Roperos: DepEd woes

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

IT APPEARS as if the education sector in our part of the country suffered last week something not complimentary to the ego of education leaders. A report in this daily yesterday revealed that of the more than 900 teachers in Central Visayas allowed to take the qualifying national examination for principals, only 40 examinees, or 4.41 percent passed.

This does not mean that the region should be ashamed in the wake of the result of the exams given nationwide last October. It would seem that there is something not quite impressive with the quality of the principal teacher materials allowed to take the qualifying examinations. But having only 4.41 percent passing average is bad.

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It speaks of a very poor quality of training the teacher-examinees received from their undergraduate schools. Of the 40 passers, eight were from Cebu province, three from Cebu City, 10 from Negros Oriental and 19 from Bohol. Given this reality, it should not be a wonder to anyone if our school products will also be poor.

Given the absence of adequate school facilities and lack proper financial support for training classroom teachers, what quality of education can we expect? There is, for instance, the report that the Department of Education secretary has ordered the “regional offices to stop the holding of regional and division achievement tests in June this year in preparation for the start of its K to 12 program.”

I am not quite sure why the achievement test set for June will no longer be held just because of the implementation of the 12-year education system featuring what I understand is compulsory one year of kindergarten study for school starters. This program, hopefully, will improve the quality of our school graduates after being kept for a total of 12 years in the classrooms.

This reform in our educational system is actually still a matter of trial. Until it is tried, and the products of the 12-year system is known, no one can say that the same is worth the additional time and efforts that are about to be undertaken. But the expected reforms should be worth it, regardless of the results we may have in a few years. We need to endow our young with better quality of training and learning.

It is said that our educational system is very far behind other school system in the world, especially when compared to the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and some other nations in Europe. While no one may doubt the intellectual capability of the Filipino, it is in the teaching and training where they suffer. This where the DepEd woe lies, where we may be truly poor.