Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Oledan: Social priority By Radzini Oledan Slice of life
EDUCATION is the most important variable influencing earning capacity for a significant segment of the working population. Yet children of poor families receive little education and, thus, deprived of the very means to improve their lives.
The continuing armed conflict has affected large areas and population pockets in Mindanao, particularly Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), Central Mindanao and Western Mindanao.
The debilitating conflict had caused disruptions or breakdowns in the delivery of basic services.
School activities are frequently disrupted. Not a few schools have totally ceased operations due to the critical situation and the lack of teachers willing to be posted in conflict-prone areas.
Mass evacuations and displacements of residents have made it difficult for children to sustain attendance in school. Studies have shown that the long-drawn conflict in has been a major factor that accounts for the low school attendance and high dropout rates.
The extremely low school attendance and completion rate particularly among the Muslim children and indigenous peoples is particularly alarming.
The low interest and social priority for formal education are factors that partly explain the low school attendance among these population groups.
For one, poor infrastructure has been a perennial problem especially for children in remote towns and communities.
Access to schools is usually difficult, if not impossible, for children residing in remote areas. Cost-effective considerations, however, prevent DepEd from constructing schools in areas that have low student population density.
Increasingly, the question of quality is also raised. There are calls for an honest to goodness review and revision of school curricula and teaching approaches to make them relevant, effective and culturally sensitive.
Questions have been raised about the relevance of education especially for Muslim and IP communities.
Even a cursory examination of school textbooks, curriculum and teaching approaches indicate biases in learning modules that is used throughout the country without considering the local situation and circumstances.
Educators have suggested to "indigenize" the school curriculum and teaching approaches.
This means providing greater autonomy to the local school boards and traditional community educators in developing appropriate curricula and innovating teaching approaches that are more appropriate to the target population.
