Literate Ignoramus

Long gone are the days that brute strength is superior to intellect, as advancements in technology and
ideology made countries prioritize breeding insightful minds. Filipinos are regarded as one of the most
literate persons in the world. It is for this reason that foreign countries prefer hiring Filipino workers, as
their communicability makes them good employees. In this modern world, illiteracy means certain
death.

The Department of Education has made commendable effort in recent years. From introducing mini-
libraries in classrooms to requiring teachers to publish their own original story, the Philippines has
ranked 55th in the global literacy rate with a score of 96.3 percent. This is however, the 2015 ranking,
which is significantly lower than the 2013 ranking, with a peak of 98.82 percent, and there are several
reasons to this decline.

The Aquino administration introduced the K-12 program back in May 15, 2013, changing the grading
system to prioritize performance over academics. This in effect changed the students to prioritize
projects over tests and discussions, as projects have a higher percentage in comparison to test, making
them far more lucrative in terms of grades. This change to the grading system also led the lessons to be
more on memorization, where students just remember fact and note important details without
internalizing the information. The K-12 program has inadvertently obsoleted academics, stagnating our
minds to the present and not the future.

The K-12 program has brought 2 more years in secondary education, which brought forth its own set of
problems. The lack of classrooms in the early years of the program led schools to practice shifting,
where students are subdivided into those who study in the morning and in the afternoon. The
depreciation of hours into studying has limited the amount of time students can read, further degrading
the country’s literacy rate. Add to that the lack of textbooks in the early years. These factors which was
attributed to the unpreparedness of the state to embrace such a drastic change in educational system
has although not severely, downgraded the quality of education that students receive.

Several lapses also exist from the side of the Department of Education, as pre-existing textbooks usually
either lack information or contain obsolete knowledge. The textbooks feel lackluster in comparison to
other textbooks. They feel dull, boring, and disorienting, as the books usually are just full of text from
top to bottom. Students have a harder time reading books full of text, as they make them feel lethargic
and dizzy. The books need drastic improvement in order to rise up the literacy of the students, from
quality of information to the overall feel of the book. It should be fun at the same time filling to read.

Literacy is one of the most valuable assets a person can have. Albeit intangible, it has massive
contributions not just to a person’s life but also the state. Fostering great minds require the proper
knowledge, and if we can’t provide that, we will be just a stunted plant; just existing and never growing.