DepEd’s priority should be skills training for teachers

Economists say that you wouldn’t know individuals by their race or the environment they grew up in. They can be greatly influenced by the institutions and culture in their new place of adaptation. The late Mancur Olson Jr., an American economist in a 1996 lecture entitled “Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk,” noted to what extent cultural practices in a society affect human behavior, and mindsets can be changed quickly in a new environment.

He made a profound observation of an individual coming from a poor country, Haiti, who migrates to a richer country with no carried-over acquired skills, becomes more productive overnight, and earns a far higher wage than before. The individual’s cultural attributes remained the same so this cannot account for the improved performance, except for the influence and demands of his new environment.

Now, we’re embarrassed and freaking out that our students are among the 10 lowest ranking in math, reading, and science, based on new findings of the Programme for International Student Assessment, with recent test scores showing no significant improvement from the country’s performance in 2018.

Compounding our embarrassment is that most of us, senior citizens, were taught by the products of the American Thomasites who taught sixth and seventh graders after the war to be our teachers in the elementary grades in the ’50s. And look at how many have become today, not mindful of what their beginnings were, but what they have made of themselves in society.

New Education Secretary Sonny Angara’s priority first and foremost, we suggest, is skills training for the teachers.

MARVEL K. TAN,

former CNI scholar