Learning

“Boringly normal” was how Education Secretary Leonor Briones cheerfully described the Monday opening of public schools, perhaps to say that it went on as scheduled. But if one defines “boring” as predictable and unchanged, one captures the state of the education sector, with problems now boringly familiar: double or triple class shifts for lack of classrooms to serve a burgeoning student population, primitive or decrepit facilities, schoolchildren displaced by internal conflict or forced to work despite their tender age, teacher shortage, measly pay for teachers—and, of late, teachers displaced with the implementation of the K-to-12 program.

The continuing increase in student numbers—thanks to our young demography and unbridled population growth—could account for an educational system bursting at the seams. More than 22.8 million students were expected to troop to over 50,000 public schools last Monday.

But for all that, things are far from critical, according to the Department of Education. Indeed, with education getting a lion’s share of the 2017 national budget—P543.2 billion, or a 25-percent increase over last year’s allocation—the usual excuse of fund shortage no longer applies. The amount is seen to benefit over 21.2 million students nationwide, and will be used mainly to increase teachers’ salaries, improve basic educational facilities, purchase textbooks and instructional materials, and provide financial assistance to students.

Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo has highlighted figures showing a better classroom-student and teacher-pupil ratio over the years. As of 2016, the classroom-pupil and teacher-pupil ratio were 1:36 and 1:43, respectively in elementary schools, and 1:32 and 1:26, respectively in high schools.

But who says education is purely a government concern? A better educated citizenry would mean a more prepared and informed work force that could boost the economy. With mutual interests at stake, the public and private sectors should forge a partnership to heave the educational system out of its lethargy.

A good example of this partnership is the “Brigada Eskwela” project in the Cordillera that had members of the community, the electric companies, and private institutions working together to ensure that more schools in remote rural areas get the benefit of electrification. According to Dr. Beatrice Torno, DepEd Cordillera officer-in-charge, thanks to the community’s spirit of volunteerism, only 210 of a total of 1,346 schools in the region remain without electricity. With private firms donating solar panels as part of the project, the prospect of using clean energy for schools in off-the-grid areas is promising.

And while much remains to be sorted out in the K-to-12 program, it is seen as a strategic step to produce competent graduates who will later become the backbone of a highly skilled and employable work force. Introduced under the Aquino administration, the program lengthens basic schooling by two years, as is the world standard, and offers technical and vocational courses to students not planning to go to college, thus providing them with more chances of getting employed.

As studies have repeatedly shown, “more schooling leads to a higher income,” averaging a 10-percent increase for every additional year in school.

But the educational system should go beyond facilities, curriculum structure and teacher-generated learning. Teaching methods should include history, social studies, state affairs and burning issues taught through the refracted lens of the Philippines’ political experience and ongoing geopolitics. For example, it is imperative that young (and even not so young) Filipinos learn about the West Philippine Sea and their birthright.

It is a learning need that Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio seeks to fill with a free, downloadable e-book launched last week that he hopes would inform Filipinos on the wealth they own in the West Philippine Sea and the necessity of defending it. Once Filipinos learn and understand this, he says, they “will never allow” any administration “to give away or compromise these maritime areas or resources.”

As all educators know, learning is possible whether in or out of school.