Of PH Mediocrity in Education, the UP Oblation is grieving!
My friend Ramon Yedra has brought back to life the dead memory of the sad state of education in the Philippines, from below to the top, sharing on Facebook the link to the column of Ana Marie Pamintuan of PhilStar Global, "Culture Of Mediocrity[1]." That column is dated years ago, 2004, but the news is today; I am also reading today Janella Paris who says, "Philippines Ranks Among Lowest In Reading, Math, And Science In 2018 Study[2]," dated 03 December 2019. Which means we Filipinos have not lifted a finger to improve the state of education in our country when it comes to Reading, Math, and Science. Those are the results among Pinoy 15-year olds assessed by the Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation & Development, OECD.
PISA says Reading Literacy is "understanding, using, evaluating, reflecting on and engaging with texts in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate in society."
PISA cake? Haha. I am an alumnus of the University of the Philippines, UP. I do not blame the Oblation for grieving about PH culture of mediocrity – above, original image of sad man from Splice Today[3]that I have posterized here; mediocrity/excellence image from Conor Neill[4] – I do blame UP for the sorry state of education of the Filipino youth!
In contrast, PISA says, "the Philippines sees a strong relationship between students' socio-economic status and his or her performance in school." In other words, it is saying that when you are poor, you are poor in Reading, Math and Science.
This teacher disagrees vehemently. And why is that? I point to the top: UP. UP is the leader – if UP does it, other schools do it. The UP System has made it nationalistic, patriotic to write and speak and even teach in Filipino (essentially Tagalog) – and how do you teach Reading and Math and Science in English using Tagalog? You are insane!
I am a teacher, BSA major in Ag Education, UP '65, weighted average 2.36 – not bad considering that several 5's were included in the computation. I passed the very first Teacher's Exam in 1964, yes, 1 year before graduation, at 80.6% – no reviewing. That is why, quoting Jose Rizal, "Anything about my country interests me greatly." Anything about the education of my country interests me greatly!
According to PISA, there must be reeducation of the youth "targeted at socio-economically disadvantaged students and/or schools" – meaning, we have to teach the poor students better. I disagree. We have to teach our poor teachers good teaching! Beginning with the professors of UP.
UP – For God's sake, did not our National Hero say the youth are the hope of the fatherland? If we do not WAKE UP and teach Reading, Math and Science in English for God's sake, at the Luneta we are going to shoot at the back Jose Rizal on 30 December once again!@517
[1]https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2004/05/05/248823/culture-mediocrity?fbclid=IwAR0r9VTw50wagnm45BUENZei4-uK48BuaNAyA40JEpxW9ICnr-X9JG6h1Wc
[2]https://www.rappler.com/nation/246422-philippines-ranking-reading-math-science-pisa-study-2018
[3]https://www.splicetoday.com/pop-culture/new-devil-s-dictionary-for-culture-of-mediocrity
[4]https://conorneill.com/2015/11/15/culture-by-design-or-by-default/
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