MODULE 10

STUDENT DISCUSSANT
NOLAN ACUIN PERUDA
 Current Issues and
Programs in Education
 Quality education
• First of which, is the quality of education. In the year
2014, the National Achievement Test (NAT) and the
National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) results
show that there had been a decline in the quality of
Philippine education at the elementary and secondary
levels. The students' performance in both the 2014 NAT
and NCAE were excessively below the target mean score.
Having said this, the poor quality of the Philippine
educational system is manifested in the comparison of
completion rates between highly urbanized city of Metro
Manila, which is also happens to be not only the country's
capital but the largest metropolitan area in the Philippines
and other places in the country such as Mindanao and
Eastern Visayas.
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.
Mismatch

• There is a large mismatch between educational training

and actual jobs. This stands to be a major issue at the
tertiary level and it is furthermore the cause of the
continuation of a substantial amount of educated yet
unemployed or underemployed people. According to
Dean Salvador Belaro Jr., the Cornell-educated
Congressman representing 1-Ang Edukasyon Party-list in
the House of Representatives, the number of educated
unemployed reaches around 600,000 per year. He refers
to said condition as the "education gap".
Brain Drain

• Brain Drain is a persistent problem evident in the educational

system of the Philippines due to the modern phenomenon of
globalization, with the number of Overseas Filipino Workers
(OFWs) who worked abroad at any time during the period
April to September 2014 was estimated at 2.3 million. This
ongoing mass emigration subsequently inducts an
unparalleled brain drain alongside grave economic
implications. Additionally, Philippine society hitherto is
footing the bill for the education of millions who successively
spend their more productive years abroad. Thus, the already
poor educational system of the Philippines indirectly
subsidizes the opulent economies who host the OFWs.
Social Divide

• There exists a problematic and distinct social

cleavage with regard to educational opportunities
in the country. Most modern societies have
encountered an equalizing effect on the subject of
education. This aforementioned divide in the social
system has made education become part of the
institutional mechanism that creates a division
between the poor and the rich.
Lack of Facilities and Teacher Shortage in Public
Schools

• There are large-scale shortages of facilities across

Philippine public schools - these include
classrooms, teachers, desks and chairs, textbooks,
and audio-video materials. According to 2003
Department of Education
 Issues regarding the K-12
• There is dispute with regard to the quality of education provided by
the system. In the year 2014, the National Achievement Test (NAT) and
the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) results show that
there had been a decline in the quality of Philippine education at the
elementary and secondary levels. The students' performance in both
the 2014 NAT and NCAE were excessively below the target mean score.
Having said this, the poor quality of the Philippine educational system
is manifested in the comparison of completion rates between highly
urbanized city of Metro Manila, which is also happens to be not only
the country's capital but the largest metropolitan area in the
Philippines and other places in the country such as Mindanao and
Eastern Visayas. Although Manila is able to boast a primary school
completion rate of approximately 100 percent, other areas of the
nation, such as Eastern Visayas and Mindanao, hold primary school
completion rate of only 30 percent or even less. This kind of statistic is
no surprise to the education system in the Philippine context, students
who hail from Philippine urban areas have the financial capacity to
complete at the very least their primary school education.