HIST 1 FORUMS

Share some personal observations or experiences regarding the problems and challenges of
the Philippine educational system.
Like most Filipino parents, my parents consider education to be one of the most
important legacies they can pass on to us, their children. They believe that better education
offers opportunities to secure a bright future and ultimately lift us out of poverty. In colonial
times, educational opportunities were so limited that learning became the possession of a
chosen few. Learning, therefore, became a badge of privilege. It is important that the poor be
given equitable access to education. The 1987 Philippine Constitution declares that education,
particularly basic education, is a right of every Filipino.
Presently, the Philippine educational system is faced by several issues that need to be
addressed in order to improve the delivery of education to the most number of the population.
One of this is the quality and accessibility of education to its takers. Undeniably, the Philippines
government, in spite of its inadequacy of providing some basic services to its people, is doing its
best to provide the rudiments of basic schooling to its people for free. However, with the
multifarious problems facing the public schools, its delivery is hindered. Reality tells us that
even if the public school teachers are qualified to teach, the lack of instructional materials,
inadequate facilities and lack of training for professional growth hindered them to perform at
their best.
Personally, I have to admit that I am privileged. My parents provide for my educational
needs. During pre-covid era where face to face interactions where allowed I observed that
there is indeed shortage of school buildings, textbooks and equipment. We had given the
opportunity to teach elementary students during Senior high school as student teachers.
Learning Resources should have a 1 is to 1 ration for better understanding of the topic but no
most of the times students share book and some classroom do not even have access to
television and modern teaching equipment. In addition, most of the educators are overworked
and underpaid. I have relatives who are teachers; the fact that teachers are paid subsistence
wages is only half of their sad story. Aside from classroom instructions, teachers perform a host
of backbreaking and time-consuming jobs unrelated to the teaching function. Child Labor is also
a huge problem, instead of studying children often need to work and earn money in order to
survive.
Budget for Education
The second issue that the Philippine educational system faces is the budget for education.
Although it has been mandated by the Philippine Constitution for the government to allocate
the highest proportion of its government to education, the Philippines remains to have one of
the lowest budget allocations to education among ASEAN countries.
Affordability of Education
The third prevalent issue the Philippine educational system continuously encounters is the
affordability of education (or lack thereof). A big disparity in educational achievements is
evident across various social groups. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students otherwise
known as students who are members of high and low-income poverty-stricken families, have
immensely higher drop-out rates in the elementary level. Additionally, most freshmen students
at the tertiary level come from relatively well-off families.

Drop-out Rate (Out-of-school youth)

France Castro, secretary of Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), stated that there is a graved
need to address the alarming number of out-of-school youth in the country. The Philippines
overall has 1.4 million children who are out-of-school, according to UNESCO's data, and is
additionally the only ASEAN country that is included in the top 5 countries with the highest
number of out-of-school youth. In 2012, the Department of Education showed data of a 6.38%
drop-out rate in primary school and a 7.82% drop-out rate in secondary school. Castro further
stated that "the increasing number of out-of-school children is being caused by poverty. The
price increases in prices of oil, electricity, rice, water, and other basic commodities are further
pushing the poor into dire poverty." Subsequently, as more families become poorer, the
number of students enrolled in public schools increases, especially in the high school level. In
2013, the Department of Education estimated that there are 38, 503 elementary schools
alongside 7,470 high schools.
The present COVID-19 pandemic has brought extraordinary challenges and has affected the
educational sectors, and no one knows when it will end.
Unfortunately, experts say, technical issues are bound to happen in an online-only
environment.
While studying from home or wherever students may be, there can be more distractions than
usual. As a result of these distractions – and possibly having additional responsibilities – time
management becomes more challenging.
The lack of in-person interaction with both instructors and classmates can be particularly
challenging. The adjustment can be particularly difficult for students taking classes that are
better suited for the face-to-face format, like those with science lab components.
“In this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo
because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all
of our children fairly.”

Across the years our educational system has been rocked by controversies which have
remained unabated up to this day. Amidst thewelter of issues, two of them have managed to
stand out in importance: quality and relevance. The major difficulty in education in
thePhilippines is the short-sighted policy of sacrificing the quality and quantity of education
for reasons of economy. Philippine Education is a product of long history of struggle. Its
metamorphosis was a gradual process which was a product of generations of colonialism and
imperialism.
Filipino parents value education as one of the most important legacies they can impart
to their children. They believe that having a better education opens opportunities that
would ensure a good future and eventually lift them out of poverty. Thus, they are willing
to make enormous sacrifices to send their children to school. It was more of a
privilege than a right. Educational opportunities were so limited that learning became the
possession of a chosen few. Learning, therefore, became a badge of privilege. Even before
COVID-19 struck and caused problems for millions of families, the country’s financial status is
one of the top factors that add to the growing education issues in the Philippines.
Furthermore, more children, youth, and adults can’t get a leg up and are thus left behind due
to unfair access to learning.

Moving forward, such issues can lead to worse long-term effects.