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Thursday, July 07, 2005
Ng: 12 years for basic education
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
MORE SCHOOL YEARS. Education Secretary Florencio Abad is “seriously considering” extending the country’s 10-year basic education cycle to 12 or more years. At a press conference over the weekend, Abad said, “At 10 years—six years in elementary and four years in high school— we have the shortest education cycle in the Asia-Pacific.”
He said the average basic education cycle in the Asia-Pacific region is 12 years, adding that the cycle in Japan and South Korea is 13 years.
“We have to realize that the competition out there is intense—so if our children are not equipped with the necessary competency, then we will lose out,” Abad said. “We are seriously looking at—and this has to be an act of Congress—extending, for example, our high school so we can have junior high school.”
I totally agree. We used to follow the American system of education. But some smart politician must have thought of cutting the education requirements from 12 to 10 years so we could “unburden” the parents earlier. If the children left school earlier, they could start earning earlier. The problem is that they will not earn well.
It is like a restaurant owner who, after looking at the huge gas bill, decides that instead of totally cooking the food, he could save money by serving food that is only 80 percent cooked, or medium well.
We are getting a reputation for serving “uncooked” food, with the Philippines largely known as a site for semi-skilled or trainable manpower (meaning firms might still have to invest in training programs before the person can be productive), instead of skilled and ready-to-use manpower.
Abad said there is resistance to his proposal, especially from parents, “because they want their children to finish studying fast, regardless of the quality of education they get.” And herein lies the problem—the culture that prizes the diploma, regardless of the quality of education.
In today’s high-technology economy, the quality of education is key. This has helped India earn over $15 billion for its outsourc-ing services.
You can complain that in India, there is no water or electricity, the infrastructure is bad, the Internet is expensive, the bureacracy is crippling. But what cannot be denied is it is turning out quality graduates that can cut the needs of the information and communications technology economy, and every company is beating a path to its door.
Abad said the Philippine education system is in crisis. The national achievement test showed an average score of 46.80 percent for fourth year high school students and 58.73 percent for Grade Six pupils.
We need to do what is right for the future generations. (www.bizdrivenlife.net)
(July 7, 2005 issue)
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