Team AQUINO:ROXAS ban na Tapat ban ng Lahat. January 20, 2010 DR. ISAGANI CRUZ Philippine Star Dear Dr. Cruz: We read with interest your commentary of last 7 January 2010 on the Liberal Party position ‘on basic education, notably, the addition of two years to the basic education cycle. Allow us to make a number of clarifications to set the policy position straight. 1 ‘The Philippines has the shortest education cycle preparatory to university. Ours is 10 years; the rest of the world is 12, In short, we have a curriculum that, on paper, covers the same subject matter as the rest of the world but which we cram into 10, instead of 12, years. This means that our teachers take all kinds of short cuts to try to cover the material or just simply do not attempt to cover the entire syllabus in a given y ear for lack of material time. ‘This shortchanges our children’s education, Our Liberal Party position (not just mine nor Senator Mar Roxas’, but our collective position) is to add two more years to basic education to bridge this glaring gap. The manner by which we will add the two years is to do so incrementally and to have the entire cycle in place by the end of the next Administration (ie. 2016). This is through a strategy that our education team first laid out in 2004 in DepED when the Bridge program was to have been implemented but which the President aborted before it had a chance to produce. ‘The schema for this is attached for your own review and comment. 3.1 In SY 2011-12, the high school Bridge program will be re-introduced as a remedial year for four years. In the fifth year, this will be transformed into the first year of high school. 3.2. This transformation is contingent on enhancing a program that makes “every child a reader (and numerate) by Grade 3 (later Grade 2 and even by Grade 1)”. For the first four years, this will be run simultaneous to the HS Bridge program. Once it is in place (and after the fourth year), there should be no need for the HS Bridge program which then allows us to transform that remedial year into the first year of a 5-year HS. 3.3 At the same time (and starting year 1 of the new Administration), we intend to start building up towards a universal pre-school in every public elementaryTeam AQUINO:ROXAS Ley at. Laban n EE UME) school (to be called kindergarten). This will target all 6 year olds who are not enrolled in Grade 1 (about 60+% to date). Once the universal pre-school (kinderga realized in Year 5, we intend to transform this into the first grade of a 7-Grade elementary cycle. 3.4 Using this strategy, we intend to have moved from a 10-year cycle to a full 12-year cycle by SY 2015-16 ‘Through this strategy, there will be no schoolyear when there will be zero enrollees in high school or in university as you surmise. ‘The numbers for particular years may be lower but should still be significant in terms of enrolment. (On the other hand, if DepED were even moderately successful in terms of reducing dropouts at every gtade level such that the per yeat/grade size (eg, enrolment) were increased even by 10%, this would add about one million more students in the entire system as 2 function of retention in school. So, private schools and universities should not be “bankrupted by having zero enrolments” for any particular year.) This strategy is where we differ with the president and with other presidential candidates, 5.1 Our position: This is a problem of basic education (too little), therefore it should be fixed at the basic education level. It covers subject matter that the rest of the world covers at the elementary and secondary levels. Therefore, the solution has to be dealt with at the elementary and high school levels. Hence, the 12-year cycle. Further, by making this investment at the basic education level, the costs (eg. both public education spending and private sector education contracting) is rightly in the hands of government as its constitutional responsibility to provide basic education for all Filipinos. 5.2 Another presidential aspirant thinks that the answer is to increase university schooling by an additional year. ‘That extra year is nothing more than remediation and makes university an extension of high school which is not the solution. It also brings down the quality of our universities and mixes up their objectives. Further, this also shifts the responsibility for paying for the additional year on to private households because university education, even in state colleges, is not paid for by the government and therefore is not free. Lastly, this strategy also excludes those who have not finished a full basic education cycle. Hence, those that drop out before completing high school have no chance at this additional year of education.6 Team AQUINO:ROXAS 53 EE UME) at. Laban ng Lahat The president is even more misled in thinking that a bridge between high school and university is the solution, ‘The two years proposed is remediation. Who is responsible for these two years of extra schooling? CHED (ce. universities) — But students are technically not enrolled in university yet...or DepED (i. high schools) — But students have already graduated from high school even if they do not pass university entrance exams. That’s not what we need; we need basic education. Like another presidential aspirant’s position, this strategy transfers to private households the responsibility for funding the additional years and excludes those who do not complete high school. (Our Liberal Party position is clearly superior to the other positions for three reasons: 61 63 It gives all Filipinos access to more education because it is focused on basic schooling starting at kindergarten. (From world historical experience, more basic education — particularly, high school — is a major poverty-reduction strategy. In this country, we will never beat poverty with such a short basic education cycle. Let’s put aside our misplaced national pride and learn from the rest of the world what it has done to grow and develop their people.) Since the majority of our children attend public schools, the cost for tuition and direct schooling is borne by the State under our policy and not by the family (though the family will have to answer for the incidental costs which are much lower than tuition). ‘These additional costs are affordable (given how this Administration has used or rather, misused, funds) and absolutely necessary to make. With a 12-year cycle, even those who do not have the ambition or interest to 0 on to university should have enough basic education to prepate them for the world of work. At 18 years of age, high school graduates should have the tools and the emotional and mental maturity that would make them better prepared for work than 16 year olds graduating under a 10-year cycle. Our Liberal Party position (and the 12-year cycle is only one of 10 critical reforms we would undertake in basic education) is the result of months of study undertaken by our education team who have had the benefit of being at the helm of public education in the last ten years or mote. These include three former sectetaties of Education (Edilberto de Jesus, Butch Abad and Fe Hidalgo), two undersecretaries (Mike Luz and Chito Gascon), the former head of the DepED Planning and Research group, herself an assistant secretary (Lily Roces), andTeam AQUINO:ROXAS EME) at. Laban ng Laha a number of other former DepED directors and private educators, including presidents of some of the leading universities in the country. Let us close by stating that the Liberal Party reform agenda for Education is not a personal position. It is the result of evidence-based research and study. ‘That’s the way our education system has got to be reformed. And that’s the way it will be managed if we are elected because education outcomes are not quick fixes (as the president thinks itis). We will not let education reform become a populist item. It will take at least ten years to see the results of such reform. Hence, we need to have the vision, courage and fortitude to see it through to its logical ends. We hope we have clarified our Liberal Party position on the 12-year education cycle. As one of the most competent commentators on education reform, we hope that you can help us explain this difficult topic so that this campaign is run on issues and not just on personality and advertising. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! UNG SENATOR NOYNOY AQUINO SENATOR MAR ROXAS Presidential Cardidate Vice-Presidential Candidate Liberal Party Liberal Party