Inequality Starts in Elementary My Dear Watson

Our current education system is based on discrimination. It is less of a process of growth and

learning and more a process of raising livestock and only valuing those who bring the most profit. The

prized student receives their privilege from their tita-teachers and the regular sudent gets ignored and

forgotten. It is a system that says its built around the idea of equality but reeks of exploitation and

discrimination. This needs to change now.

Schooling in the Philippines starts at the tender age of 5 years, in kindergarten class. Here the

foundations are built. Children are taught how to read and write, they read about and listen to folktales

and fairytales, they start befriending other children their age, and they learn about the other things we as a

society deem integral to the development of human beings. We then send our kids to elementary, 6 years

of building up the foundations. During these formative years, students are expected to master Science,

Mathematics, Languages, and History. All of this leading up to yet another 6 years of high school. What

was once just Science, is now transformed to Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Basic Mathematics

branches out into Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus. The other higher learning subjects like World

Literature, Economics, Politics, and Music Production also come out, all of them having the purpose of

enhancing the basics learnt during elementary. All of this is finished with college years, 4-6 years of

specialized learning in a course chosen by the students themselves meant to ready students to join the

“real world” and employ themselves in their profession.

Currently this educational system is a well-defined process where each stage of learning

corresponds to student ages and in each stage there are certain learning outcomes that teachers aim to

reach. In most schools this age-based stratification is accompanied by skill or IQ stratification as well.

The students with grades or test scores above a certain standard get access into the science section, special

section, class A, Sci-Cur, SPED, and other names all correlating to the so-called cream of the crop. While

the other students are all herded into regular sections. This system of education is put in place under the

argument of efficiency and equality. The well defined process of year levels clearly states what each
student needs to learn at what time of their life. Schools doling out well-taught students like factories

shipping out assembly-line products. But the flaw with this age-based system is the strictly enforced

quotas and standards on our students. Not all students will perform at the same regardless of them being

the same age and expecting them to, even punishing those who do not meet that standard with hold-backs,

is the highest level of unfairness and absurdity. This system does give our education the efficiency it

promises but this is paid for by students with the difficulty and pressure they feel in order to meet the

quotas given to their year level (Adodo and Agbayewa 52-53). While this by itself can be deemed as a big

negative to our current system, age-based stratification is not alone and is accompanied by an even greater

evil.

Age-based classification is the more subtle classification our education employs, its less subtle

cousin is what we term as skill-based stratification or homogeneous sectioning. We group our students

according to the grades they received last year and scores they garner on tests. On paper this doesn’t look

to be all that bad. We use this classification to ensure that teacher’s efforts and schools’ money aren’t

misplaced. One application for this is teachers developing and using different techniques in different

classes. To the students deemed more skilled teachers can use teaching techniques that employ higher and

more abstract thinking and to the less skilled bunch teachers can employ a more hands-on and thorough

teaching. A meaner implication of this is that only those who already showcase the capabilities to

improve deserve high quality learning and those who do not only get the bare minimum. There are only

the smart kids and the bad kids, there are no people in the middle nor are there any late-bloomers. There

also exists financial and racial discrimination tied to this system. As the prodigies and smart kids that get

into the special sections are those whose families could afford the high-end schools and those whose

families struggle due to poverty get shunted to the pariah classes, ensuring the cycle of poverty remains

unbroken. And the trend between impoverished peoples and indigenous peoples or people of color is

something well-established (Asian Development Bank et al. 19-24), but fortunately this is shown more in

places outside of the Philippines.

 Speaking of cycles, homogeneous sectioning also has a cycle within it. The kids given the

privilege of being in a special section are met with positive preconceptions. We see them as gifted and we

interact with them as such. They are given more opportunities to excel and prove their mettle, and they

tend to do exactly that. This in turn reinforces our expectations of them, and in turn reinforces our actions,

resulting in a positive feedback loop that produces students that think highly of themselves and are well-

equipped to face the world. This is the Pygmalion effect, and it also works in reverse. The regular section

students meet with low, if not negative, expectations. These expectations get translated to substandard

actions. These students receive fewer instructions, use low quality learning materials, and are rarely given

the opportunities to join contests or workshops where they can show their hidden skill and improve. This

leads to them giving below-standard performances, enforcing our expectations, and justifying our piss

poor actions. This is happening in our country. Teachers from Parada National High School admit that

they are less motivated to teach students in regular sections because they see them as lazy and

unmotivated (Alviar-Esmia and Galindo 1-21). And can you blame them? Do unto others what you want

others to do unto you, isn’t that how the saying goes? The Pygmalion effect is just as unbreakable as the

rampant cycle of poverty.

Homogeneous sectioning was implemented under the guise of furthering equality. Those who are

similar to each other are grouped together so that they can relate and can undergo the same trials and

tribulations. But instead of enhancing the equality and camaraderie among student groups it enhances the

inequality between groups. Those who were lucky enough to start in a privileged position get the better

education and the inverse happens to those who were unlucky. Furthering the gap amongst them and

further creating inequalities in this world.

What then should we do instead? I propose an extremely simple solution, let’s do the opposite of

what we’re doing right now. Instead of continuing our usage of the homogeneous style of education, let’s

shift to a heterogeneous one. Forget the strict separations of age and more so those of skill and let us

instead group our students only according to how much a single classroom can fit. Let us turn the

assembly line of schools into a dynamic process tackled by students at their own pace, where progress is
measured in terms of actual growth instead of yearly quotas and tests. I call for radical reformation in our

country’s education system.

I deem the heterogeneous style of learning better for two reasons. First, it is a better simulation of

how life after school works. After we graduate and start hunting for jobs, there will be no sections waiting

for us. No one will be actively separating the cream from the crop. While those who graduate with honors

might receive advantages and more opportunities, starting out at work is an equal playing field. Interns

are all treated as interns and newbies as newbies. What were once people you only see during recess and

dismissal, now become office mates. Younger people will get to work, and sometimes be in a higher

position, with older people. There seems to be a mismatch between the setups in our schools with our

jobs. This is not the case in heterogeneous sectioning however. In this system, students already

familiarize themselves with working with people who are vastly different from you. Freshie students get

to work with seniors, those who know less about the field of study get to work with those who know more

and when this happens at the workplace, there will be no surprises in store. Second, and more important,

heterogeneous sectioning puts the students at heart, unlike homogeneous sectioning which is highly

output-oriented. Students set their own pace in their learning, they define their own goals and assess their

own growth, and they get to interact with other students learning alongside them. The students are no

longer pressured to accomplish tasks at an arbitrary time and instead get to learn what they deem

interesting free from external influences. And while there will be conflicts of interests and personalities,

these will only serve as areas of growth. Lumps of coal polishing against each other to reach a brilliant

shine. Inequalities are no longer heightened and are instead brought into the limelight for the students to

work around.

Multiple sources back me up on this. McAvoy synthesizes multiple researches on sectioning

systems and comes to the conclusion that there are strong positive effects of heterogeneous learning in

terms of reducing student anxiety, promoting self-esteem, and creating relationships among peers (Mc

Avoy 1-5). And a study in Callejon National High School shows that both teachers and students agree

that heterogeneous sectioning is a far more effective learning style (Cuevas et al. 36-48). Of course this
system also comes with its risks and difficulties. This is a much harder system to implement, both in

terms of effort and resources. However the benefits in my opinion, far outweigh the risks, especially when

compared to our current system of systemic discrimination and furthering gaps. We will benefit extremely

from this change.

The school is a microcosm of the country. And this is unfortunately extremely evident in the

Philippines. Our country is ruled by an elite class glutted on privilege and thriving on the exploitation of

others. What we teach to our children is what we deem extremely valuable as a society. The things we

expose our children to in their formative years will stick with them well after school. Are we willing to

say to the world that special privilege to a select few and not caring for the rest is what the Philippines

values in its people? I hope not.

Bibliography

Adodo, S. O., and J. O. Agbayewa. “Effect of homogenous and heterogeneous ability grouping

class teaching on student’s interest, attitude and achievement in integrated science.” International

Journal of Psychology and Counselling, vol. 3, no. 3, 2011, pp. 48-54.

Alviar-Esmia, Sarah, and Shari Ann Katlin C. Galindo. “Anong Seksiyon Mo?: A Study on

Social Stratification in Education through Tracking or Ability Grouping (A Philippine Setting).”

Reflections on Socio-Cultural Foundation of Education, 31 January 2013, pp. 1-21.

Asian Development Bank, et al. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES/ETHNIC MINORITIES AND

POVERTY REDUCTION PHILIPPINES. Manila, Asian Development Bank, 2002.

Cuevas, Lacia M., et al. “STUDENT’S AND TEACHER’S PERCEPTION ON THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF HETEROGENEOUS SECTIONING AT CALLEJON NATIONAL

HIGH SCHOOL.” Tonyo's Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 36-48.

Mc Avoy, Donna. Heterogeneous Grouping of Students and Its Effects on Learning. Learning

Principals, 15 November 1998, pp. 1-5.