Monday, July 10, 2006
Bad English leads to poor Math, Science: lawmaker
BAD English has contributed in a big way to the rapid decline in the abilities of Filipino students in Math and Science, House Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas said.
"There is no question that inadequate English has severely handicapped our students in Math and Science. The Department of Education (DepEd) has definitive studies attributing the flunkey student performance in Math and Science to poor English reading and comprehension skills," Gullas, an educator, said.
"To begin with, Math and Science manuals and most other books for that matter are in English, so learning becomes extremely difficult if the student has deficient English," Gullas, author of a bill reinstating English as medium of instruction in schools, pointed out.
"Obviously, a student who cannot easily understand English will have difficulty solving a Math or a Physics problem that is couched in English," Gullas added.
The lawmaker expressed confidence that once English is fully revived in schools, students would also find it easier to learn both Math and Science.
"Co-relations definitely show that English proficiency translates positively to higher Math and Science abilities," he said.
The results of the last elementary National Achievement Test (NAT) showed that only 26.41 of students mastered English (that is, with a score of 75 percent to 100 percent).
In the same test, only 14.75 percent and 30.51 percent of students mastered Science and Math, respectively.
The test results of high school students were worse. Only 6.59 percent mastered English; only 1.75 percent mastered Science; and only 16.41 percent mastered Math.
Gullas said the problem was being aggravated by the lack of properly trained instructors.
There are too many non-majors teaching Math and Science in public high schools, he said.
Citing a Deped report, Gullas said a total of 23,866 public secondary school teachers are teaching Math and Science without the required specialization (non-majors).
According to the report, 58 percent of General Science teachers or 5,073 are non-majors; 56 percent of Biology teachers or 4,237 are non-majors; 66 percent of Chemistry teachers or 4,566 are non-majors; 73 percent of Physics teachers or 4,687 are non-majors; and 20 percent of Math teachers or 5,303 are non-majors.
(July 10, 2006 issue)
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