|
Friday, October 08, 2004
Maxey: Education's danger signs
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
'There is no substitute to good education. This country cannot afford to turn out half-baked graduates in all levels if it intends to survive in this highly competitive world.'
DURING the I-Speak forum held Thursday at the conference room of the city hall, Executive Vice-President and Governor for Eastern Mindanao of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Leonard S. de Vera "exploded" a bombshell. The bombshell: Out of the 125 law schools in the country, only 25 have produced graduates who passed the bar examinations. "The other schools...wala talagang pumapasa," he said ruefully.
We would like to know what the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) is doing about this great disparity. What kind of a joke are the other 100 so-called "law schools" foisting on their students all these years? It's bad enough that even those that have produced successful examinees also turn out more bar flunkers than passers, and here we have 100 law schools who have zero performance in the bar exams.
Atty. De Vera also noted that there are lawyers who have enrolled in nursing, a profession, which is in great demand in many countries. An ordinary nurse in the U.S. or Great Britain earns many times more than run-of-the-mill lawyers in the Philippines do. It is easier for a Filipino nurse or even a caregiver, rather than a lawyer, to land a job abroad these days, hence this modern day phenomenon.
Another stunning revelation De Vera made was the switch by about half the law students of La Salle-Bacolod to the nursing course. One can only speculate how many other law students in the country are toying with the same idea.
Perhaps, the problem of those 100 non-performing law schools has to do with the general decline in the quality of instruction in the primary and secondary levels, which is seen as the main reason their graduates are poorly equipped for tertiary education. Out of the almost one million senior high school students who took the National Achievement Test (NAT) last March, 97.9 percent failed to get a score of 75 percent or higher. In fact, the average score was a disaster: 44.36 percent.
Again, in the diagnostic test given last May to 1.4 million students who were entering high school, less than one percent got a score of of 72 percent or higher. More shocking, half of the examinees scored lower than 30 percent. It's enough to make Dr. Jose P. Rizal weep in his grave. What's going on with Dr. Jose Rizal's "fair hope of the Fatherland--the youth"?
The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Ched have the gargantuan task of reversing this trend towards medicocrity before it's too late. Are they up to it? It's not only the fiscal crisis that is worrisome; it is also the deteriorating quality of education that Filipino youth have to contend with.
There is no substitute to good education. This country cannot afford to turn out half-baked graduates in all levels if it intends to survive in this highly competitive world.
(October 8, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
