A FRIEND of mine recently complained to me about her son?s yaya (nanny) having difficulty helping with homework. The yaya is a high school graduate with caregiver training. The son is in nursery. The problems ranged from following instructions (for example, underlining answers when the instructions were to encircle) up to difficulty with the answers themselves.

My friend asked if it was true that in the early part of the 20th century, someone who finished Grade 4 could already teach students in grade 1. I?ve heard that myself many times but have not been able to verify it in any published account, but I wouldn?t be surprised if it did happen.

Some of you will be thinking, as I did, that a yaya shouldn?t be supervising a child?s homework, and I told my friend that. But we might miss an even more important point: What are the levels of literacies being reached by our young students today as they move through elementary and high school? This issue becomes all the more important today as the government is intent on pushing through with putting another two years into basic education: a Grade 7 and a high school 5th year.

I?m intentionally using the plural ?literacies? to emphasize that in today?s world, there?s more to literacy than the two r?s (with apologies to spelling purists): reading and ?riting. There?s literacy in math, in science, in health knowledge, in computers and many more areas. Whatever the literacy, it?s more than rudimentary skills. Functional literacy is a grasp of the most important concepts that allows the person to be functional in a particular field. For example, functional health literacy requires not just being able to read a health pamphlet but being able to apply the information to take care of your own health and that of the family.

We have reason to worry about the low levels of many of these vital literacies. I find it agonizing to watch a clerk having to take out a calculator to figure out what change to give you when you use a P100 bill to pay for P65 worth of goods, and then taking another few minutes to figure out the bills and coins to use to give you your change. Try being helpful by offering P5 in addition to the P100 and you can cause a major panic.

?Basta, basta?

But I can live with that. I worry even more when I?m at the drugstore to fill out a prescription for one of my daughter?s heart medicines. Because she?s only 3 years old, the tablets have to be divided up and very carefully measured into packets. The prescribed doses for these heart medicines have to be followed very carefully with no allowance for the smallest deviations.

So, every time I go to the drugstore I watch as the pharmacy aides calculate how many tablets are needed, and how they will be divided. I don?t rush them because I want the medicines to be correctly measured, but I also get nervous when it takes them a long time to make their calculations. There?s both mathematical and health literacies involved here, with no room for ?basta, basta? (getting things done without due diligence).

If I seem overly apprehensive, it?s because I?ve actually encountered blunders at the pharmacy, like being given the wrong drug or, once, being given the wrong formulation for my mother?s hypertension tablets?40 mg instead of 10 mg? and being told, when I tried to return the tablets, that I could just divide it into four! These happened in a large drugstore, where the clerk was sure to have a college degree.

The big question then about the proposed 12 years is this: Will the additional two years better prepare Filipinos for their work?

We know of the long litany of woes concerning the current system: lack of classrooms, textbooks and teachers. Beyond the numbers, there are serious questions about the quality as well, especially in public schools, where even excellent teachers might be so overworked that they can?t give the quality time and attention students need.

And then there?s the problem of family finances. Even if the two extra years will be tuition-free in public schools, poor families will be under even greater stress now handling other expenses, like transportation, allowances, supplies. Two more years of a child outside the work force, even for the lowest paying jobs, still represents tremendous opportunity costs.

Parents need to be convinced that the extra two years will pay off. International competitiveness is too remote an issue for many families. They?re more interested in whether the two years will make the son or daughter more employable. In some of our more remote areas, especially indigenous communities, the goal is not even to be employed but to be able to continue working in the farm or fishing.

That is why I worry about the plan to put in a Grade 7. Whether six years or seven years, an elementary graduate is still an elementary graduate as far as an employer is concerned. And when we add a 5th year to secondary education, the already elusive high school diploma becomes even more unattainable for many.

Junior/senior high school

I would urge the Department of Education to look at the Chinese system, which was used in the Philippines as well as by Chinese schools. The system has 6 years of elementary education, followed by 3 years of junior high school and another 3 years of senior high school.

Offering a diploma for junior high school gives more incentives for poor parents to get their children into high school, and at least finish the junior level.

Former Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz had a comprehensive full-page article in last Sunday?s Inquirer about how the 12-year program might go, and he mentioned tech-voc (technical-vocational) schools. These would be vital in a junior-senior high school set-up. For many poorer families who do not intend to have their kids become a lawyer, doctor or certified public accountant, a strong tech-voc high school program, divided into junior and senior levels, could create levels of literacies that can get young people jobs.

Right now, a diploma after four years of public high school barely equips the graduate with competencies for the job market. If we are to build a strong 12-year basic education system, we have to make sure the most important competencies are achieved before the end of elementary school, like being able to use a calculator, for example. A good tech-voc school could then aim for math competencies to produce someone who can do basic book-keeping needed to manage household finances or a small business. Rural tech-voc schools are already using the four-year high school system whose graduates can be technicians in agriculture, livestock and fishing sectors.

There are many other possible configurations depending on the field but the point is that the junior high school system can produce graduates with technical skills that give them a fighting chance in the job market. Senior high school then becomes a stronger training ground for college. But even for those who cannot move on to college, the senior high school diploma still provides a premium for job seekers.

If I might get back to the Chinese system, did you ever wonder why your Chinese classmates in college were so good in math? There?s a strong probability that they came from a local Chinese school where they did six years of high school, which would have included algebra, geometry, trigonometry and even calculus. If we are to add two more years to our basic education, it shouldn?t be just a numbers game. More years must mean new subjects and competencies, a higher ladder, for higher levels of literacies.