Sunday, January 13, 2008 RP spends only about 15% of international average spending for education, DepEd says
THE education department invests only about P7,000 for every student each year, a far cry from the international average spending of P47,000 for every child’s schooling.
This was revealed by Department of Education (DepEd) 7 Director Carolino Mordeno during this week’s Kapihan sa PIA.
“While the international average spending, when converted, is about P47,000, we know that many other countries spend more than P100,000 for each student. But we can’t blame our government because the budget is limited. This is why we are relying on other private and public agencies for help,” said Mordeno.
Part of the investment for Filipino children is getting competent teachers to teach in the public schools. In Central Visayas, some 1,000 teachers will be hired this year.
This surprised Armond Engles of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) 7 because the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) last August produced some 3,000 passers in the region.
PRC expected more education graduates so that they scheduled two dates for the LET starting this year, on April 6 and Sept. 28.
But not all LET passers hired by DepEd seem to be proficient in English. According to a recent report, only 20 percent of teachers nationwide passed DepEd’s English proficiency exam.
Mordeno said he is confident that teachers in Central Visayas fared well in the exam due to the quality of teacher education and schools in the region.
“Those who passed the exam will become mentors to those who failed. While they requested to reduce their teaching loads in order to mentor co-teachers, we will try to consider that because we lack teachers,” he said.
In a meeting with Education Secretary Jesli Lapus and other regional chiefs last December, Mordeno said they planned to come up with a speech improvement program to create uniformity in the way English is taught for the benefit of the children.
“One school of thought wants that all subjects will be taught in English. Another school of thought would prefer the lingua franca, which, for me, is a good way of bridging the gaps in language learning at home and in school. If we force a child to speak English, there is a tendency he will be passive for fear that his pronunciation and grammar might be wrong,” explained Mordeno.
Another investment for school children is the construction of classrooms. Mordeno said there are still students who are taught in public markets or huts, and they will have to rely on government funding to change this.
The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. recently renewed its 2004 investment of P30 million to help DepEd build or repair over 200 classrooms in Cebu Province. (NRC)
