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Friday, April 28, 2006
Beyond the numbers: Problems continue to beset education
By Stella A. Estremera
THE public education system in Region 11 can serve its student population, or so the inventory of classrooms, textbooks, and teachers will show. For Davao City, the region's center of education and commerce, the most bustling and prosperous among all cities and provinces in Mindanao, student to teacher ratio in public elementary schools is 37.57 students per one teacher.
Regional ratio is one teacher for every 37.77 students.
This number can be deceiving though because the student to teacher ratio already includes teachers who do not have their own classes and are assigned to special subjects or tasks.
Just looking at the numbers does not present the real issue because these are but ratios and averages, that tend to mask the dire lack especially in areas where schools are most needed -- the densely populated blighted communities and the remote villages.
The picture looks different when the number of classrooms is scrutinized, and this is where an idea of what the children have to contend with can be had.
Student classroom ratio in Davao City for public elementary school is one classroom per 67.69 students.
Considering the size, ventilation and state of classrooms in public elementary schools, fitting in 67.69 students is almost unimaginable.
This is worse in the first district where the classroom-student ratio is 1:73.6.
In the second district it is 1:68.75, while in the third district, it is 1:60.6.
Not one district approximates the ideal class size of 25 students in a classroom.
Maymay, 14, a first year high school student of Davao City National High School, relates it is very difficult to learn inside a cramp classroom.
For one, she said, their teachers can barely be heard over the din of 70 students packed in one classroom.
While she wants to learn basic English, she said, this is impossible to do in school.
"Dili man gyud ko makasabot na, ate, unya ang teacher pud kay mugamit man ng mga words nga dili na namo masabtan pud, sige na lang mi ug oo (We cannot understand our lessons and this is made worse because the teacher often uses words that we don't know so what we would just say yes," she said.
Prodded why they would not just raise their hands and ask, Maymay said, they'd rather keep quiet instead of showing off their ignorance and risk earning the ire of their teachers and the jeers from their classmates.
This attitude, she said, is common among her classmates and other students in the regular sections in their school. After all, high school life is all about image, whatever that is; and no teenager wants to be the subject of ridicule. And so the students suffer in silence.
"Saba gyud kaayo, ate, huot na ug init pa gyud (Our classroom is very noisy, cramp and hot)," she said.
Her class size -- more than 60, she said. While this already illustrates a shabby picture of how children are educated, the student to classroom ratio still does not include the fact that included in this inventory of classrooms in hinterland areas where schools have closed for one reason or the other -- either because there is no teacher willing to be assigned there, because of peace and order problems.
Mrs. Lily N. Irava, who is assigned to handle the lumad curriculum of the Department of Education (Deped) relates that in one school in Malabog in Davao City, students not only have to contend with the multi-level classroom common in remote areas, they also can hardly afford notebooks and pad papers to write on.
"Ang ginagawa nung teacher doon, humihingi siya nung mga used na vouchers, yung likod nung vouchers and ginagamit ng mga pupils niya as pad paper," she said.
City Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta, who heads the council committee on education and thus is also in the Local School Board (LSB), acknowledges the vast problems besetting education and the straits children and their parents have to go through just to learn to read and write.
"Sa urban, ang ginaproblema natin kay yung masikip lagi masyado ang schools tapos yung pamasahe na kailangan ng mga bata (In urban areas we are bothered by cramp classrooms and jeepney fares)," she said. In remote areas within Davao City, where population is usually comprised of lumads, walking several kilometers to school is but normal.
"Sa kanila, way of life na yung magbaktas, magtabok ug sapa, unya pag-abot sa eswelahan dili pa gyud dayon makaeskwela kay mag-igib pa ng tubig para sa kanilang CR (For the children in the hinterlands it's already a way of life to walk several kilometers to school, to cross rivers and once they reach the schoolhouse they will not immediately start classes because they still have to fetch water for their comfort rooms)," she said. The source of water would be a kilometer or so away.
"Kung taas ang river, usahay dili sila makatabok. Kung muulan, mabasa ang blackboard (If the river rises, then they cannot cross. And when it rains, their blackboards would be drenched)," Acosta added.
There are also days when there are no classes because the teacher has not arrived since most of the time teachers are not residents of these hinterland barangays and have to trek up these schools as well in between going home to their families as far as the suburbs.
The effort and time it takes a teacher to go to and from the school takes its toll on the number of class hours she can give to the children.
For the lumad who do not know of any other system of education, all these are normal for them, she said. Consequently, the lumads are recipients of an education that is way below par.
Compounding this dire situation are other factors that contribute to the loss of interest to pursue formal education.
One of these, Acosta said, is that a lot of hinterland children are not registered with the local civil registrar.
This creates problems when they are due to graduate, and because of the hassle and money involved, some just choose to quit school before even reaching grade six.
"Kanang grade four pa lang mag-undang na kay makasulat na bitaw sila (Like some quit upon reaching grade four because they are already satisfied with being able to write)," the councilor said.
In a bid to address these concerns, she said, the city is launching the LSB service caravan, hopefully by the opening of classes this year. The service caravan, she said, will bring in personnel from the city engineer's office, city health, the local civil registry and other departments that are needed by the students in the so-called "deprived, depressed and underserved" schools (DDUs).
The identification of the DDUs will be made by the Deped, she said. Through the caravan, the needs of the students and the schools will be attended to in one swoop.
This is aside from the move to establish a local counterpart of the national adopt-a-school program that will seek to link willing donors to needy schools on a sustained and sustainable basis.
While there are already a lot of organizations and individuals who are helping, Acosta said, there is still the need to encourage more help and this can be achieved through giving due recognition and incentives to those who do.
"Sa adopt-a-school din hindi na ito yung one-shot deal na tulong na pagkatapos magbigay yun na. Through this, magkakaroon ng interaction talaga ang adopted school and donors," she said.
Regionwide, the Deped, with the help of several other groups including the Mindanawon Initiative for Cultural Dialogue, the Assisi Foundation and the Australian Agency for International Development (Ausaid), is also running the Institute for Indigenous Peoples' Education (IIPE) that seeks to improve the education system among schools with predominantly lumad student population and make the curriculum relevant to the needs and culture of the lumads.
Indeed, while education remains to be awash with problems, it is heartening to know that the problems have already been recognized and concrete moves are being initiated.
"While it makes Davao truly proud that we have schools and students that excel in various competitions, we should continue to upgrade our schools and help our schoolchildren especially in the public schools located in far-flung areas where help of government, the community, and the private sector is needed most," Acosta said. "Let us invest in our schoolchildren today to give them better chances at life."
After all, as the student population continues to grow, and the problem-riddled education system at present continues to produce students with substandard skills and knowledge. There is no more room to just point fingers at who's at fault. The finger pointing has produced no substantial change, just more and more children who pass through formal education without learning much, like Maymay and her classmates who would prefer to just say "yes" instead of admitting they haven't learned anything.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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