a key element in this strategy and has been the impetus behind various political reforms over the past years. Recent education reforms have sought to boost enrollment levels, graduation rates and mean years of schooling in elementary and secondary education, and to improve the quality of higher education.

Problems in the School Sector

Many of these reforms were adopted against a backdrop of declining educational standards in the Philippine education system during the first decade of the 21st century. A UNESCO mid-decade assessment report of Southeast Asian education systems, published in 2008, for example, found that participation and achievement rates in basic education in the Philippines had fallen dramatically, owed to chronic underfunding. After rising strongly from 85.1 percent in 1991 to 96.8 percent in 2000, net enrollment rates at the elementary level, for instance, had dropped back down to 84.4 percent by 2005. Also by mid-decade, elementary school dropout rates had regressed back to levels last seen in the late 1990s. The completion rate in elementary school was estimated to be below 70 percent in 2005.

At the secondary level, problems were omnipresent as well: the net enrollment rate in secondary education, for example, had by 2005 dropped down to 58.5 percent, after increasing from 55.4 percent to around 66 percent between 1991 and 2000. Tellingly perhaps, the country's youth literacy rate, while still being high by regional standards, fell from 96.6 percent in 1990 to 95.1 percent in 2003, making the Philippines the only country in South-East Asia with declining youth literacy rates.

Such deficiencies were reflected in the poor performance of Filipino students in international assessment tests, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In 2003, the last year the Philippines participated in the study, the country ranked only 34th out of 38 countries in high school mathematics and 43rd out of 46 countries in high school science. Education spending as a percentage of overall government expenditures, meanwhile, declined from 18.2 percent in 1998 to 12.4 percent in 2005. Between 2003 and 2005 alone, average annual spending per public elementary and secondary school student fell from PHP 9,500 (USD $182.7) to PHP 8,700 (USD $167.3) in real terms.

Policy Response

To address these shortcomings, the Philippine government initiated structural changes in the basic education system and significantly boosted education expenditures. Crucially, the " Kindergarten Education Act", passed in 2011, enacted a mandatory pre-elementary year of Kindergarten education, while the " 2013 Basic Education Act", extended the elementary and secondary education cycle from 10 to 12 years. The importance of this new 12-year education cycle (K-12), which adds two years of mandatory senior secondary schooling for every Filipino student, cannot be understated. Until the reforms, the Philippines was one of only three countries in the world (the other two being Angola and Djibouti), with a 10-year basic education cycle. As such, the K-12 reforms are an essential step to improve the global competitiveness of the Philippines and bring the country up to international standards. Implementation of the new system is progressing on schedule and the first student cohort will graduate from the new 12-year system in 2018.

In addition, education spending was increased greatly: between 2005, when it hit its nadir, and 2014, government spending on basic education, for instance, more than doubled. Spending per student in the basic education system reached PHP 12,800 (USD $246) in 2013, a drastic increase over 2005 levels. And education expenditures have grown even further since: In 2017, for instance, allocations for the Department of Education were increased by fully 25 percent, making education the largest item on the national budget. In 2018, allocations for education increased by another 1.7 percent and currently stand at PHP 533.31 billion (USD $ 10.26 billion), or 24 percent of all government expenditures (the second largest item on the national budget). The higher education budget, likewise, was increased by almost 45 percent between 2016 and 2017. It should be noted, however, that some of the spending increases are simply designed to cover additional costs stemming from the K-12 reforms. To accommodate the reforms, 86,478 classrooms were constructed, and over 128,000 new teachers hired in the Philippines between 2010 and 2015 alone.

Outcomes of the Reforms Thus Far

The government investments in education have led to substantial advances in standard indicators of learning conditions, such as student-teacher and student-classroom ratios, both of which improved significantly from 2010 to 2013, from 38:1 to 29:1 and from 64:1 to 47:1, respectively. Elementary school completion rates also climbed from their 2005 low of under 70 percent to more than 83 percent in 2015. Net secondary school enrollment rates, meanwhile, increased from under 60 percent in 2005 to 68.15 percent in 2015.

The biggest advances, however, were made in pre-school education. After the introduction of one year of mandatory Kindergarten education in 2011, the net enrollment rate in Kindergarten jumped from 55 percent (2010) to 74.6 percent in 2015. Also encouraging was the fact that poorer families benefited strongly from the reforms. The World Bank noted that in "2008, the gross enrollment rate in kindergarten for the poorest 20 percent of the population was 33 percent, but this had increased to 63 percent by 2013. Levels of kindergarten enrollment in the Philippines now compare favorably with rates in other middle-income countries both within the region and globally".

That said, the Philippines keeps trailing other South East Asian countries in a variety of education indicators and the government has so far fallen short on a number of its own reform goals. Strong disparities continue to exist between regions and socioeconomic classes - while 81 percent of eligible children from the wealthiest 20 percent of households attended high school in 2013, only 53 percent of children from the poorest 20 percent of households did the same. Progress on some indicators is sluggish, if not regressing: completion rates at the secondary level, for example, declined from 75 percent in 2010 to 74 percent in 2015, after improving in the years between.

Outcomes in Higher Education

In higher education, the government seeks to expand access and participation, but even more importantly, tries to improve the quality of education. The Philippine National Development Plan is quite outspoken on this subject and notes that while "the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines is ten times more than its neighboring countries', the Philippines' lackluster performance in producing innovators... , researchers (81 researchers per million population versus 205 in Indonesia and 115 in Vietnam), and knowledge producers (28 out of 777 journals or 3.6 percent are listed under Thomson Reuters, Scopus, or both) indicates ... that the country has lagged behind many of its ASEAN neighbors in producing the ... researchers, innovators ... and solutions providers needed to effectively function in a knowledge economy".

Participation in higher education in the Philippines has, without question, expanded strongly in recent years. The gross tertiary enrollment rate increased from 27.5 percent in 2005 to 35.7 percent in 2014, while the total number of students enrolled in tertiary education grew from 2.2 million in 1999 to 4.1 million in 2015/16. Filipino experts have noted that the number of graduates from higher education programs has recently " exceeded expectations." The bold decision of President Duterte in 2017 to make education at state universities and colleges tuition-free may help to further boost enrollments, even though critics contend that the costly move will sap the public budget while providing few discernible social benefits. These critics maintain that tuition-free education will primarily benefit wealthier students since only 12 percent of students at state institutions come from low-income households.

At the same time, the K-12 reforms will inevitably lead to decreased higher education enrollments, at least in the short-term, since many of the students that would usually have entered higher education after grade 10 now have to complete two additional years of school. Between 2015/16 and 2016/17, the total number of tertiary students already dropped from 4.1 million to 3.6 million - a decrease that is particularly apparent when looking at undergraduate enrollments. Data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) shows that undergraduate enrollments dropped by 12.7 percent between the 2015/16 and 2016/17 academic years, and is expected to drop by a further 22 percent in 2017/18, before starting to recover in 2018/19, when the first K-12 cohorts start to enter higher education.

This downturn will affect HEIs and lead to declining revenues during the transition period - a fact that will primarily hurt private HEIs, since nearly all of their funding comes from tuition fees. As a result, CHED anticipates that approximately 25,000 staff, including faculty and administrators, will lose their jobs. Changes will also be made to the undergraduate curriculum. Since the previous curriculum compensated for the fact that students entered with only ten years of secondary education, the revised curriculum will have greatly reduced general education requirements.

Quality Improvements and Internationalization

Regarding qualitative improvements, achievements are notable in a number of areas, including a slight increase in the number of higher education faculty holding higher degrees. The percentage of instructors with master's and doctoral degrees grew from 38.87 percent and 11.09 percent in 2010, respectively, to 40.34 and 12.62 percent in 2015. The number of HEIs with accredited education programs, which is not mandatory in the Philippines, increased by more than 40 percent between 2010 and 2016/17, while the pass rates of candidates sitting for professional licensing exams, a measure of academic effectiveness, jumped from 33.9 to 58.6 percent between 2010 and 2015.

In an attempt to boost the country's research output, the government in 2017 also institutionalized the so-called " Balik (Returning) Scientist Program," an initiative that was first created in the 1970s to incentivize highly skilled Filipino researchers working abroad to return to the Philippines. Benefits provided through the program include research grants, free health insurance, and relocation allowances. As international education consultant Roger Chao Jr has pointed out, it remains to be seen, however, how effective the program will be, given that the offered incentives and research funding may not be competitive enough to lure established scientists back to the Philippines.

Like most Asian countries, the Philippines also seeks to internationalize its education system and promotes transnational education (TNE) partnerships with foreign HEIs. To formalize this process and assure the quality of the programs offered, CHED in 2016 established concrete guidelines for transnational programs. Importantly, programs can only be offered in collaboration with a Philippine partner institution. Both the foreign provider and the Philippine partner institution must also be officially recognized and seek authorization from CHED, which is initially granted for a one-year period for graduate programs, and for two years in the case of undergraduate programs.

CHED has entered agreements with a number of countries, predominantly in Europe, but its most significant relationship is with the United Kingdom. The British Council, the U.K.'s designated organization to promote international exchange, considers the Philippines an ideal location for a TNE hub, due to its expanding population of university-age students, CHED's commitment to internationalization, and the use of English as a language of instruction in a majority of higher education programs. In 2016, CHED and the British Council entered an agreement designed to "support twinning, joint degree programmes, dual degrees and franchise models in priority fields of study between institutions in the Philippines and the UK." In 2017, this was followed by ten Philippine universities, including the country's top institutions, being designated to receive seed funding to establish TNE programs with British partner universities. The initiative is funded with UK £ 1million (USD $1.4 million) from CHED and UK £ 500,000 (USD $698,000) from the British Council. Programs are slated to commence in the 2018/19 academic year.

International Student Mobility

Outbound Mobility

The thriving TNE partnership between the UK and the Philippines will offer Filipino students access to UK education programs and reflects that there is a growing demand for international education in the country. Over the past 15+ years, the number of Filipino students enrolled in degree programs abroad alone almost tripled from 5,087 students in 1999 to 14,696 students in 2016 ( UNESCO Institute of Statistics - UIS). Given the population size of the Philippines, however, this is not an overly high number when compared, for example, to Vietnam's 63,703 outbound degree students in 2016. The outbound mobility rate (number of outbound students among all students) in the Philippines is low and remains significantly below the outbound mobility rate of neighboring countries like Malaysia, Vietnam or Indonesia.

Future mobility from and to the Philippines may also be facilitated by further economic and political integration in the ASEAN community. The long-term potential for intra-regional student mobility in this dynamic region of 600 million people is tremendous, especially since the ASEAN member states are trying to harmonize education systems and ease international mobility.

Destination Countries

According to the latest available UIS data, Australia is presently the most popular destination country of Filipino students enrolled in degree programs abroad, hosting 4,432 Filipino students (2015). The U.S. was the second most popular destination with just over 3,000 degree students. New Zealand, the U.K. and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five with 1,105, 698 and 693 Filipino students, respectively. Italy hosted 561 Filipino students and Japan hosted 488. The remaining three countries of the top ten, the United Arab Emirates, Korea and Canada, all had Filipino students numbering in the mid to low 400s.

Four of the top five destinations are English-speaking countries, demonstrating the interest of Filipino students in English-language destinations, with the popularity of Australia and New Zealand likely owed to their geographic proximity. There have been some shifts in destinations, however. While Australia has now overtaken the U.S., which used to be top destination until recently, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have emerged as new study destinations among the top ten. The latter trend coincides with strong increases in labor migration to these two countries, both of which have been the main destinations of Filipino overseas workers for years. There are also a relatively large number of international Philippine schools in Saudi Arabia, catering to the children of these migrant workers. It is well possible that some of these children continue their post-secondary education in Saudi Arabia.

When comparing international student statistics, it is important to note that these statistics can show substantially deviating numbers, due to factors like different methods of data capture or different definitions of 'international student' (degree students versus students enrolled in language programs) etc. The Canadian government, for instance, reports vastly different international student numbers than the UIS. According to these statistics, the number of Filipino international students in Canada has increased by 275 percent between 2006 and 2015, from 817 students to 3,065 students, making the Philippines the 20th largest source country of international students in Canada in 2015. The Canadian government seeks to further boost the inflow of Filipino students, and in 2017 launched a so-called " Study Direct Stream Program " in partnership with CHED. The program will streamline and shorten visa processing times, and ease the financial documentation requirements for Filipino students.

Inbound Student Mobility

There is only limited data available for inbound students in the Philippines. The number of foreign students in the country is small by international comparison, but not insignificant - the Philippines hosts substantially more foreign students than the highly dynamic outbound market of Vietnam, for example.

While there is no current data on countries of origin, most of these students come from other Asian countries. According to the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, the top two sending countries between 2004 and 2009 were South Korea and China - with strong growth rates in both cases. Also notable are a growing number of Indian students and a tremendous increase in Iranian student enrollments during that time period. In 2011/12, Koreans accounted for 21.5 percent of international enrollments, followed by Iran and China, with slightly above 13 percent of students each.

In a 2013 study on student mobility in Asia, UNESCO noted that the Philippines benefits from "the use of English as the medium of instruction...; a wide variety of academic programmes; the relatively low cost of living and affordable tuition and other school fees". But what the strong presence of Korean students, in particular, suggests is that the country's popularity as an English language training (ELT) destination is one of the strongest drivers of inbound mobility. For Koreans and other Asian students, the Philippines is a popular ELT "budget destination" that offers much lower tuition fees than the UK, Australia, Canada or the U.S., is easily reachable via short direct flights, and affords students the opportunity to combine ELT with beachside vacations.

As a result, ELT enrollments in the country are surging. The Philippines' Ambassador to the U.S. affirmed in 2015, that "there are more and more Koreans that are studying English in the Philippines... In 2004, there were about 5,700... The following year, it tripled to about 17,000, in 2012 it was about 24,000. So we're seeing an increasing number of Koreans. But they're also from other countries: Libya, Brazil, Russia." ICEF Monitor recently noted that this boom has caused more and more ELT providers to set up shop in the Philippines, and led the Filipino government to aggressively market the country as an ELT destination.

Administration of the Education System

Education in the Philippines is administered by three different government agencies, each exercising largely exclusive jurisdiction over various aspects of the education system.

The Department of Education oversees all aspects of elementary, secondary and informal education. It supervises all elementary and secondary schools, both public and private. The Department is divided into two components: the central office in Manila and various field offices, of which there are currently 17 regional offices and 221 provincial and city schools divisions. The central office sets overall policies for the basic education sector, while the field offices implement policies at the local level. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has its own department of education, but for the most part follows national guidelines and uses the national school curriculum.

The Department of Education also has a number of agencies supervising programs that fall outside the country's formal education system. The Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS), for instance, oversees education programs designed for "out-of-school children, youth and adults who need basic and functional literacy skills, knowledge and values." Two of its major programs are the Basic Literacy Program (BLP), which aims to eliminate illiteracy among out-of-school children and adults, as well as the " Continuing Education: Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Program", which helps school dropouts to complete basic education outside the formal education system.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Philippines is supervised by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) TESDA oversees TVET providers, both public and private, and acts as a regulatory body, setting training standards, curricula and testing requirements for vocational programs.

The main authority in tertiary education is the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Directly attached to the Office of the President, CHED has far-reaching responsibilities. It develops and implements higher education policies and provides quality assurance through its oversight of post-secondary programs and institutions, both public and private. CHED sets minimum standards for academic programs and the establishment of new HEIs. It also suggests funding levels for public HEIs and determines how HEIs can use these funds.

Elementary Education

Elementary education in the Philippines consists of six years of schooling, covering grades 1 to 6 (ages 6 to 12). Before the adoption of the K-12 reforms, elementary education was the only compulsory part of the basic education cycle. With the reforms, however, compulsory education has been extended and is now mandatory for all years of schooling, inclusive of grade 12.

It is now also mandatory that children complete one-year of pre-school Kindergarten education before enrolling in elementary school. While it appears that this is not yet consistent practice throughout the entire country, current legislation mandates that all children enroll in Kindergarten at the age of five. Kindergarten education, like all other parts of public schooling, is free of charge at public schools. Upon completion of the mandatory pre-school year, pupils are eligible to attend elementary school - there are no separate admission requirements.

The elementary school curriculum was recently revised and includes standard subjects like Filipino, English, mathematics, science, social science, Philippine history and culture, physical education and arts. One notable and important change, however, is that minority languages ("mother tongues") are now being used as the language of instruction in the first years of elementary education in areas where these languages are the lingua franca. There are currently 19 recognized minority languages in use. English and Filipino are introduced as languages of instruction from grades 4 to 6, in preparation for their exclusive use in junior and senior secondary high school.

Secondary Education

Pre-reform: Prior to the 2016/17 school year, when the first cohort entered grade 11 of the new senior secondary cycle, basic education ended after four years of secondary education (grades 7 to 10). Although freely available in public schools to all interested students, these four final years of basic education were not compulsory. Graduating students were awarded a Certificate of Graduation at the end of grade 10, and would progress either to higher education, TVET, or employment.

Post-reform: With the enactment of the K-12 reforms, secondary education was extended from four to six years and divided into two levels: four years of Junior High School (JHS) and two years of Senior High School (SHS), giving the basic education cycle a structure of K+6+4+2. All six years of secondary education are compulsory and free of charge at public schools. Since the construction of public senior high schools and classrooms still lags behind the need created by the K-12 reforms, however, a new voucher system was put in place to subsidize SHS study at private schools. That said, the voucher amount is capped and does not fully cover tuition at most private schools, keeping this option out of reach for socially highly disadvantaged families.

Private Schools

Private high schools in the Philippines teach the national curriculum, must be officially approved and abide by regulations set forth by the Department of Education. In 2014, 18 percent of secondary students, or 1.3 million students, were enrolled in private schools. Fully 5,130 out of 12,878 secondary schools in the Philippines in 2012/13 (about 40 percent) were privately owned. The number of ESC tuition grantees increased by 40 percent between 1996 and 2012 and accounted for almost 60 percent of all private high school students in 2014, reflecting that publicly subsidized private education is a growing trend with increasing numbers of low-cost private schools now entering the Philippine market in the wake of the K-12 reforms.

Junior High School (JHS)

JHS comprises grades 7 to 10 (ages 12 to 16). Students who complete elementary education at grade 6 automatically progress to JHS - there are no separate entry requirements at both the junior and senior secondary levels, although private schools may require passing of an entrance examination. The JHS core curriculum includes the same subjects as the elementary curriculum, with English and Filipino being used as the language of instruction, depending on the subject.

Pupils are assessed based on written assignments, performance tasks and quarterly assessments (based on tests and/or performance tasks). The minimum passing grade for both single subjects and the cumulative year-end average required for promotion is the grade of 75 (out of 100). Students with lower grades must take remedial classes and improve their grades in order to progress to the next grade. There are no final graduation examinations at both the junior and senior secondary levels.

Pupils interested in pursuing TVET may simultaneously start to explore Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) subjects in grades 7 and 8, and have the option to start studying these subjects more extensively in grades 9 and 10. Those that complete a sufficient number of hours in TLE subjects and pass TESDA assessments may be awarded a TESDA Certificate of Competency or a National Certificate (see TVET section below).

Senior High School (SHS)

SHS consists of two years of specialized upper secondary education (grades 11 and 12, ages 16 to 18). Students are streamed into academic specialization tracks with distinct curricula. Before enrolling, students choose a specialization track, being restricted in their choice only by the availability of that specialization at the school they plan to attend. The four tracks are:

Academic Track

Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) Track

Sports Track

Arts and Design Track

Students in all tracks study a core curriculum of 15 required subjects from seven learning areas, which include: languages, literature, communication, mathematics, philosophy, natural sciences, and social sciences. The grading scale and methods of assessment used in SHS are the same as in JHS, but with a stronger emphasis on performance tasks. Upon completion of grade 12, students are awarded a high school diploma.

The Academic Track is designed to prepare students for tertiary education. It is further divided into four strands: general academic; accountancy, business and management (ABM); humanities and social sciences (HUMSS); and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The TVL Track is intended for students looking to enter the labor force or pursue further TVET after graduation. It is also divided into four strands: home economics; agriculture/fishery; industrial arts; and information and communications technology (ICT). Graduates that pass the relevant TESDA assessment tests are simultaneously eligible for the award of a TESDA National Certificate I or II (see TVET section below).

The Sports and Arts and Design Tracks are intended to impart "middle-level technical skills" for careers in sports-related fields and creative industries. Enrollments in these two tracks will be comparatively small, however. While the Department of Education expected an estimated 609,000 students to enroll in the academic track, and another 596,000 students to enroll in the TVL track in 2016, only 20,000 students were anticipated to opt for the sports or arts and design tracks.

Overall, it is expected that the new overhauled K-12 curriculum will lead to greatly improved educational outcomes, since it helps "decongest" the highly condensed prior 10-year curriculum. Filipino educators have blamed the old compressed curriculum, at least in part, for the high dropout rates and lack-luster test scores in recent years, since it did not afford students the time necessary to absorb and learn all the material presented to them.

The Qualifications Framework of the Philippines

In 2012, the government established an official qualifications framework for the Philippines (PQF). The goal of the PQF is to define standards and learning outcomes, ease mobility between different education and training sectors in the Philippines, and to align Philippine qualifications with international qualifications frameworks to facilitate international mobility. Qualifications in the PQF range from secondary-level TVET certificates at levels 1 and 2 to doctoral qualifications at level 8.

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET)

TVET in the Philippines is designed to train the Philippine labor force and prepare graduates for medium- skilled employment in various vocations, ranging from agriculture to automotive technology, bookkeeping, business services, computer maintenance, information technology, health services, cookery, tourism and hospitality services, carpentry, seafaring, housekeeping, web design or teaching ESL. There were more than 2,000 different training programs on offer in 2015.

Structure

The PQF specifies five levels of TVET qualifications. The National Certificate (NC) I and NC II are placed at the secondary level and are designed to impart practical skills in a "limited range of highly familiar and predictable contexts". These certificates can be earned by secondary school students at the end of grade 10 or grade 12.

The NC III, NC IV and Diploma are post-secondary qualifications at levels 3 to 5 of the PQF. Programs leading to these types of qualifications generally require prior NCs or a high school diploma for admission and involve training at progressive levels of complexity with a greater theoretical focus, designed to train skilled workers in more supervisory functions. NC programs are usually more applied in nature, whereas diploma programs tend to be more theoretically oriented and often offered at universities.

At the NC level, TVET is competency-based, which means that programs are typically not studied or quantified in a concrete number of semesters or years of study. Instead, training programs are often modularized and self-paced - a fact that allows students who are already employed to pursue TVET without having to adhere to a strict schedule of classes. To earn a qualification, students must acquire a set number of "units of competency", formally certified in Certificates of Competency (COCs). COCs may be awarded upon completion of a set number of hours of instruction, or demonstrated mastery of certain practical competencies. Assessment may involve oral exams, written tests, employer assessment, portfolio or work projects.

It is important to note that NCs and COCs are only valid for a period of five years. After five years, holders of these qualifications must apply for the renewal of their certification and re-registration in a TESDA-maintained Registry of Certified Workers. If TESDA has established new competency standards since the original qualification was issued, applicants must undergo another competency assessment based on the new competency standards.

TVET Institutions and Modes of Delivery

There are three main modes of TVET delivery in the Philippines: institution-based (at schools and centers), enterprise-based (at companies), and community-based (at local government and community organizations).

Institution-based programs are offered by TESDA-administered schools and training centers, as well as by authorized private schools. Some higher education institutions also offer TESDA-approved programs. About half of all TVET students studied in institution-based programs in 2016. TESDA presently directly maintains 57 schools, including 19 agricultural schools, 7 fishery schools and 31 trade schools, as well as 60 regional training centers catering to regional needs. Most TVET schools, however, are privately-owned. About 90 percent of all TVET providers were private as of 2013, even though public institutions continue to enroll greater numbers of students: In 2016, 54.3 percent of TVET students were enrolled in public schools, compared to 45.7 percent in private institutions.

Enterprise-based programs are typically pursued by trainees who are employed or are training for employment at a company. These practice-oriented programs include apprenticeship programs, so-called "learnership" programs, and dual training programs, a training model adopted from Germany which combines training at a workplace with theoretical instruction at a school. Most of these programs are based on a contract between the trainee and the company and are as of now not very common - only slightly more than 3 percent of TVET students were training in enterprise-based programs in 2016. Apprenticeship programs are usually between four and six months in length, whereas learnership programs are simply shorter apprenticeship programs lasting up to three months. Programs in the Dual Training System (DTS), meanwhile, last up to two years, during which trainees acquire practical job skills augmented by part-time study at a school.

Community-based programs are designed to provide TVET for "poor and marginal groups" at the communal level, often in partnership with local government organizations. Based on local needs and resources, these public programs are not only intended to help upskill marginalized populations, but also aim to support NGOs and local government.

Quality Assurance

TESDA provides quality control for TVET programs through its "Unified TVET Program Registration and Accreditation System "( UTPRAS). All TVET programs offered at public and private institutions must be taught in accordance with TESDA's training regulations and be officially registered via UTPRAS. In addition, TVET providers can improve their reputation by seeking accreditation from accrediting bodies like the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission, but this is a voluntary process and not required for offering TVET programs in the Philippines.

Articulation between TVET and Tertiary Education Sectors

Until now, the transferability of qualifications and study between the competency-based TVET and tertiary education sectors is limited. However, the Philippine government seeks to create a more open and integrated system. In the " Ladderized Education Act of 2014 ", it directed CHED, TESDA and the Depart of Education to establish "equivalency pathways and access ramps allowing for easier transitions and progressions between TVET and higher education", including "...qualifications and articulation mechanisms, such as, but not necessarily limited to the following: credit transfer, embedded TVET qualification in ladderized degree programs, post-TVET bridging programs, enhanced equivalency, adoption of ladderized curricula/programs, and accreditation and/or recognition of prior learning". It remains to be seen how these changes will be implemented in the future.

Tertiary Education

Higher Education Institutions

The number of HEIs in the Philippines has grown rapidly over the past decades. Between 2007 and 2016/17 alone, the number of HEIs increased from 1,776 to 1,943. That makes the Philippines the country with the highest number of HEIs in Southeast Asia. For example, the Philippines has more than four times as many HEIs than Vietnam ( 445 in 2015), a country with a similar-size population.

Types of HEIs

There are three types of public tertiary education institutions in the Philippines as classified by CHED:

State universities and colleges or SUCs are defined as public institutions "with independent governing boards and individual charters established by and financed and maintained by the national government". In order to be classified as a university (as opposed to a college), institutions need to offer graduate programs in addition to a minimum number of bachelor programs in a range of disciplines. There are presently 112 SUCs in the Philippines.

Local colleges and universities are public institutions established and funded by local government units. There are presently 107 local universities and colleges.

Other government schools form a category that comprises specialized HEIs that provide training related to public services, such as the Philippine National Police Academy or the Philippine Military Academy, for example. There are presently 14 of these institutions.

Private HEIs

The vast majority - 88 percent - of HEIs in the Philippines, however, are privately owned. There were 1,710 private HEIs in operation in the 2016/17 academic year, which include both religiously affiliated institutions (mostly Catholic schools) and non-sectarian institutions. Most of these institutions offer the same type of tertiary education programs as public institutions and are overseen by CHED. A " Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education " details specific guidelines for private providers.

Many private HEIs in the Philippines are "demand-absorbing" institutions that fill a gap in supply created by the massification of education in the Philippines. Amidst limited capacities and low funding levels in the Philippine higher education system, these institutions offer those students who cannot get admitted into competitive public institutions access to tertiary education. It should be noted, however, that with the exception of top Catholic universities like Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University or the University of Santo Tomas, a majority of these institutions are smaller for-profit providers that enroll fewer than 1,000 students. The quality of education at many of these profit-driven institutions tends to be below the standards of prestigious public HEIs.

Enrollment levels at public institutions therefore remain substantial, considering the large number of private HEIs. While the share of private sector enrollments in the Philippines is high by international standards, 45.8 percent of the country's 3.5 million tertiary students were enrolled in public institutions in the 2016/17 academic year. Just over 39 percent of students studied at state universities and colleges, 6.2 percent at local universities and colleges, and a small minority of 0.17 percent at other government schools. The largest university in the Philippines is presently the public Polytechnic University of the Philippines, which maintains branch campuses throughout the country.

Quality Assurance and Accreditation

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has far-reaching authority over HEIs, including private institutions. It can authorize the establishment or closure of private HEIs, as well as determine their tuition fees and degree programs. Private HEIs are required to seek permission for their degree programs and to graduate students from these programs. Private institutions that have received this permission are authorized to display a "Special Order Number" (SON) on their academic records. The SON pertains to a specific credential awarded on a certain date and needs to be requested on a continual basis for batches of graduates.

However, CHED can exempt HEIs from the requirement to request SONs by declaring them "autonomous" or "deregulated" institutions - a designation that is granted for five-year periods and reserved for reputable high quality institutions. Autonomous institutions have the freedom to establish new degree programs and design their own curricula, whereas deregulated institutions still need to request permission for new degree programs, but are exempt from the special order requirements. CHED publishes lists of autonomous and deregulated universities on its website.

There is also a separate and voluntary accreditation process in the Philippines that allows HEIs to apply for accreditation of their programs by private accrediting bodies, such as the "Philippines Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities" or the "Philippines Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation". Accreditation is mostly program-based and encouraged by CHED. The Commission incentivizes HEIs to seek accreditation by granting institutions with accredited programs a number of self-regulatory powers, such as financial and administrative autonomy, up to freedom to independently establish new graduate programs. There are four levels of accreditation as set forth by CHED:

Level I: Programs have undergone initial review and are accredited for three years.

Level II: Programs have been re-accredited for three to five years, depending on the assessment of the accrediting body. This exempts institutions from applying for the SON, and allows them to redesign the curricula (within limits) and use the word "accredited" on publications.

Level III: Programs have been re-accredited and fulfill a number of additional criteria, such as a strong research focus and high pass rates of graduates in licensing exams. This level gives HEIs the right to independently establish new programs associated with already existing level III programs.

: Programs are considered to be of outstanding quality and prestige, as demonstrated by criteria like publications in research journals and international reputation. HEIs have full autonomy in running their accredited level IV programs and have the right to establish new graduate programs associated with existing level IV programs.

Given that accreditation is not a mandatory requirement, however, only a minority of HEI's in the Philippines presently seek accreditation of their programs. In the 2016/17 academic year, there were 671 higher education institutions with accredited programs in the Philippines (about 28 percent of all institutions). CHED provides an easy-to-navigate directory of all the recognized higher education programs in the Philippines, organized by institution and region.

International University Rankings

Enrollments by Type of Program and Field of Study

The vast majority of Filipino students are enrolled at the undergraduate level. Fully 89 percent were matriculated in bachelor-level programs and another 4.8 percent in pre-bachelor programs in the 2016/17 academic year. Graduate level enrollments are still small: Only 5.2 percent of students were enrolled in master's programs and less than one percent in doctoral programs.

The most popular fields of study in 2016/17 were business administration, education, engineering and technology, information and technology and medical studies. Of the more than 2.2 million students enrolled in these subject areas, about 41 percent chose business administration and almost 33 percent pursued education studies. Engineering, information technology and medical studies accounted for 20 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

University Admissions

Admission into university in the Philippines generally requires the high school diploma. Going forward this means the new K-12 diploma. CHED has announced that beginning in the 2018/19 academic year, holders of the old 10-year high school diploma are expected to complete bridging courses before enrolling in undergraduate programs. In addition, more selective institutions have further requirements such as certain minimum GPA requirements, adequate scores in the National Achievement Test (NAT) or institution-specific entrance examinations. There is no nation-wide university entrance exam as found in other Asian countries.

Degree Structure

Given the impact the U.S. had on the development of the modern Philippine education system, it is not surprising that tertiary benchmark credentials in the Philippines closely resemble the U.S. system. Higher education institutions also follow a two semester system like in the U.S., however the academic year runs from June until March.
Associate Degree
Even though the Associate degree is not included in the Philippine Qualifications Framework, it is still awarded by several institutions in the Philippines. Associate programs are typically two years in length, although some older programs used to be three years in length. Associate programs often have a more vocationally-oriented focus, but also include a general education component and may be transferred into bachelor's programs. Some institutions offer associate degrees as part of a laddered 2+2 system leading to a bachelor's degree.
Bachelor's Degree
Bachelor's degree programs in standard academic disciplines are four years in length (a minimum of 124 credits, but most typically between 144-180 credits). The credentials awarded most frequently are the Bachelor of Science and the Bachelor of Arts. Bachelor's programs in professional disciplines like engineering or architecture, on the other hand, are typically five years in length and have higher credit requirements. Programs include a sizeable general education core curriculum in addition to specialized subjects. Until recently, general education courses were typically completed in the first half of the program, while major-specific courses were mostly taken in higher semesters. The K-12 reforms, however, will lead to changes in curricula and likely reduce the general education component in bachelor's programs.
Master's Degree
Master's programs require a bachelor's degree for admission. Programs are typically two years in length (a minimum of 30 credits, but credit requirements vary from institution to institution). Depending on the discipline, master's programs may include a thesis or be offered as non-thesis programs, with non-thesis programs usually requiring a higher number of credits and passing of a comprehensive examination.
Doctoral Degree
The doctoral degree is the highest degree in the Philippine education system. Doctoral programs require a master's degree for admission and typically involve coursework and a dissertation, although some pure research programs without coursework also exist. The most commonly awarded credential is the Doctor of Philosophy. In addition, there are professional doctorates, such the Doctor Technology or the Doctor of Education. Most programs have a minimum length of three years, but students often take much longer to complete the program.
Professional Education
Professional degree programs in disciplines like medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or law are either post-graduate programs that require a bachelor's degree for admission or long six-year first degree programs that involve two years of foundation studies after high school. While there are some variations in the programs offered, the general structure is as follows.

Law programs require a bachelor's degree for admission, are usually four years in length, and conclude with the award of the Juris Doctor. Medical programs lead to the award of the Doctor of Medicine and require four years of study after the bachelor's degree, including two years of clinical study. Graduate medical education in medical specialties involves a further three to six years of residency training after licensure.

Programs in dental and veterinary medicine, on the other hand, usually do not require a bachelor's degree for admission. Instead, students are required to complete a two-year preliminary foundation program with a sizeable general education component before commencing professional studies. Students graduate with the Doctor of Dental Medicine or the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine after a total of six years of study.

In order to practice, graduates from professional programs must pass licensing examinations, the standards of which are set forth by a national Professional Regulation Commission. This Commission regulates most professions and oversees more than 40 Professional Regulatory Boards that conduct the relevant licensing exams. Lawyers have to pass bar exams administered by a Bar Examination Committee under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
Teacher Education
The standard teaching credential in the Philippines is a four-year bachelor's degree. Elementary school teachers earn a Bachelor of Elementary Education, whereas secondary school teachers earn a Bachelor of Secondary Education, with curricula being tailored to the respective level of education. Curricula are set by CHED and consist of general education subjects, education-related subjects, specialization subjects and practice teaching. Holders of bachelor's degrees in other fields can earn a teacher qualification by completing a post-graduate program in education. These programs are between one semester and one year in length and lead to a credential most commonly referred to as the Certificate of Professional Education.

Grading Scales

There is no standard grading scale at the tertiary level that all institutions follow. It is more common for HEIs to use their own unique grading scales and include a legend or description of the scale on their academic transcripts. However, there are a few scales which are more common than others. The most common one is the 1-5 scale, with 1 being the highest grade. Also commonly used is a 0-100 scale with a minimum passing grade of 75.

Credit System

The credit system, on the other hand, is fairly standardized. One credit unit usually represents at least 16 semester-hours of classroom instruction and most classes require three hours of in-class study per week. In a typical three-credit course, students, thus, attend classes for 48 hours per semester. In non-lecture based classes, such as labs or other practical courses, one credit is usually equivalent to 32 semester hours.

WES Documentation Requirements
Secondary Education

Graduation Certificate/Diploma - submitted by the applicant

Academic Transcript - sent directly by the institution attended

Higher Education

Academic Transcript - sent directly by the institution (if study for one degree was completed at multiple institutions, the last institution attended sends a consolidated transcript)

For completed doctoral degrees - a written statement confirming the award of the degree sent directly by the institution

Notable Documentation Peculiarities

All study reported on a single transcript: If a student completes study at multiple institutions, the courses taken by this student at different schools (subjects, credits and grades) are all included on the final transcript issued by the last institution attended. The institutions at which the student studied previously will not issue separate transcripts. To document study completed at multiple institutions, it is therefore sufficient to only request a consolidated transcript from the last institution attended (see the sample documents below for an example).

Recognition status of programs: Academic records issued by private institutions may provide cues about the official CHED recognition status of the program in question. The academic records will either indicate the mandatory special order number, or in the case of exempted institutions note their autonomous or deregulated status. If neither a special order number nor the autonomous/deregulated status is indicated on the documents, the program was either not completed, the special order number request is still pending with CHED, or the program is not recognized.

Sample Documents

Click here for a PDF file of the academic documents referred to below.

High school diploma and academic transcript (old system)

High school diploma and academic transcript (K-12)

National Certificate II

Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Science

Master of Science

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Medicine

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Wilson Macha, Chris Mackie, and Jessica Magaziner, Knowledge Analysts at WES The Philippines is a unique country. Only slightly larger than the U.S. state of Arizona in land mass, it is the world's second-largest archipelago after Indonesia, consisting of more than 7,000 islands.

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This is about the history of how education started from past to present. It also refers to facts about teaching in the Philippines. It is also how they implement the K-12 curriculum.

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A brief history of the Philippines education system

Before the Spanish arrived in 1521, there was little formal education in the Philippines. Fathers taught their sons how to obtain food, while mothers taught their daughters how to do household chores.

A Spanish influence

Education was formalised with the arrival of the Spanish; Spaniards, mestizos (mixed Spanish/Filipino people) and wealthy Filipinos were given priority, creating an educational mismatch in the Philippines. Most native people were excluded from the more prestigious educational institutions, as the colonists believed that quality education might threaten their hold over the population. The curriculum at the time involved the study of Christian doctrine, Spanish language and history, mathematics, agriculture, geography, etiquette, and singing; girls were also taught sewing.

At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Americans took over the Philippines. English was adopted as the primary language of education, and schools became more secularised.

A centralised public school system was established in 1901, with 1,000 teachers brought over from the USA to make up for a shortage of teachers at home. Education from age seven and up became compulsory, and school supplies were provided to students for free.

During WWII

When the Japanese occupied the Philippines in 1942 during the Second World War, they attempted to discourage the use of English and adopt Japanese as the medium of education. However, school enrolment was low, as families felt that their children were safer at home during this time.

The Japanese also established the Department of Instruction, which would later become the Department of Education in 1947. The Japanese departed the Philippines in 1946, and the Philippines finally gained full independence.

Modern Philippines

Today's education system in the Philippines most closely resembles the American model. English remains the primary medium of instruction, although bilingual teaching of maths, science and literature (in English and Tagalog) was introduced under Ferdinand Marcos in 1974.

The establishment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in 1994 reflected a shift in government focus toward vocational education, with courses offered in practical skills such as vehicle repair and bartending.

Facts about education in the Philippines

Most of the problems in the Philippines education system stem from a lack of funding: low teacher salaries, a shortage of classrooms and lack of facilities such as laboratories. Additionally, there is a lack of educational equality between regions: government policy tends to favour schools near Manila, with regions farthest from the capital (such as Mindanao) showing lower levels of student performance.

Despite these issues, the education system in the Philippines is still seen as one of the most developed in Asia: rates of basic education completion, higher education participation and adult literacy are comparable to far more developed economies in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

Like many other developing countries, one of the major problems in the Philippine education system is that of 'brain drain' - the departure of talented students, graduates and teachers to other countries. Until the opportunities at home equal the number of skilled graduates coming out of the education system, this is a problem that looks set to continue.

How does the education system in the Philippines work?

The pre-university education system in the Philippines is the K to 12 Program (also known as K-12), which covers 13 years of education from kindergarten to Grade 12. It was introduced over a six-year period from 2011 to 2017, to bring the Philippines education system in line with the rest of the world.

Previously, the Philippines had a 10-year basic education program, the last country in Asia to do so. Lessons are now taught in the language local to the area.

ALS takes a more informal approach to education, encouraging self-study and flexible learning timelines based on student availability. Teaching is usually conducted at community (barangay) centres, in libraries or at home, and is managed by mobile ALS teachers. Through ALS, the government improves educational equality in the Philippines.

Basic education in the Philippines

Kindergarten and elementary school

Central to the K-12 reforms was the provision of one year of kindergarten schooling for every child in the Philippines, which is done before elementary school. Elementary school in the Philippines covers grades 1-6.

The K-12 reforms to elementary schooling included a curriculum better suited to the needs of Christian and Muslim pupils; Muslim children now have the opportunity to learn Arabic.

Junior and senior high school

Junior high school in the Philippines covers grades 7-10. Senior high school (SHS) in the Philippines covers grades 11-12 and was introduced in 2016 as part of the K to 12 program.

To assist in selecting a learning track, students undergo assessments to determine their strengths and interests. These include an aptitude test, a career assessment exam and activities designed to help the student to choose their specialisation. The tracks that are offered vary by the resources available in the area and the interests of the students.

The senior high school program was designed to bridge the gap between school and work: local companies partner with schools to offer technical and vocational courses, and students can get work experience while studying.

Tertiary education in the Philippines

Colleges are classified as tertiary institutions that typically offer a handful of professional or specialised courses such as Computing, Maritime Studies or Nursing.

Universities, by definition, must offer at least six four-year undergraduate courses, which must include Basic Science, Mathematics, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Colleges and universities may be public or private: the latter may be either religion-based or secular.

What is the education policy in the Philippines?

K-12 builds upon the reforms initiated by Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, whose '10-point plan' sought to build more schools, expand vocational course options and improve science education in the Philippines.

An increase in funding

These recent reforms have been made possible due to a substantial increase in funding, after years of underinvestment. The World Bank estimates that government public spending in the Philippines increased by 60% in real terms between 2010 and 2015, providing the means to hire more teachers and decrease the student-to-teacher ratio.

That said, the Philippines still spends far less on education as a proportion of GDP than many other similar and neighbouring countries, spending approximately 3.5% in 2017. By comparison, Vietnam and South Korea spend around 5% of GDP on education.

Inclusive education in the Philippines

However, DepEd also acknowledged that "public schools do not include Arabic language and Islamic values, making the Muslims ignorant of their religion." As a result, Muslim school now include a course in Arabic Language and Islamic Values (ALIVE) as part of their core curriculum.

Final thoughts

Education in the Philippines has come a long way since pre-colonial times. While the standard of education is high, young would-be graduates can always benefit from expanding their knowledge. With the courses we've linked to throughout this article, you can augment your formal education and enhance your employability when you're ready to enter the world of work.

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Explore: The education system in the Philippines - FutureLearn

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Before the Spanish arrived in 1521, there was little formal education in the Philippines. Fathers taught their sons how to obtain food, while mothers taught their daughters how to do household chores. Education was formalised with the arrival of the Spanish; Spaniards, mestizos (mixed Spanish/Filipino people) and wealthy Filipinos were given priority, creating an educational mismatch in the Philippines.

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https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/filipino-children-continue-missing-education-opportunities-another-year-school

Many Filipino students have learned less because of schools closing due to the pandemic.

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Filipino children continue missing education opportunities in another year of school closure

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Together with four other countries, the Philippines has kept its schools closed nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic

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Schools that are Qualified for In-person Classes

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Schools that are Qualified for In-person Classes

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The DepEd have now relaxed the protocol for conducting in-person classes. Wherein the Philippines' is at its lowest quarantine statues in the country amid the COVID-19 cases.

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THE Department of Education (DepEd) has called for a more relaxed protocols for the conduct of in-person classes following the de-escalation of various areas to Alert Level 1, the lowest quarantine status in the country, amid the decline in Covid-19 cases.

In her report during President Rodrigo Duterte's Talk to the People Address Monday evening, Feb. 28, 2022, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said eased protocols for face-to-face classes will allow more schools to re-open.

She said of the 6,213 schools that are qualified to conduct in-person classes, 1,726 are already operational.

Briones said they will meet with Department of Health (DOH) officials on Friday, March 4, to discuss the matter to ensure the safety of the students and prevent the resurgence of cases while gradually allowing face-to-face classes.

She said they are also further studying the blended learning system to make the students digitally ready given the global technology development, which was further boosted amid the pandemic.

She said blended learning depends on the capability of the schools.

Metro Manila, Abra, Apayao, Baguio City, Kalinga, Dagupan City, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Batanes, Cagayan, City of Santiago, Isabela, Quirino, Angeles City, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Olongapo City, Pampanga, Tarlac, Cavite, Laguna, Marinduque, Puerto Princesa City, Romblon, Naga City, Catanduanes, Aklan, Bacolod City, Capiz, Guimaras, Siquijor, Biliran, Zamboanga City, Cagayan de Oro City, Camiguin and Davao City have been placed under Alert Level 1 from March 1 to 15.

Under Alert Level 1, all restrictions, including venue in all businesses or transportation capacity and travel, are lifted.

The public only need to follow the minimum health protocols, particularly the wearing of masks and observance of physical distancing.

Schools in various areas, including the NCR, have resumed limited face-to-face classes in November 2021.

Based on the guidelines approved earlier by Duterte, kindergarten classes will be allowed up to 12 students, while Grade 1 to 3 classes will have a maximum of 16 students. Classes may last up to three hours.

Technical vocational classes, on the other hand, can have 20 students at a time.

The DepEd aims to expand the face-to-face classes by March 7.

The DOH 7 also expressed its support for the plan of the Cebu City Government to resume face-to-face classes in 13 identified schools.

DOH 7 Chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche told SunStar Cebu Tuesday, March 1, that the resumption of in-person classes shows that people are now learning to live with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Loreche added that the vaccination rates in the mountain barangays also showed favorable numbers.

However, the conduct of in-person classes needs to be monitored closely to make sure that the minimum health protocols will be followed.

According to the DepEd 7, there will be 474 schools across the region that will resume on separate dates after they have complied with the different requirements.

DepEd 7 Director Salustino Jimenez previously mentioned that there are 108 selected schools in the entire Province of Cebu that will resume their face-to-face classes by March 7.

In Cebu City, Councilor Joel Garganera said schools located in upland barangays were chosen to be the pilot facilities for the resumption of in-person classes since Covid-19 cases in these areas are few.

Garganera added that the students and teachers are isolated in the sense that they belong to just one barangay.

The identified schools are Sibugay Integrated School, Pamutan Integrated School, Mangabon Elementary School, Cantipla Integrated School, Tabunan Integrated School, Sinsin National High School, Deosis Elementary School (Buot), Lusaran National High School, Tagbao National HighSchool, Taptap Integrated School, Sinsin Elementary School, Adlaon Integrated School and Bitlang Integrated School. (IRT / TPM / SunStar Philippines)

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DepEd calls for easing of F2F classes protocols

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THE Department of Education (DepEd) has called for a more relaxed protocols for the conduct of in-person classes following the de-escalation of various areas to Alert Level 1, the lowest quarantine status in the country, amid the decline in Covid-19 cases. In her report during President Rodrigo Duterte's Talk to the People Address Monday evening, Feb.

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The Philippines is in need of EDUCATION PRESIDENT. Most of the national candidates in 2022 made the education their priority for their 'post-pandemic recovery plan.'

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My friends (from public schools) often complain to me about how their classmates don't cooperate when given group work. Unfortunately for them, they are mostly fifteen (15) persons per group since they are a lot in class (because it's a public school). It's challenging not to come across any problems during online classes. Things like those happen during physical classes too but it's worse now since the teachers can't really talk to them physically. The cooperation of students is also hard to manage since our attention span is noticeably short.

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What about the Education in the Rural Areas?

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What about the Education in the Rural Areas?

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Education is importantly taken for children to learn, but there is inequality in learning where in the students in the rural areas are struggling to learn. Saying that the PH Education System is UNIFIED but FRACTURED.

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Although there are positive experiences from online classes, negative experiences are always present, and they must not be ignored. Aside from the usual problems such as internet connection problems, students also struggle with mental and emotional health. It is not rare to see students struggling with their insecurities during online classes such as thinking if they are still part of the class or if they are really needed at all.

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The differences in the quality of education in the Philippines

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The differences in the quality of education in the Philippines

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The differences in the quality of education, and facilities differs between public and private schools.

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Although choosing the right school can be challenging for new arrivals, expat parents in the Philippines can rest assured that there are multiple options available.

Education at local Filipino schools is not likely to be of the standard most expats are used to. Public schooling suffers from underfunding and a lack of resources. As such, most expats living in the Philippines opt to send their children to private and international schools.

Education system in the Philippines

The education system in the Philippines has largely been shaped by its colonial history, particularly by the Spanish and American cultures. Today, it is largely modelled on the US education system. Education is compulsory from ages five to 18.

Filipino and English are the main languages of instruction at all public and private schools in the Philippines. From grades one to three, students are taught in the dominant language of their region. Classes are held in either English or Filipino from then on.

The school year for both public and private schools in the Philippines runs from June to March or April. A typical school week is Monday to Friday, with long school hours.

Public schools in the Philippines

Most local Filipino children attend public schools, which are funded by the government and free to attend. Unfortunately, the quality of education in public schools remains poor. Class sizes are big, teaching material is lacking and teachers are poorly paid.

For these reasons, expats in the Philippines generally don't send their children to public schools.

Private schools in the Philippines

Those who can afford it send their children to private schools. Private schools are not funded by the government, but follow the same curriculum as public schools.

Many private schools in the Philippines started as missionary or Christian schools. Classes are smaller than public schools and facilities and resources are usually much better.

International schools in the Philippines

There are several international schools in the Philippines. Most of these schools are in Manila, popularly catering to American, British, French, Japanese and German nationals.

International schools generally follow the curriculum of their home country, and subjects are taught in their own language. Some international schools offer the International Baccalaureate programme.

Admission to an international school often requires a personal interview. For this reason, expats might only be able to enrol their children after arrival in the Philippines. Nevertheless, parents are recommended to start the admission process as soon as possible, as space tends to be limited.

Additionally, international school fees are high, and expats working in the Philippines may be able to factor this into their employment contract negotiations.

Nurseries in the Philippines

Parents with young infants will have access to a number of kindergartens and nurseries, especially if they live in a large urban area such as Metro Manila. Preschools and kindergartens are often a part of larger private and international schools. Separate standalone daycare and nursery facilities can also be found.

When looking for a nursery, its location and proximity to an expat's accommodation will likely play a major role, especially in larger cities where traffic is nightmarish.

Special-needs education in the Philippines

Inclusive education for all students, including children with disabilities, is valued in the education system. However, while public schools have adapted their curriculum to support students with multiple disabilities, there is a lack of resources and qualified staff.

Support in private schools is also limited and variable, although some, including Montessori-based international schools, offer services and special-needs education support. Schools may require parents to submit professional evaluations of their child's needs to develop an individualised academic programme.

It's best to contact schools directly to find out about the level of services offered.

Homeschooling in the Philippines

Many families moving to the Philippines consider homeschooling their children. Homeschooling is legal, and parents can reach out to the community of local homeschools through expat forums and social media groups.

Homeschoolers can follow a curriculum of their choice, but parents are advised to do their research and commit to this alternative style of education and learning. Many schools also offer a home study programme in the Philippines, which can help shape a child's learning and provide extra guidance.

Tutors in the Philippines

Whether children attend a regular private school or are homeschooled, extra support from a tutor can be beneficial. Tutoring is common in the Philippines, and expats can easily find a tutor who specialises in a specific subject area and curriculum. Networking in person and online through websites such as TeacherOn can help expats search for a tutor.

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Although choosing the right school can be challenging for new arrivals, expat parents in the Philippines can rest assured that there are multiple options available. Education at local Filipino schools is not likely to be of the standard most expats are used to. Public schooling suffers from underfunding and a lack of resources.

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IN PHOTOS: Students, teachers struggle as classes open during the pandemic

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The Philippines struggles with the education system during the pandemic

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The Philippines struggles with the education system during the pandemic

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The opening of classes had been delayed twice to give schools time to prepare for the shift to distance learning. Despite the delays, many students and teachers still struggled to keep up with the preparations needed for the shift.

In fact, a week before the opening of classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) was still training its teachers.

With livelihoods severely affected by the pandemic, many students and parents also had difficulty preparing the necessary equipment for the shift, with young Filipinos turning to online campaign #PisoParaSaLaptop just to raise funds for gadgets.

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On the first day of the new school year, many students and teachers struggle to adjust to distance learning

Despite the challenges posed by distance learning, students and teachers in the Philippines sought ways to make sure they won't be left behind during the opening of classes on Monday, October 5.

The date also marks the celebration of World Teacher's Day.

On Monday, more than 24 million students resumed studying through online classes and self-learning modules amid the coronavirus pandemic. (READ: Over 24 million Filipino students back to school during pandemic)

The opening of classes had been delayed twice to give schools time to prepare for the shift to distance learning. Despite the delays, many students and teachers still struggled to keep up with the preparations needed for the shift.

In fact, a week before the opening of classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) was still training its teachers.

With livelihoods severely affected by the pandemic, many students and parents also had difficulty preparing the necessary equipment for the shift, with young Filipinos turning to online campaign #PisoParaSaLaptop just to raise funds for gadgets.

And while those who cannot afford to buy gadgets can use self-learning modules, the government experienced delays in printing learning materials due to insufficient supplies and budget for the purchase of bond paper.

Despite these issues, the DepEd dismissed calls for an "academic freeze" and proceeded with its plan to open the school year on October 5. (READ: 'Ill-informed': DepEd dismisses calls for academic freeze)

As classes opened on Monday, many students contended with distance learning issues such as limited access to gadgets needed for online classes, and poor internet connectivity.

In Barangay Poblacion, Mandaluyong City, several public school students were still getting used to learning via online classes.

Local government units such as the City of Manila and Pasig City supported their students by giving out free smartphones and tablets.

A lot of teachers had to be creative or resort to extreme methods to ensure students receive quality education despite the limitations of distance learning.

In Sto Niño National High School in Batangas City, teachers climbed up their school's roof to get better internet connection.

Lumad students and teachers seeking refuge in a Bakwit school at the University of the Philippines Diliman also started their classes on Monday using blended learning.

After their flag ceremony, they took the opportunity to call for the reopening of 178 Lumad schools closed by the DepEd.
- Rappler.com

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IN PHOTOS: Students, teachers struggle as classes open during pandemic

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On the first day of the new school year, many students and teachers struggle to adjust to distance learning Despite the challenges posed by distance learning, students and teachers in the Philippines sought ways to make sure they won't be left behind during the opening of classes on Monday, October 5.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has shoved to our throats a modality new to us – the online learning.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has shoved to our throats a modality new to us – the online learning.

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It should be noted that there are existing effective online education programs prior to the pandemic. Among its implementer is no less than the University of the Philippines under the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) that was established in 1995.

However, unlike students of UPOU who chose to enroll in an institution where education is done online, students from other colleges and universities are not mentally and logistically ready for online education.

Few weeks after private schools and universities reopened despite strict quarantine measures, calls for #AcademicFreeze went viral on various social media platforms. Stories and anecdotes of students working at night, asking to be excused due to poor connection or unavailability of a gadget, asking around for donations have filled our newsfeeds.

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by Joshua Villalobos
Bacolod City

The COVID-19 pandemic has shoved to our throats a modality new to us - the online learning.

It should be noted that there are existing effective online education programs prior to the pandemic. Among its implementer is no less than the University of the Philippines under the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) that was established in 1995. However, unlike students of UPOU who chose to enroll in an institution where education is done online, students from other colleges and universities are not mentally and logistically ready for online education.

Few weeks after private schools and universities reopened despite strict quarantine measures, calls for #AcademicFreeze went viral on various social media platforms. Stories and anecdotes of students working at night, asking to be excused due to poor connection or unavailability of a gadget, asking around for donations have filled our newsfeeds.

Some of the students have even resorted to selling nude pictures or videos to support their online education.

The fact of the matter is that online classes are very challenging. Aside from the country's poor internet connection, issues of technological and financial resources are an undeniable factor that continues to make online classes difficult for the majority of Filipino students.

Because no educational institution has seen this coming, most of them don't have their own online platforms, and if they have one, these platforms are often underdeveloped and unmaintained and would crash multiple times a week. Thanks to Google, Discord, Zoom, Canvas, and other free "classrooms" and teleconferencing softwares because they became very useful in this very challenging time. However, issues still arise because even some of the teachers are not well-versed on these platforms (and it is not their fault), hence, they cannot also assist students who are having issues with the channel.

Lest we forget that a lot of students don't have studio type rooms with office-like settings to do the online classes. Students residing in crowded areas would need to shoulder the extra burden of outside noise that can discourage focus and of course learning. This new modality of learning has challenged all of us. Our resentment should be heard as a cry for help and a call upon different sectors of the society. It should not be viewed as a typical " reklamo " but rather an expression of universal pain felt by students in the middle of the pandemic.

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The Struggle of Online Education - Humanist Alliance Philippines, International

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The Struggle of Online Education by Joshua Villalobos Bacolod City The COVID-19 pandemic has shoved to our throats a modality new to us - the online learning. It should be noted that there are existing effective online education programs prior to the pandemic. Among its implementer is no less than the University of the ...

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Although there are many reasons as to why students fail to attend their online classes, poverty is one prominent obstacle.

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Daniel Gonzalez Rosas, 17, outside of his shuttered school, the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies in Los Angeles County. Daniel said that only about half of his classmates join video conference calls for class. "Most are under the impression that school is optional given the circumstances we are in," he said. Credit... David Walter Banks for The New York Times

Teachers at some schools across the country report that fewer than half of their students are participating in online learning.

Daniel Gonzalez Rosas, 17, outside of his shuttered school, the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies in Los Angeles County. Daniel said that only about half of his classmates join video conference calls for class. "Most are under the impression that school is optional given the circumstances we are in," he said. Credit... David Walter Banks for The New York Times

Chronic absenteeism is a problem in American education during the best of times, but now, with the vast majority of the nation's school buildings closed and lessons being conducted remotely, more students than ever are missing class - not logging on, not checking in or not completing assignments.

The absence rate appears particularly high in schools with many low-income students, whose access to home computers and internet connections can be spotty. Some teachers report that fewer than half of their students are regularly participating.

The trend is leading to widespread concern among educators, with talk of a potential need for summer sessions, an early start in the fall, or perhaps having some or even all students repeat a grade once Americans are able to return to classrooms.

Students are struggling to connect in districts large and small. Los Angeles said last week that about a third of its high school students were not logging in for classes. And there are daunting challenges for rural communities like Minford, Ohio, where many students live in remote wooded areas unserved by internet providers.

Educators say that some students and their parents have dropped out of touch with schools completely - unavailable by phone, email or any other form of communication - as families struggle with the broader economic and health effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

Even before the outbreak, chronic absenteeism was a problem in many schools, especially those with a lot of low-income students. Many obstacles can prevent children who live in poverty from making it to class: a parent's broken-down car or a teenager's need to babysit siblings, for example. But online learning presents new obstacles, particularly with uneven levels of technology and adult supervision.

Titilayo Aluko, 18, a junior at Landmark High School in Manhattan, is one of the students trying hard to keep up with her classes who has been thwarted by her lack of access to technology. She has a district-issued laptop, but no Wi-Fi network in her Bronx apartment since her family had trouble paying the monthly bill.

For classes like statistics and neuroscience, Ms. Aluko has tried to complete assignments and participate in video conferences using her cellphone, but that is sometimes impossible.

"I actually need my teachers, who know me and understand me, to help me, and I don't have that," she said. "I just keep thinking, 'Oh, my God, I might not pass.' I'm just really scared for the future."

Cratering attendance in some districts contrasts with reports from several selective or affluent schools where close to 100 percent of students are participating in online learning. The dramatic split promises to further deepen the typical academic achievement gaps between poor, middle-class and wealthy students.

The scale of the challenge, and the work that will need to be done to catch children up academically and socially, is "huge," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a network of urban education systems.

He called the prospect of "unfinished learning" from this time "a serious issue that could have implications for years."

There is no precedent in educators' memories for what is happening right now. Schools have weathered disruptive events like Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires, but those disasters were limited to shorter time periods and smaller regions. During the coronavirus pandemic, every state in the country has ordered or recommended closing schools, in many cases through the end of the academic year.

School leaders across the country are already debating how to help students catch up. To maintain social distancing, some regions may bring children back to school in waves, in order to reduce the number of people inside classrooms and buildings at any given time.

There is also concern about whether large numbers of students will need to repeat all or substantial portions of their current grade.

"Many skills build one on another," Mr. Casserly said. "If a child misses out on some key idea, then all of a sudden, additional ideas as they're introduced just become Greek. Will we need some kind of beginning of the year diagnostics to try and figure out just where the kids are, how much they have lost?"

For many students, it seems most likely that the answer will be: Yes, quite a lot.

In the Cleveland Metropolitan School District last week, teachers returning from an extended spring break tried to hold virtual parent-teacher conferences for the first time for all of the district's 38,000 students. Initially, they were able to reach only 60 percent of families, but after a few more days of trying, the number reached 87 percent, said Eric S. Gordon, the district's chief executive.

The city of Cleveland has one of the nation's highest child-poverty rates. Despite the economic slowdown, many parents continue to work full-time outside their homes in fields like sanitation, health and food service, meaning that many students do not have an adult at home to supervise their learning.

Mr. Gordon estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the district's students also do not have reliable access to the internet at home. So in addition to developing plans for online learning, the district has distributed printed work packets along with free meals, and will soon begin mailing those packets to students' home addresses.

Tracy Radich, a fourth-grade teacher at the Joseph M. Gallagher School in Cleveland, spent Tuesday and Wednesday going down her roster of 20 students, trying to call each student's parents and make individual plans to help each of them learn from home.

Some of her students' families speak Somali, Swahili or Spanish, so she asked colleagues who speak those languages to help.

So far, only three of her students have been consistently engaged with online lessons, she said. About six do not have regular access to the internet. One boy typically goes to the library to get online, but the city's libraries are now closed, too. She expects to interact with several students mostly through phone calls.

"We are going to come together and meet everybody where they are," Ms. Radich said.

School funding is typically tied to student enrollment or attendance counts across the country, but Ohio has unlinked funding from those counts, a policy that education experts expect most states to adopt in the coming weeks.

In rural Minford, a town of about 700 in southern Ohio near the border with Kentucky, the district is distributing laptops as well as work packets on paper to students without internet or technology access, estimated at 25 to 30 percent of the student body by the district's superintendent.

Regardless of whether Minford's students can participate in online classes or turn in work, administrators expect to promote a majority of them to the next grade, said Marin Applegate, the district's school psychologist. "We do not feel they are in control and cannot be held accountable," she said.

Some school systems, like the District of Columbia Public Schools, have stopped taking formal attendance altogether. The nation's largest school district, New York City, which is at the center of the coronavirus crisis, has not yet released data on the number of children participating in online learning. The district said it would officially begin tracking remote attendance on Monday.

In Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest school district, about 13 percent of high school students have had no online contact with teachers since schools closed three weeks ago, and one-third are not regularly participating in online learning, according to the superintendent, Austin Beutner.

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Heber Marquez, a high school English teacher at the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies in Los Angeles County, estimated that just 45 percent of his students were showing up to Zoom classroom meetings. Credit... David Walter Banks for The New York Times

Heber Marquez, a high school English teacher at the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies in Los Angeles County, estimated that just 45 percent of his students were showing up to Zoom classroom meetings.

"A lot of our students have siblings they have to take care of, and their parents are still going out and working," Mr. Marquez said. "It makes it very difficult to log on at the same time as feeding breakfast to their siblings or helping with chores."

Many schools are making efforts to distribute digital devices to students who do not have their own at home. Los Angeles is trying to get them to more than 100,000 students, Mr. Beutner said. The Miami-Dade County Public Schools have distributed more than 80,000 mobile devices for distance learning, and more than 11,000 smartphones to serve as home Wi-Fi hot spots, according to a spokeswoman.

In New York, the city's typical inequalities are reflected in the wide range of participation levels in remote learning.

At Brooklyn Technical High School, one of the city's most competitive, Serge Avery, a social studies teacher, said 98 percent of his students have been participating in daily online activities, like reading and responding to a Financial Times article about the coronavirus.

His freshman global history students are currently studying the Middle Ages, and he has considered doing a unit on the bubonic plague. But he thought twice after receiving a heartfelt email from a student, written at 4 a.m., in which she described her mother being taken away by ambulance with Covid-19 symptoms.

Mr. Avery said he worried that even among his high-achieving students, participation could drop off as online learning becomes more of a daily grind for restless teenagers.

"Teachers really get energized by the classroom," he said. The current limitations, he added, have left both teachers and students "slightly depressed."

Dan Levin and Audra D.S. Burch contributed reporting.

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As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out (Published 2020)

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Teachers at some schools across the country report that fewer than half of their students are participating in online learning. Daniel Gonzalez Rosas, 17, outside of his shuttered school, the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies in Los Angeles County. Daniel said that only about half of his classmates join video conference calls for class.

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Covid-19 Deepens a Philippine Education Crisis

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Covid-19 Deepens a Philippine Education Crisis

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MANILA — As jubilant students across the globe trade in online learning for classrooms, millions of children in the Philippines are staying home for the second year in a row because of the pandemic, fanning concerns about a worsening education crisis in a country where access to the internet is uneven.

President Rodrigo Duterte has justified keeping elementary schools and high schools closed by arguing that students and their families need to be protected from the coronavirus. The Philippines has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Asia, with just 16 percent of its population fully inoculated, and Delta variant infections have surged in recent months.

That makes the Philippines, with its roughly 27 million students, one of only a handful of countries that has kept schools fully closed throughout the pandemic, joining Venezuela, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Agency for Children. Other countries that kept schools closed, like Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have moved to reopen them.

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With Schools Closed, Covid-19 Deepens a Philippine Education Crisis (Published 2021)

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The country remains among the few that have not at least partially reopened, sparking worry in a place where many lack a computer or internet access.

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Literacy rate in the Philippines has improved a lot over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. This is attributed to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools.
The number of schools grew rapidly in all three levels - elementary, secondary, and tertiary. From the mid-1960s up to the early 1990, there was an increase of 58 percent in the elementary schools and 362 percent in the tertiary schools. For the same period, enrollment in all three levels also rose by 120 percent. More than 90 percent of the elementary schools and 60 percent of the secondary schools are publicly owned. However, only 28 percent of the tertiary schools are publicly owned.
A big percentage of tertiary-level students enroll in and finish commerce and business management courses. Table 1 shows the distribution of courses taken, based on School Year 1990-1991. Note that the difference between the number of enrollees in the commerce and business courses and in the engineering and technology courses may be small - 29.2 percent for commerce and business and 20.3 percent for engineering and technology. However, the gap widens in terms of the number of graduates for the said courses.

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Literacy rate in the Philippines has improved a lot over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. This is attributed to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools.

The number of schools grew rapidly in all three levels - elementary, secondary, and tertiary. From the mid-1960s up to the early 1990, there was an increase of 58 percent in the elementary schools and 362 percent in the tertiary schools. For the same period, enrollment in all three levels also rose by 120 percent. More than 90 percent of the elementary schools and 60 percent of the secondary schools are publicly owned. However, only 28 percent of the tertiary schools are publicly owned.

A big percentage of tertiary-level students enroll in and finish commerce and business management courses. Table 1 shows the distribution of courses taken, based on School Year 1990-1991. Note that the difference between the number of enrollees in the commerce and business courses and in the engineering and technology courses may be small - 29.2 percent for commerce and business and 20.3 percent for engineering and technology. However, the gap widens in terms of the number of graduates for the said courses.

TABLE 1: TERTIARY ENROLLMENT AND GRADUATION BY FIELD OF STUDY. SY 1990-1991

FIELD OF STUDY

ENROLLMENT

GRADUATION

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery,
and Veterinary Medicine

43,458

3.2

7,390

3.3

On gender distribution, female students have very high representation in all three levels. At the elementary level, male and female students are almost equally represented. But female enrollment exceeds that of the male at the secondary and tertiary levels . Also, boys have higher rates of failures, dropouts, and repetition in both elementary and secondary levels.

Aside from the numbers presented above, which are impressive, there is also a need to look closely and resolve the following important issues: 1) quality of education 2) affordability of education 3) goverment budget for education; and 4) education mismatch.

1. Quality - There was a decline in the quality of the Philippine education, especially at the elementary and secondary levels. For example, the results of standard tests conducted among elementary and high school students, as well as in the National College of Entrance Examination for college students, were way below the target mean score.

2. Affordability - There is also a big disparity in educational achievements across social groups. For example, the socioeconomically disadvantaged students have higher dropout rates, especially in the elementary level. And most of the freshmen students at the tertiary level come from relatively well-off families.

3. Budget - The Philippine Constitution has mandated the goverment to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education. However, the Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to education among theASEAN countries.

4. Mismatch - There is a large proportion of "mismatch" between training and actual jobs. This is the major problem at the tertiary level and it is also the cause of the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed.

The following are some of the reforms proposed:

1. Upgrade the teachers' salary scale. Teachers have been underpaid; thus there is very little incentive for most of them to take up advanced trainings.

2. Amend the current system of budgeting for education across regions, which is based on participation rates and units costs. This clearly favors the more developed regions. There is a need to provide more allocation to lagging regions to narrow the disparity across regions.

3. Stop the current practice of subsidizing state universities and colleges to enhance access. This may not be the best way to promote equity. An expanded scholarship program, giving more focus and priority to the poor, maybe more equitable.

4. Get all the leaders in business and industry to become actively involved in higher education; this is aimed at addressing the mismatch problem. In addition, carry out a selective admission policy, i.e., installing mechanisms to reduce enrollment in oversubscribed courses and promoting enrollment in undersubscribed ones.

5. Develop a rationalized apprenticeship program with heavy inputs from the private sector. Furthermore, transfer the control of technical training to industry groups which are more attuned to the needs of business and industry.

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Literacy rate in the Philippines has improved a lot over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. This is attributed to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools.

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This research is about remarkable achievement in the Philippine Education. The government seeks to obtain and participate in the higher level of teaching.

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Philippine Education System in 2018: Are We Moving Forward? | Marane A. Plaza

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Our country's uniqueness as the only Christian and English-speaking archipelago in Southeast Asia impacts our education system more than we acknowledge. Our country's anglophonic culture and religious system are all results of colonialism, backed up by our rich history of being colonized by the Spanish regime for three centuries, followed...

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"It was hard to learn on my own," said Enriquez, who studies in a public school - a sector that's been particularly challenged by the shift in teaching methods. She cited difficulties understanding lessons, the additional hurdle of learning to use gadgets and software, and having to deal with the Philippines' notoriously poor telecommunications services.

"It's not every day we have a strong internet connection. Sometimes, I get disconnected during online classes and with that, I don't get to hear and learn from the discussion," she said, echoing what is probably the most common tech complaint - next to getting laptops and other devices to get online - about the local distance learning experience.

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First of two parts
Sophia Enriquez is not exactly raring to go back to school. It is not just the grade schooler's fear of Covid-19 - there's also her experience last year as the pandemic forced a drastic switch to distance learning nationwide.

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First of two parts Sophia Enriquez is not exactly raring to go back to school. It is not just the grade schooler's fear of Covid-19 - there's also her experience last year as the pandemic forced a drastic switch to distance learning nationwide.

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Inequality in education seen worsening during pandemic

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Inequality in education seen worsening during pandemic

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Inequality in education has already existed even before the pandemic. Now, it has worsened.

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Inequality in education seen worsening during pandemic - BusinessWorld Online

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THE prolonged ban on face-to-face learning during the pandemic could worsen the learning gap in the Philippines, highlighting the need to reform the education system, according to a book released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

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The struggle of learning in Online classes

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The struggle of learning in Online classes

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According to a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) study published on the Philippine Journal Science website in June this year, Filipino students are ready in terms of demonstrating proper computer and internet skills. However, they are not ready in terms of learner control, the Department of Science and Technology said in a statement Wednesday.

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MANILA, Philippines - A recent study found that many Filipino students are still struggling in terms of learner control amid a shift to online learning due to the pandemic.

According to a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) study published on the Philippine Journal Science website in June this year, Filipino students are ready in terms of demonstrating proper computer and internet skills. However, they are not ready in terms of learner control, the Department of Science and Technology said in a statement Wednesday.

The study, entitled "Assessment of Filipino Higher Education Students' Readiness for e-Learning During a Pandemic: A Rasch Technique Application," was conducted by a team of researchers from UPLB's Institute of Statistics.

#DOSTPressReleases: Home is the new classroom: Are Filipino students ready for e-Learning?Filipino students are ready...

Posted by DOST Philippines on Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Learner control of students amid pandemic

The study defined the term "learner control" as the student's control over his or her efforts in directing his or her own learning. It also means that learners can make their own decision considering the sequence, pace, flow, and amount of instruction.

The research revealed that in terms of the learner control dimension, students found that repeating online instructional materials based on their need was the easiest to agree with. Meanwhile, not getting distracted by other online activities while learning online was regarded as one of the challenges that they faced.

"It is important to emphasize that there are students with responsibility in their own family. How would they be able to balance their responsibility from home and from academics?" one of the participants in the study said.

The focus of the research was investigating the e-learning readiness of Filipino students in higher education amid the pandemic using the five dimensions such as computer or internet self-efficacy, self-directed learning, learner control, motivation for learning, and online communication self-efficacy.

The research was conducted in 2020 and the participants included 290 students from UPLB, 80 percent of whom are undergraduate students while 20 percent graduate students.

E-learning readiness of males vs females

The study, meanwhile, revealed that gender has a significant impact on the e-learning readiness of the students.

It found that male students feel that they are less likely to repeat online instructional materials based on their needs. Meanwhile, females are more comfortable to seek help from other people when needed.

The findings also showed that graduate students or the "digital natives" have more confidence in gathering information online compared to undergraduate students. However, undergraduate students are more confident in terms of managing e-learning platforms.

Dip in numbers

The study also pointed out that due to a shift to online classes, there was a decrease in student enrollment in 2020 by 3 million from 27.7 million in both private and public schools. The dip in numbers was due to the lack of resources and preparedness for the new set-up.

The study also emphasized the vital role of teachers in achieving learning goals. They recommended that students must be given a well-detailed schedule of activities for the entire semester to manage their time wisely. Teachers are also highly encouraged to find interesting ways for students to learn such as using videos, podcasts, and other resources.

The research also found out that 97 percent of the UPLB students that participated in the study used tablets and smartphones, 89 percent have desktops and laptops and only 58 percent have a fairly reliable internet connection. - Sofia Vertucio, trainee

EDV

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UPLB study shows Filipino students' struggle amid shift to online learning

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MANILA, Philippines - A recent study found that many Filipino students are still struggling in terms of learner control amid a shift to online learning due to the pandemic. According to a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) study published on the Philippine Journal Science website in June this year, Filipino students are ready in terms of demonstrating proper computer and internet skills.

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Affordability for Education is one of the biggest problems students are facing today.  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.

Budget of Education is the second issue that the Philippine educational system faces. 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.

Drop out rate is increasing.  France Castro, secretary of Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), stated that 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.

Quality of Education.  An example of this is when 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.

Mismatch.  The major problem of the tertiary level is the large proportion of the so called “mismatch” between training and actual jobs, as well as the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. The result of a rational response to a dual labor market where one sector is import-substituting and highly-protected with low wages. Graduates may choose to “wait it out” until a job opportunity in the high paying sector comes.

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Failon Ngayon: Education in the Philippines

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Extra challenges Filipino teachers face today

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Extra challenges Filipino teachers face today

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The role of teachers and impact of the pandemic on them, as well as how they cope up with the new normal.

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(ALI VICOY / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Extra challenging but still rewarding.

This is probably how most Filipino teachers would describe what it's like to teach under a new learning setup amid a raging pandemic.

For the second straight year, the Department of Education (DepEd) is implementing the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP), which was crafted as a response to the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to the education sector.

Under the BE-LCP, education is delivered to students in the comfort of their homes through multiple learning delivery modalities.

Whether it's printed or offline modular, online, television, or radio-based instruction, or "blended learning," a combination of these modalities, teachers play a very important role in ensuring that education continues regardless of its form and shape.

As the country celebrates the National Teachers' Month (NTM) from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5, we take a look at the challenges being faced by Filipino teachers.

Find out how they are coping with the current distance learning setup, which will probably become a post-pandemic feature of the Philippine education system.
The crucial role of teachers
In the education sector, teachers are considered frontliners in this pandemic.

Just like how health workers take care of their patients, teachers are expected to look after their students to ensure that their education continues despite all the challenges.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones recognizes the very important role of teachers, especially now.

"I hope that we will all be challenged to continually do what we can to bring and create innovative and daring methods of teaching so that we can bring education to all our learners," she says.

In the current learning setup, teachers do not wait for the students to go to school since face-to- face classes remain prohibited.

They are tasked to monitor their students remotely through calls, text messages, emails, and through different social media platforms.

Aside from discussing the lessons, teachers are also expected to consult with the parents or guardians for any school-related concerns.

They also need to review the outputs of the learners on top of other requirements set by the school or the DepEd.
A teacher's dilemma
As they are affected by the pandemic too, teachers are also having their own shares of challenges and struggles.

Kristhean Navales, a Grade 4 teacher from General Roxas Elementary School in Quezon City, worries about learning loss and the decline of education quality under the distance learning setup.

In the last school year, according to Navales, his students had "poorer retention of lessons." As their teacher, he also struggled to make the most of their already short attention span.

Mostly, he attributed this to the lack of "teachers' touch," due to the superficial interaction between teachers and students under the remote learning setup.

Navales notes that before, teachers like him could "observe closely the progress" of students' learning. "We could also provide timely feedback and assist in their overall development at this crucial stage in children's lives," he says.

Without face-to-face classes, however, Navales feels that teachers like him have been "reduced to someone who merely gives out instructions to students, provides and collects school work-no longer an educator, a second parent." Given this, Navales hopes that the pandemic "will end soon" so he and his students can safely return to school and he may continue performing his vocation.

"I also hope that if schools will soon slowly re-open in low risk areas, unlike Quezon City, then perhaps the government can gather enough lessons so as to also gradually enable the reopening of schools in NCR even if COVID-19 isn't completely gone, just as other countries have," he added.

For Navales, education cannot merely "continue for the sake of continuing," it has to have "good quality" for the benefit of the youth and the country.
Never give up
While many teachers are overwhelmed with the challenges under the new setup, there are also those who refuse to give in. Instead, they try to embrace the challenges of the so-called "new normal" to help ensure that learning will continue.

Darwin Calimlim, a Master Teacher 1 at the Las Piñas East National High School, says that while these are indeed challenging times, teachers should never let the pandemic get the best of them.

"Masaya at mahirap ang maging guro, lalo na ngayong panahon (It is fun and hard to be a teacher, especially at this time)," Calimlim says, noting that there are many teachers who are anxious and concerned due to COVID-19.

He believes, however, that the government and the education sector, through DepEd, are "doing their best" to hear the voices of teachers and to address their concerns.

To help him cope with the changes in the education sector in this new setup, Calimlim has been participating in various programs of DepEd.

For instance, he has been joining and attending webinars, especially those related to digital education and technology. "Ngayon sa lahat ng mga natutunan ko sa webinars, palagay ko, ito ang magsisilbing gabay at pag-angkop sa mga teknolohiyang kinakailangan natin bilang isang guro (From what I have been learning in webinars, I think these will serve as a guide for us to adapt to the technologies we need as teachers)," he says.

In his personal capacity, Calilim has also launched the project "Itlog ko, Alay ko" to offer food for children affected by the pandemic.

For Calimlim, teachers are in a position to do more. Despite the challenges under the new learning setup, he believes that the teachers' passion and dedication will not be deterred by this pandemic.

While the new setup can be overwhelming at times, Calimlim expressed hope that teachers will continue to find the strength to overcome the challenges ahead and be open to the opportunities made available for them. "We must embrace it, adopt it, and go beyond it," he says.

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Extra challenges Filipino teachers face today

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(ALI VICOY / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) Extra challenging but still rewarding. This is probably how most Filipino teachers would describe what it's like to teach under a new learning setup amid a raging pandemic. For the second straight year, the Department of Education (DepEd) is implementin

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The Students in the Philippines struggles with online education

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The Students in the Philippines struggles with online education

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Filipino students struggle in online classes because of the lack of having online resources. The students in the Philippines also struggle to concentrate during online classes because of the lack of things they have.

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Even before COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country's financial status is one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can't get a leg up and are thus left behind due to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects. Now, we'll delve deep into the current status and how we can take part in social efforts to help fight these key concerns of our country.

Crisis in Philippine Education: How is It Really?

Filipinos from rich households or living in cities and developed towns have more access to private schools. In contrast, less favored groups are more bound to deal with lack of classrooms, teachers, and means to sustain topnotch learning.

A 2018 study found that a sample number of 15-year-old Filipino students ranked last in reading comprehension out of 79 countries. They also ranked 78 th in science and math. One key insight from this study is it implies those tested mostly came from public schools. Hence, the crisis also lies in the fact that a lot of Filipinos can't read or do simple math.

Indeed, it's clear that there is a class divide between rich and poor students in the country. Though this is the case, less developed states can focus on learning if it's covered in their top concerns. However, the Philippines doesn't invest on topnotch learning as compared to its neighbor countries. In fact, many public schools lack computers and other tools despite the digital age. Further, a shortfall in the number of public school teachers is also one of the top issues in the country due to their being among the lowest-paid state workers. Aside from that, more than 3 million children, youth, and adults remain unenrolled since the school shutdown.

It goes without saying that having this constant crisis has its long-term effects. These include mis- and disinformation, poor decision-making, and other social concerns.

The Education System in the Philippines

Due to COVID-19, education issues in the Philippines have increased and received new challenges that worsened the current state of the country. With the sudden events brought about by the health crisis, distance learning modes via the internet or TV broadcasts were ordered. Further, a blended learning program was launched in October 2020, which involves online classes, printouts, and lessons broadcast on TV and social platforms. Thus, the new learning pathways rely on students and teachers having access to the internet.

This yet brings another issue in the current system. Millions of Filipinos don't have access to computers and other digital tools at home to make their blended learning worthwhile. Hence, the value of tech in learning affects many students. Parents' and guardians' top concerns with this are:

Money for mobile load

Lack of gadget

Poor internet signal

Students' struggle to focus and learn online

Parents' lack of knowledge of their kids' lessons

It's key to note that equipped schools have more chances to use various ways to deal with the new concerns for remote learning. This further shows the contrasts in resources and training for both K-12 and tertiary level both for private and public schools.

One more thing that can happen is that schools may not be able to impart the most basic skills needed. To add, the current status can affect how tertiary education aims to impart the respect for and duty to knowledge and critical outlook. Before, teachers handled 40 to 60 students. With the current online setup, the quality of learning can be compromised if the class reaches 70 to 80 students.

Data on Students that Have Missed School due to COVID-19

Of the world's student population, 89% or 1.52 billion are the children and youth out of school due to COVID-19 closures. In the Philippines, close to 4 million students were not able to enroll for this school year, as per the DepEd. With this, the number of out-of-school youth (OSY) continues to grow, making it a serious issue needing to be checked to avoid worse problems in the long run.

List of Issues When it Comes to the Philippines' Education System

For a brief rundown, let's list the top education issues in the Philippines:

Quality - The results of the 2014 National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) show that there had been a drop in the status of primary and secondary education.

Budget - The country remains to have one of the lowest budget allotments to learning among ASEAN countries.

Cost - There still is a big contrast in learning efforts across various social groups due to the issue of money-having education as a status symbol.

OSY - The growing rate of OSY becomes daunting due to the adverse effects of COVID-19.

Mismatch - There is a large sum of people who are jobless or underpaid due to a large mismatch between training and actual jobs.

Social divide - There is no fair learning access in the country.

Lack of resources - Large-scale shortfalls in classrooms, teachers, and other tools to sustain sound learning also make up a big issue.

All these add to the big picture of the current system's growing concerns. Being informed with these is a great first step to know where we can come in and help in our own ways. Before we talk about how you can take part in various efforts to help address these issues, let's first talk about what quality education is and how we can achieve it.

What Quality Education Means

Now, how do we really define this? For VVOB, it is one that provides all learners with what they need to become economically productive that help lead them to holistic development and sustainable lifestyles. Further, it leads to peaceful and democratic societies and strengthens one's well-being.

VVOB also lists its 6 dimensions:

Equity

Contextualization and Relevance

Child-friendly Teaching and Learning

Sustainability

Balanced Approach

Learning Outcomes

Aside from these, it's also key to set our vision to reach such standards. Read on!

Vision for a Quality Education

Of course, any country would want to build and keep a standard vision for its learning system: one that promotes cultural diversity; is free from bias; offers a safe space and respect for human rights; and forms traits, skills, and talent among others.

With the country's efforts to address the growing concerns, one key program that is set to come out is the free required education from TESDA with efforts to focus on honing skills, including technical and vocational ones. Also, OSY will be covered in the grants of the CHED.

Students must not take learning for granted. In times of crises and sudden changes, having access to education should be valued. Aside from the fact that it is a main human right, it also impacts the other human rights that we have. Besides, the UN says that when learning systems break, having a sustained state will be far from happening.

How Childhope KalyEskwela Program Deals with Changes

The country rolled out its efforts to help respond to new and sudden changes in learning due to the effects of COVID-19 measures. Here are some of the key ones we can note:

Continuous learning - Since the future of a state lies on how good the learning system is, the country's vision for the youth is to adopt new learning paths despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

Action plans - These include boosting the use of special funds to help schools make modules, worksheets, and study guides approved by the DepEd. Also, LGUs and schools can acquire digital tools to help learners as needed.

Now, even with the global health crisis, Childhope Philippines remains true to its cause to help street children:

Mobile learning - The program provides topnotch access to street children to new learning methods such as non-formal education.

Access to tools - This is to give out sets of school supplies to help street kids attend and be ready for their remote learning.

Online learning sessions - These are about Skills for Life, Life Skill Life Goal Planning, Gender Sensitivity, Teenage Pregnancy and Adolescent Reproductive Health.

You may also check out our other programs and projects to see how we help street children fulfill their right to education. You can be a part of these efforts! Read on to know how.

Shed a Light of Hope for Street Children to Reach Their Dreams

Building a system that empowers the youth means helping them reach their full potential. During these times, they need aid from those who can help uphold the rights of the less privileged. These include kids in the streets and their right to attain quality education.

You may hold the power to change lives, one child at a time. Donate or volunteer, and help us help street kids learn and reach their dreams and bring a sense of hope and change toward a bright future. You may also contact us for more details. We'd love to hear from you!

With our aim to reach more people who can help, we're also in social media! Check out our Facebook page to see latest news on our projects in force.

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Education Issues in the Philippines: The Ongoing Struggle

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Learn more about the education issues in the Philippines, and how Childhope Philippines strives to help street children experience quality education.

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The Current Education Issues in the Philippines — and How Childhope Rises to the Challenge

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The Current Education Issues in the Philippines — and How Childhope Rises to the Challenge

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Even before COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country’s financial status is one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can’t get a leg up and are thus left behind due to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects. Now, we’ll delve deep into the current status and how we can take part in social efforts to help fight these key concerns of our country.

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Even before COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country's financial status is one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can't get a leg up and are thus left behind due to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects. Now, we'll delve deep into the current status and how we can take part in social efforts to help fight these key concerns of our country.

Crisis in Philippine Education: How is It Really?

Filipinos from rich households or living in cities and developed towns have more access to private schools. In contrast, less favored groups are more bound to deal with lack of classrooms, teachers, and means to sustain topnotch learning.

A 2018 study found that a sample number of 15-year-old Filipino students ranked last in reading comprehension out of 79 countries. They also ranked 78 th in science and math. One key insight from this study is it implies those tested mostly came from public schools. Hence, the crisis also lies in the fact that a lot of Filipinos can't read or do simple math.

Indeed, it's clear that there is a class divide between rich and poor students in the country. Though this is the case, less developed states can focus on learning if it's covered in their top concerns. However, the Philippines doesn't invest on topnotch learning as compared to its neighbor countries. In fact, many public schools lack computers and other tools despite the digital age. Further, a shortfall in the number of public school teachers is also one of the top issues in the country due to their being among the lowest-paid state workers. Aside from that, more than 3 million children, youth, and adults remain unenrolled since the school shutdown.

It goes without saying that having this constant crisis has its long-term effects. These include mis- and disinformation, poor decision-making, and other social concerns.

The Education System in the Philippines

Due to COVID-19, education issues in the Philippines have increased and received new challenges that worsened the current state of the country. With the sudden events brought about by the health crisis, distance learning modes via the internet or TV broadcasts were ordered. Further, a blended learning program was launched in October 2020, which involves online classes, printouts, and lessons broadcast on TV and social platforms. Thus, the new learning pathways rely on students and teachers having access to the internet.

This yet brings another issue in the current system. Millions of Filipinos don't have access to computers and other digital tools at home to make their blended learning worthwhile. Hence, the value of tech in learning affects many students. Parents' and guardians' top concerns with this are:

Money for mobile load

Lack of gadget

Poor internet signal

Students' struggle to focus and learn online

Parents' lack of knowledge of their kids' lessons

It's key to note that equipped schools have more chances to use various ways to deal with the new concerns for remote learning. This further shows the contrasts in resources and training for both K-12 and tertiary level both for private and public schools.

One more thing that can happen is that schools may not be able to impart the most basic skills needed. To add, the current status can affect how tertiary education aims to impart the respect for and duty to knowledge and critical outlook. Before, teachers handled 40 to 60 students. With the current online setup, the quality of learning can be compromised if the class reaches 70 to 80 students.

Data on Students that Have Missed School due to COVID-19

Of the world's student population, 89% or 1.52 billion are the children and youth out of school due to COVID-19 closures. In the Philippines, close to 4 million students were not able to enroll for this school year, as per the DepEd. With this, the number of out-of-school youth (OSY) continues to grow, making it a serious issue needing to be checked to avoid worse problems in the long run.

List of Issues When it Comes to the Philippines' Education System

For a brief rundown, let's list the top education issues in the Philippines:

Quality - The results of the 2014 National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) show that there had been a drop in the status of primary and secondary education.

Budget - The country remains to have one of the lowest budget allotments to learning among ASEAN countries.

Cost - There still is a big contrast in learning efforts across various social groups due to the issue of money-having education as a status symbol.

OSY - The growing rate of OSY becomes daunting due to the adverse effects of COVID-19.

Mismatch - There is a large sum of people who are jobless or underpaid due to a large mismatch between training and actual jobs.

Social divide - There is no fair learning access in the country.

Lack of resources - Large-scale shortfalls in classrooms, teachers, and other tools to sustain sound learning also make up a big issue.

All these add to the big picture of the current system's growing concerns. Being informed with these is a great first step to know where we can come in and help in our own ways. Before we talk about how you can take part in various efforts to help address these issues, let's first talk about what quality education is and how we can achieve it.

What Quality Education Means

Now, how do we really define this? For VVOB, it is one that provides all learners with what they need to become economically productive that help lead them to holistic development and sustainable lifestyles. Further, it leads to peaceful and democratic societies and strengthens one's well-being.

VVOB also lists its 6 dimensions:

Equity

Contextualization and Relevance

Child-friendly Teaching and Learning

Sustainability

Balanced Approach

Learning Outcomes

Aside from these, it's also key to set our vision to reach such standards. Read on!

Vision for a Quality Education

Of course, any country would want to build and keep a standard vision for its learning system: one that promotes cultural diversity; is free from bias; offers a safe space and respect for human rights; and forms traits, skills, and talent among others.

With the country's efforts to address the growing concerns, one key program that is set to come out is the free required education from TESDA with efforts to focus on honing skills, including technical and vocational ones. Also, OSY will be covered in the grants of the CHED.

Students must not take learning for granted. In times of crises and sudden changes, having access to education should be valued. Aside from the fact that it is a main human right, it also impacts the other human rights that we have. Besides, the UN says that when learning systems break, having a sustained state will be far from happening.

How Childhope KalyEskwela Program Deals with Changes

The country rolled out its efforts to help respond to new and sudden changes in learning due to the effects of COVID-19 measures. Here are some of the key ones we can note:

Continuous learning - Since the future of a state lies on how good the learning system is, the country's vision for the youth is to adopt new learning paths despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

Action plans - These include boosting the use of special funds to help schools make modules, worksheets, and study guides approved by the DepEd. Also, LGUs and schools can acquire digital tools to help learners as needed.

Now, even with the global health crisis, Childhope Philippines remains true to its cause to help street children:

Mobile learning - The program provides topnotch access to street children to new learning methods such as non-formal education.

Access to tools - This is to give out sets of school supplies to help street kids attend and be ready for their remote learning.

Online learning sessions - These are about Skills for Life, Life Skill Life Goal Planning, Gender Sensitivity, Teenage Pregnancy and Adolescent Reproductive Health.

You may also check out our other programs and projects to see how we help street children fulfill their right to education. You can be a part of these efforts! Read on to know how.

Shed a Light of Hope for Street Children to Reach Their Dreams

Building a system that empowers the youth means helping them reach their full potential. During these times, they need aid from those who can help uphold the rights of the less privileged. These include kids in the streets and their right to attain quality education.

You may hold the power to change lives, one child at a time. Donate or volunteer, and help us help street kids learn and reach their dreams and bring a sense of hope and change toward a bright future. You may also contact us for more details. We'd love to hear from you!

With our aim to reach more people who can help, we're also in social media! Check out our Facebook page to see latest news on our projects in force.

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Education Issues in the Philippines: The Ongoing Struggle

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Learn more about the education issues in the Philippines, and how Childhope Philippines strives to help street children experience quality education.

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Probelms of education of the Filipino youth

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Probelms of education of the Filipino youth

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- Deteriorating quality of education

It is uncommon to hear college teachers decry the quality of students that come to them. They lament the students’ inability to construct a correct sentence, much less a paragraph. Private schools have been assailed as profit-making institutions turning out half-baked graduates who later become part of the nation’s educated unemployed. All these are indications of the poor quality of education.

There are multiple factors which have led to low educational standards. Studies and fact-finding commissions have shown that the deteriorating quality of education is due to the low government budget for education; poor quality of teachers; poor management of schools; poor school facilities such as laboratory and library facilities; poor learning environment; the content of the curriculum; inadequate books and science equipment; the poor method of instruction; shortages of classrooms; and others.

- Overworked and underpaid teaching staff

Teaching has often been referred to as the “most notable of all professions.” To many teachers, however, the noble image of their profession has been transformed into an illusion. Over the last three decades, we have come to think of the Filipino teachers as overworked and underpaid professionals.

The fact that teachers are paid subsistence wages is only half of their sad story. Their daily bout with dilapidated classrooms, overcrowded classes, and lack of teaching materials, among others, make the teachers hardly rewarded work even more difficult.

Aside from classroom instructions, teachers perform a host of backbreaking and time-consuming jobs unrelated to the teaching function. The National Research and Development Center for Teacher Education under the DECS listed 76 extracurricular activities performed by public school teachers. Such activities include Operation Timbang, census taking, tax consciousness drive, Clean and Green Drive, Alay-Tanim, Alay-Lakad, fund raising campaigns, lining the streets to welcome foreign dignitaries, etc. To do all these, teachers are forced to work two or three hours overtime everyday. They also have to report during weekends and holidays and even during their yearly vacation time.

- Bilingual policy and the problem of a national language

The bilingual policy in education aims to develop a Filipino who is proficient in both English and Filipino. For the past 20 years, since the DECS adopted the bilingual policy, Tagalog-based Pilipino has been used to teach over half of the subjects in the elementary and secondary curriculum of both public and private schools. Mathematics and the natural sciences continue to be taught in English. Despite the findings of the Ateneo Social Weather Survey that 92% of Filipinos already speak and understand Tagalog, many provinces north and south of Metro Manila still encounter problems with the language. This is unfortunate because Pilipino is used in nationally conducted exams and tests. While the bilingual policy is a law which not even the Secretary of Education can change, it has become a growing concern that many students are deficient in communication skills.

- Mismatch

The major problem of the tertiary level is the large proportion of the so called “mismatch” between training and actual jobs, as well as the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. The literature points out that this could be the result of a rational response to a dual labor market where one sector is import-substituting and highly-protected with low wages. Graduates may choose to “wait it out” until a job opportunity in the high paying sector comes.

To address this problem, it is suggested that leaders in business and industry should be actively involved in higher education. Furthermore, a selective admission policy should be carried out; that is, mechanisms should be installed to reduce enrolment in oversubscribed programs and promote enrolment in undersubscribed ones.

- Globalization issue in education

It is in the educational sector where the concept of globalization is further refined and disseminated. It comes in varied forms as “global competitiveness,” “the information highway,” “the Third Wave Theory,” “post modern society,” “the end of history,” and “borderless economy.”

The so-called Philippines 2000 was launched by the Philippine government to promote “global competitiveness,” Philippine Education 2000 carried it to effect through training of more skilled workers and surplus Filipino human power for foreign corporations to reduce their cost of production.

The Philippines, including its educational sector, is controlled by US monopoly capital through loan politics. This task is accomplished by the IMF, the World Bank and a consortium of transnational banks, called the Paris Club, supervised by the WB. The structural adjustments as basis for the grants of loans, basically require liberalization, deregulation and privatization in a recipient country.

As transplanted into the educational sector, deregulation is spelled reduced appropriation or reduced financial assistance to public schools through so called fiscal autonomies; privatization and liberalization is spelled commercialized education or liberalization of governments’ supervision of private schools and privatize state colleges and universities.

The WB-IMF and the Ford Foundation have earmarked $400M for Philippine education. These loans financed the Educational Development Project (EDPITAF) in 1972; the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) in 1969; the Program for Decentralized Educational Development (PRODED) in 1981-1989. As pointed out by many critics, “the massive penetration of WB-IMF loans into the Philippine Educational System has opened it wide to official and systematic foreign control, the perpetuation of US and other foreign economic interest, and to maximize the efficiency of exploiting Philippine natural resources and skilled labor.”

A number of studies and fact-finding commissions such as the Sibayan and Gonzales Evaluation (1988), the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE, 1969), and the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM, 1991-1992) have pointed out that the problems of Philippine education are the problems of quality and political will.

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Across the years our educational system has been rocked by controversies which have remained unabated up to this day. Amidst the welter of issues, two of them have managed to stand out in importance: quality and relevance. The major difficulty in education in the Philippines is the short-sighted policy of sacrificing the quality and quantity of education for reasons of economy.

The key issues and problems in Philippine education which need further debate and depth analysis as well as immediate resolution include the following:

1. Deteriorating quality of education

It is uncommon to hear college teachers decry the quality of students that come to them. They lament the students' inability to construct a correct sentence, much less a paragraph. Private schools have been assailed as profit-making institutions turning out half-baked graduates who later become part of the nation's educated unemployed. All these are indications of the poor quality of education.

There are multiple factors which have led to low educational standards. Studies and fact-finding commissions have shown that the deteriorating quality of education is due to the low government budget for education; poor quality of teachers; poor management of schools; poor school facilities such as laboratory and library facilities; poor learning environment; the content of the curriculum; inadequate books and science equipment; the poor method of instruction; shortages of classrooms; and others.

2. Colonial, feudal, imperial, commercial, and elitist orientation in Philippine education

A rather sweeping indictment is that the Philippine educational system has been and still is basically American in orientation and objectives. Even now, despite years of independence, our educational system has not succeeded in eliminating the chronic colonial mentality which abounds like a mental blight within or without the academe. At present, quality education is financial-capacity based, making higher education more of a privilege rather than a right.

3. Shortage of school buildings, textbooks and equipment

Since 1960, elementary enrolment has been expanding at the rapid rate of 4% a year owing to increase in the number of children and in the enrolment ratio.

The shortages of classrooms and textbooks are particularly severe. The nationwide classroom shortage is estimated to be 40,000 and the DECS (now DepEd) operates two shifts in many schools. The textbook problem is even more serious. A survey done in preparation for a World Bank education loan found that the pupil-textbook ration in the public elementary schools is 10:1 and 79% of the textbooks are more than 5 years old. This situation has persisted for many years.

Other teaching tools, such as science materials, teaching devices and audio-visual aids, are also in short supply. Perennial graft and corruption in the acquisition of books and in the construction of school buildings has often been reported. This situation handicaps the teaching staff in their work.

4. Overworked and underpaid teaching staff

Teaching has often been referred to as the "most notable of all professions." To many teachers, however, the noble image of their profession has been transformed into an illusion. Over the last three decades, we have come to think of the Filipino teachers as overworked and underpaid professionals.

The fact that teachers are paid subsistence wages is only half of their sad story. Their daily bout with dilapidated classrooms, overcrowded classes, and lack of teaching materials, among others, make the teachers hardly rewarded work even more difficult.

Aside from classroom instructions, teachers perform a host of backbreaking and time-consuming jobs unrelated to the teaching function. The National Research and Development Center for Teacher Education under the DECS listed 76 extracurricular activities performed by public school teachers. Such activities include Operation Timbang, census taking, tax consciousness drive, Clean and Green Drive, fund raising campaigns, lining the streets to welcome foreign dignitaries, etc. To do all these, teachers are forced to work two or three hours overtime everyday. They also have to report during weekends and holidays and even during their yearly vacation time.

5. Bilingual policy and the problem of a national language

The bilingual policy in education aims to develop a Filipino who is proficient in both English and Filipino. For the past 20 years, since the DECS adopted the bilingual policy, Tagalog-based Pilipino has been used to teach over half of the subjects in the elementary and secondary curriculum of both public and private schools. Mathematics and the natural sciences continue to be taught in English. Despite the findings of the Ateneo Social Weather Survey that 92% of Filipinos already speak and understand Tagalog, many provinces north and south of Metro Manila still encounter problems with the language. This is unfortunate because Pilipino is used in nationally conducted exams and tests. While the bilingual policy is a law which not even the Secretary of Education can change, it has become a growing concern that many students are deficient in communication skills.

The major problem of the tertiary level is the large proportion of the so called "mismatch" between training and actual jobs, as well as the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. The literature points out that this could be the result of a rational response to a dual labor market where one sector is import-substituting and highly-protected with low wages. Graduates may choose to "wait it out" until a job opportunity in the high paying sector comes.

To address this problem, it is suggested that leaders in business and industry should be actively involved in higher education. Furthermore, a selective admission policy should be carried out; that is, mechanisms should be installed to reduce enrolment in oversubscribed programs and promote enrolment in undersubscribed ones.

7. Globalization issue in education

It is in the educational sector where the concept of globalization is further refined and disseminated. It comes in varied forms as "global competitiveness," "the information highway," "the Third Wave Theory," "post modern society," "the end of history," and "borderless economy."

The so-called Philippines 2000 was launched by the Philippine government to promote "global competitiveness," Philippine Education 2000 carried it to effect through training of more skilled workers and surplus Filipino human power for foreign corporations to reduce their cost of production.

The Philippines, including its educational sector, is controlled by US monopoly capital through loan politics. This task is accomplished by the IMF, the World Bank and a consortium of transnational banks, called the Paris Club, supervised by the WB. The structural adjustments as basis for the grants of loans, basically require liberalization, deregulation and privatization in a recipient country.

As transplanted into the educational sector, deregulation is spelled reduced appropriation or reduced financial assistance to public schools through so called fiscal autonomies; privatization and liberalization is spelled commercialized education or liberalization of governments' supervision of private schools and privatize state colleges and universities.

The WB-IMF and the Ford Foundation have earmarked $400M for Philippine education. These loans financed the Educational Development Project (EDPITAF) in 1972; the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) in 1969; the Program for Decentralized Educational Development (PRODED) in 1981-1989. As pointed out by many critics, "the massive penetration of WB-IMF loans into the Philippine Educational System has opened it wide to official and systematic foreign control, the perpetuation of US and other foreign economic interest, and to maximize the efficiency of exploiting Philippine natural resources and skilled labor."

A number of studies and fact-finding commissions such as the Sibayan and Gonzales Evaluation (1988), the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE, 1969), and the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM, 1991-1992) have pointed out that the problems of Philippine education are the problems of quality and political will.

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7 Key Issues And Problems Of Philippine Education

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Across the years our educational system has been rocked by controversies which have remained unabated up to this day. Amidst the welter of issues, two of them have managed to stand out in importance: quality and relevance. The major difficulty ...

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'The Philippines needs to improve their education system'

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The research of a business school located in Switzerland called 'the International Institute for Management Development' (IMD) recently released the results of its survey on the talent competitiveness of 63 countries from around the world. Based on the rankings, the Philippines managed to jump up to 49th place from 55th last year. Similar to the results the year before, the Philippines ranked the lowest in the ASEAN category.

However, it isn’t just the Swiss business school that thinks the Philippines needs to improve its quality of education. Local media reported that the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) says that while the state of education nationwide has progressed in terms of accessibility, it still has a long way to go when it comes to the delivery of quality learning for the success of every learner.

reference:
https://theaseanpost.com/article/philippines-needs-improve-its-education-system#:~:text=Quality%20of%20education,lowest%20for%20investment%20and%20development.

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The research talks about multiple reasons why teachers leave the teaching profession. Aside from student discipline issues, it also talks about the way salaries affect teachers.

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https://childhope.org.ph/education-issues-in-the-philippines/ There is lack of budget and resources for schools in the Philippines.

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Even before COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country's financial status is one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can't get a leg up and are thus left behind due to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects. Now, we'll delve deep into the current status and how we can take part in social efforts to help fight these key concerns of our country.

Crisis in Philippine Education: How is It Really?

Filipinos from rich households or living in cities and developed towns have more access to private schools. In contrast, less favored groups are more bound to deal with lack of classrooms, teachers, and means to sustain topnotch learning.

A 2018 study found that a sample number of 15-year-old Filipino students ranked last in reading comprehension out of 79 countries. They also ranked 78 th in science and math. One key insight from this study is it implies those tested mostly came from public schools. Hence, the crisis also lies in the fact that a lot of Filipinos can't read or do simple math.

Indeed, it's clear that there is a class divide between rich and poor students in the country. Though this is the case, less developed states can focus on learning if it's covered in their top concerns. However, the Philippines doesn't invest on topnotch learning as compared to its neighbor countries. In fact, many public schools lack computers and other tools despite the digital age. Further, a shortfall in the number of public school teachers is also one of the top issues in the country due to their being among the lowest-paid state workers. Aside from that, more than 3 million children, youth, and adults remain unenrolled since the school shutdown.

It goes without saying that having this constant crisis has its long-term effects. These include mis- and disinformation, poor decision-making, and other social concerns.

The Education System in the Philippines

Due to COVID-19, education issues in the Philippines have increased and received new challenges that worsened the current state of the country. With the sudden events brought about by the health crisis, distance learning modes via the internet or TV broadcasts were ordered. Further, a blended learning program was launched in October 2020, which involves online classes, printouts, and lessons broadcast on TV and social platforms. Thus, the new learning pathways rely on students and teachers having access to the internet.

This yet brings another issue in the current system. Millions of Filipinos don't have access to computers and other digital tools at home to make their blended learning worthwhile. Hence, the value of tech in learning affects many students. Parents' and guardians' top concerns with this are:

Money for mobile load

Lack of gadget

Poor internet signal

Students' struggle to focus and learn online

Parents' lack of knowledge of their kids' lessons

It's key to note that equipped schools have more chances to use various ways to deal with the new concerns for remote learning. This further shows the contrasts in resources and training for both K-12 and tertiary level both for private and public schools.

One more thing that can happen is that schools may not be able to impart the most basic skills needed. To add, the current status can affect how tertiary education aims to impart the respect for and duty to knowledge and critical outlook. Before, teachers handled 40 to 60 students. With the current online setup, the quality of learning can be compromised if the class reaches 70 to 80 students.

Data on Students that Have Missed School due to COVID-19

Of the world's student population, 89% or 1.52 billion are the children and youth out of school due to COVID-19 closures. In the Philippines, close to 4 million students were not able to enroll for this school year, as per the DepEd. With this, the number of out-of-school youth (OSY) continues to grow, making it a serious issue needing to be checked to avoid worse problems in the long run.

List of Issues When it Comes to the Philippines' Education System

For a brief rundown, let's list the top education issues in the Philippines:

Quality - The results of the 2014 National Achievement Test (NAT) and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) show that there had been a drop in the status of primary and secondary education.

Budget - The country remains to have one of the lowest budget allotments to learning among ASEAN countries.

Cost - There still is a big contrast in learning efforts across various social groups due to the issue of money-having education as a status symbol.

OSY - The growing rate of OSY becomes daunting due to the adverse effects of COVID-19.

Mismatch - There is a large sum of people who are jobless or underpaid due to a large mismatch between training and actual jobs.

Social divide - There is no fair learning access in the country.

Lack of resources - Large-scale shortfalls in classrooms, teachers, and other tools to sustain sound learning also make up a big issue.

All these add to the big picture of the current system's growing concerns. Being informed with these is a great first step to know where we can come in and help in our own ways. Before we talk about how you can take part in various efforts to help address these issues, let's first talk about what quality education is and how we can achieve it.

What Quality Education Means

Now, how do we really define this? For VVOB, it is one that provides all learners with what they need to become economically productive that help lead them to holistic development and sustainable lifestyles. Further, it leads to peaceful and democratic societies and strengthens one's well-being.

VVOB also lists its 6 dimensions:

Equity

Contextualization and Relevance

Child-friendly Teaching and Learning

Sustainability

Balanced Approach

Learning Outcomes

Aside from these, it's also key to set our vision to reach such standards. Read on!

Vision for a Quality Education

Of course, any country would want to build and keep a standard vision for its learning system: one that promotes cultural diversity; is free from bias; offers a safe space and respect for human rights; and forms traits, skills, and talent among others.

With the country's efforts to address the growing concerns, one key program that is set to come out is the free required education from TESDA with efforts to focus on honing skills, including technical and vocational ones. Also, OSY will be covered in the grants of the CHED.

Students must not take learning for granted. In times of crises and sudden changes, having access to education should be valued. Aside from the fact that it is a main human right, it also impacts the other human rights that we have. Besides, the UN says that when learning systems break, having a sustained state will be far from happening.

How Childhope KalyEskwela Program Deals with Changes

The country rolled out its efforts to help respond to new and sudden changes in learning due to the effects of COVID-19 measures. Here are some of the key ones we can note:

Continuous learning - Since the future of a state lies on how good the learning system is, the country's vision for the youth is to adopt new learning paths despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

Action plans - These include boosting the use of special funds to help schools make modules, worksheets, and study guides approved by the DepEd. Also, LGUs and schools can acquire digital tools to help learners as needed.

Now, even with the global health crisis, Childhope Philippines remains true to its cause to help street children:

Mobile learning - The program provides topnotch access to street children to new learning methods such as non-formal education.

Access to tools - This is to give out sets of school supplies to help street kids attend and be ready for their remote learning.

Online learning sessions - These are about Skills for Life, Life Skill Life Goal Planning, Gender Sensitivity, Teenage Pregnancy and Adolescent Reproductive Health.

You may also check out our other programs and projects to see how we help street children fulfill their right to education. You can be a part of these efforts! Read on to know how.

Shed a Light of Hope for Street Children to Reach Their Dreams

Building a system that empowers the youth means helping them reach their full potential. During these times, they need aid from those who can help uphold the rights of the less privileged. These include kids in the streets and their right to attain quality education.

You may hold the power to change lives, one child at a time. Donate or volunteer, and help us help street kids learn and reach their dreams and bring a sense of hope and change toward a bright future. You may also contact us for more details. We'd love to hear from you!

With our aim to reach more people who can help, we're also in social media! Check out our Facebook page to see latest news on our projects in force.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Education Issues in the Philippines: The Ongoing Struggle

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Learn more about the education issues in the Philippines, and how Childhope Philippines strives to help street children experience quality education.

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The Department of Education needs to initiate what a key official of the House of Representatives described as a “curriculum overhaul” after the World Bank (WB) reported that 80 percent of Filipino children suffer from literacy problems.

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Delon Porcalla - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education needs to initiate what a key official of the House of Representatives described as a "curriculum overhaul" after the World Bank (WB) reported that 80 percent of Filipino children suffer from literacy problems.

Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, vowed to revive calls "for an overhaul of the country's curriculum and a focus on functional skills, critical thinking, and good citizenship."

"We will get through this pandemic. Economic crises come and go. But literacy and its permanent effects on growth and intergenerational poverty stay. That is why this report is alarming," the Albay congressman said of the adverse WB report.

He said that unless the Philippines makes drastic changes, "our actual economic growth will always be much less than our potential. And poor kids will likely have poor families and have poor kids."

According to the WB, "only 10 to 22 percent of Grade 4, 5, and 9 students in the Philippines posted scores at or above minimum proficiency" when they conducted tests across the three global assessments.

"The lack of usable skills, especially in this hypercompetitive global economy, is a life sentence to poverty. We can't let this pass," Salceda said, noting that the "problem is fundamental."

A former National Economic and Development Authority chief, Salceda said "our learners are stunted and undernourished. Our learning materials are substandard. Our curriculum is impractical. Our teachers are overworked. Our schools are underequipped."

"These were the problems we sought to solve with the Comprehensive Education Reform Agenda," Salceda said, citing his bills on universal school meals, an overhaul of the K-12 system and a renewed focus on technical and vocational skills and improved school facilities.

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Delon Porcalla - The Philippine Star MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education needs to initiate what a key official of the House of Representatives described as a "curriculum overhaul" after the World Bank (WB) reported that 80 percent of Filipino children suffer from literacy problems. Rep.

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This is about the 5 factors why the Philippines will require the K-12 Education System.

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Why Does the Philippines Need the K-12 Education System?

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Much has been said about the disadvantages of the K-12 curriculum in the Philippines. Let’s explore its advantages in this article.

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The pandemic today has led to many students dropping out of school due to the problems brought by COVID. In the Philippines, there was a 9% decline on the enrollments during school year 2019-2020. Despite the efforts by the government to have an alternative learning system, parents still went for waiving out the school year.

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Dante Diosina Jr/Rappler

Senators express alarm over a 30% drop in enrollments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

At least 2.3 million children have not enrolled for the current school year as the education system migrates to distanced modes of learning, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Wednesday, September 16.

The figure Gatchalian cited was the difference between enrollments recorded by the Department of Education (DepEd) during school year 2019-2020, and enrollments for the current school year - a 9% decline.

"For now, we consider these 2.3 million as dropouts.... What we don't want to happen is to have a permanent dislocation of children, and instead of studying, they would permanently just go to work," said Gatchalian, who heads the Senate committee on basic education, arts, and culture.

The committee on Tuesday held a hearing on the status of preparations for the opening of public school classes on October 5. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, physical classes were ruled out, and instruction would have to be shifted to distanced modes primarily using printed modules and televised lectures.

Gatchalian said the 2.3 million students "missing" from the roster were presumably from private schools. Figures presented by DepEd showed 22.3 million students have enrolled in public schools - 98.89% of last year's enrollments. Meanwhile, only a little over 2 million students have enrolled in private schools, covering only 48.37% of last year's number.

Based on figures DepEd presented during the hearing, the difference in the total enrollment in public and private schools, and in state and local universities and colleges between this school year and the previous one is 3.3 million - even higher than the number Gatchalian noted.

Joseph Noel Estrada, managing director of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), affirmed that only 2 million out of a former 4.3 million students have so far enrolled in private schools.

The pandemic has caused financial problems for many families, and it may have forced them to transfer their children from private schools to public ones, where tuition is free. Still, 2.3 million former students are no longer signed up for school - public or private.

Despite government efforts to push the Alternative Learning System and alternative delivery modes of learning materials, some parents still opted to let their children wait out the school year, said DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo.

"It's really the decision of the parents," Mateo added.

Gatchalian urged the DepEd to "proactively locate" the students who've dropped out, and encourage their parents to still enroll them in school despite the difficulties of distanced learning, especially for the poor who may not have gadgets or even TV sets at home.

Public schools should also do "rolling enrollment," or allow students to enroll late. Mateo said the DepEd's policy is a student must attend at least 80% of the school calendar to make the roll.

"We have to address that 2.3 million missing students," Gatchalian said.

BARMM: 30% decline in enrollments

Senator Nancy Binay meanwhile expressed alarm over a 30% decline in enrollments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which included the still war-torn Marawi City.

Binay noted that unlike in Metro Manila, COVID-19 cases were not as prevalent in the BARMM. What caused the drop in its school enrollments?

DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the agency will look into "gaps" in the region that would require "specialized interventions." He admitted that the BARMM has longstanding problems, being the country's poorest region. However, it was receiving much help from development groups, Malaluan added.

Gatchalian urged the DepEd to address these problems in the BARMM, as the decline in schooling "will create intergenerational problems or intergenerational poverty."

The DepEd is under pressure to produce hundreds of audiovisual lectures to be aired in several TV stations to complement the printed modules students will use for self-learning at home.

The agency's officials told the Senate panel that the full complement of televised lectures will not all be ready by October 5, but will be introduced within the school year as they become available.

Lectures already filmed and approved for use will be part of learning schedules that teachers will put together for their students.

DepEd: We're ready

The school opening was originally set for August 24, but the DepEd, with President Rodrigo Duterte's approval, decided to postpone it because of logistical issues owing to community quarantine measures.

Malaluan told the panel that postponing the school opening beyond October 5 would be counterproductive. Gatchalian agreed, but asked him if the school system is ready.

Issues will surely come up along the way, Malaluan replied, but those will just have to be resolved as they go.

"So it's a long answer - we're ready for October 5," he said. - Rappler.com

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More than 2 million 'dropouts' as schools adapt to pandemic - Gatchalian

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Dante Diosina Jr/Rappler Senators express alarm over a 30% drop in enrollments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao At least 2.3 million children have not enrolled for the current school year as the education system migrates to distanced modes of learning, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Wednesday, September 16.

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An issue in the educational system in the Philippines is the impact of COVID-19 to schools and the children. The pandemic has restricted schools from reopening, leaving the Philippines to lag behind the rest of the world in face to face classes.

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COVID-19 and the Crisis Facing Philippine Schoolchildren

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The Philippines still hasn't fully reopened its schools because of COVID-19, lagging the rest of the world. What is this doing to children?

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Issues with distance learning, academic freedom persist in 2021
DEC 21, 2021 10:00 AM PHT
MICHELLE ABAD
Issues with distance learning, academic freedom persist in 2021
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Issues with distance learning in 2020 – like connectivity problems and the quality of education – spilled over into 2021

In 2021, the Philippines became the last country in the world to open its classrooms to children again.

For most of the year, the Department of Education (DepEd) continued its remote learning system from 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first struck. This, despite criticism from various stakeholders about how the system was leaving the less privileged students and teachers behind because of the digital divide.

The Duterte government had always claimed that the decision to keep schools closed was in the best interest of the children, as COVID-19 vaccines were not available to the youth for most of the year.

When vaccination for minors did roll out, it was only for those aged 12 to 17.

College students, meanwhile, were allowed to return to their classrooms earlier. Rite-of-passage entrance exams were waived for a second year in a row.

The year also started with a bang for academic freedom. Students and alumni of certain institutions were caught up in President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing crackdown on progressive groups. Schools and universities were red-tagged.

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One of the issues related to education is brain drain. In Poland, a European country, the government needs to create a law which can prevent the youth from seeking job opportunities abroad. More details about the issue, the law created, and a parting question can be seen in this video.