Education in the Philippines

By Nick Clark, Assistant Editor WENR

INTRODUCTION
The development of the Philippine education system has been heavily influenced by its colonial
history, which has included periods of Spanish, American and Japanese colonization and
occupation. During the period of American colonization, beginning in 1898, English was instituted as
the language of Instruction and a public school system was established, administered by a
Department of Instruction, and modeled on the US system. A number of colleges and universities
were established primarily to train teachers, although in 1908 the University of the Philippines was
chartered as the nations first comprehensive public university. Primary education through grade
seven was funded by the government and free to all. Private universities and colleges were also
established during this period.
The United States has left the largest imprint on the education system which can be discerned in a
number of ways. One is the extensive, relatively non-elitist system of higher education, to which
access is widely available (comparative to other South East Asian nations). The United States
continues to influence the system indirectly through the large number of academic staff who have
earned graduate degrees from U.S. universities.
The Philippines has long been a leader in the region with respect to achievements in education. By
1970, the Philippines had achieved universal primary enrollment. These successes, however, mask
a long-term deterioration in quality, and the national figures obscure wide regional differences. In
Manila, close to 100 percent of students finish primary school, whereas in Mindanao and Eastern
Visayas less than 30 percent of students finish. A recent study showed that scores of Filipino
children between 9 and 14 in mathematics, science and reading were two standard deviations below
the international mean. Not surprisingly, urban/rural differences were especially pronounced (World
Bank, 1999).
Education is offered through formal and non-formal systems. The number of years of formal
schooling in the Philippines is one of the shortest in the world. The educational ladder has a 6+4+4
structure, (i.e., six years of elementary education, four years of secondary education, and typically
four years to gain a bachelors degree).
The academic school year in the Philippines starts in June and ends in March, covering a period of
40 weeks. Institutions of higher education operate on a semester system with an optional summer
semester. Education is compulsory from age seven to twelve, covering the first six grades of
education.

English was the official language of instruction from 1935 to 1987. The new constitution of 1987
prescribed that both Filipino and English be the official languages of communication and instruction.
English continues to be widely used from the higher primary level onwards, owing to a dearth of
materials and resources in Filipino, as well as Filipino-speaking teachers. This is especially true in
vocational and technical fields.
The administration and supervision of the school system is the responsibility of the Department of
Education, which has an office in each of the 13 regions of the country.
Historically, the Government has been unable to fund the whole education system and has
concentrated resources on the primary sector. Consequently, over 90 percent of enrollments at the
primary level are in public schools; whereas, at secondary schools that number is less than 70
percent and at the tertiary level over 88 percent of institutions are private, representing 73 percent of
enrollments (Department of Education, 2003), where the quality of programs ranges from high to
marginal quality. A discussion of the accreditation process in the Philippines can be found in the
Higher Education section of this profile.

PRIMARY EDUCATION
Primary education is compulsory and is six years in duration divided into a four-year primary cycle
and a two-year intermediate cycle. Children generally begin first grade at seven years of age;
however, private schools often operate a seven-year curriculum starting a year earlier. Students are
annually promoted from one grade to the next provided that they meet the achievement standards
set for the grade. Students are rated in every subject four times during the year. A cumulative rating
system is used as the basis for promotion. The pass grade is 75 percent. In grades I & II the medium
of instruction is generally in the local dialect, of which there are more than 170 nationally, with
English and Filipino taught as second languages. From grade III onwards mathematics and science
are taught in English with the social sciences and humanities taught in Filipino.
After satisfactorily completing the six-year elementary curriculum, students receive a certificate of
graduation from the elementary school. No examination is required for admission to public
secondary schools.

Primary
Duration: Four years (grades I IV, age seven to 11).

Intermediate
Duration: Two years (grades V VI, age 11 to 13).
Curriculum: Core subjects: Language arts (Filipino, English and local dialect), mathematics, health
and science;
Makabayan* subjects: In grades I III students study civics and culture, in grades IV VI students
study music, arts and physical education; home economics and livelihood; and social studies.
Values education and good manners and right conduct are integrated in all learning areas.
* Makabayan is described by the ministry as a learning area that serves as a practice environment for
holistic learning to develop a healthy personal and national self-identity. Ideally, it entails the

adoption of modes of integrative teaching that will enable the student to process and synthesize a
wide range of skills and values (cultural, aesthetic, athletic, vocational, politico-economic, and
ethical).
Leaving Certificate: The Certificate of Graduation is awarded to students who complete six years of
primary education.

VITAL FACTS AND FIGURES

Location: Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east
of Vietnam.
Capital: Manila
Natural resources: timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper
Population: 86,241,697 (July 2004 est.)
Age
structure:0-14
years: 35.8%
(male
15,758,255;
female
15,152,291)
15-64
years: 60.2%
(male
25,847,345;
female
26,096,211)
65 years and over: 3.9% (male 1,473,873; female 1,913,722) (2004 est.)
Ethnic groups: Christian Malay 91.5%, Muslim Malay 4%, Chinese 1.5%, other 3%
Religions: Roman Catholic 83%, Protestant 9%, Muslim 5%, Buddhist and other 3%
Languages: two official languages Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English; eight major dialects
Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocan, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense
Literacy: definition: age
15
and
over
can
read
and
write
total
population: 92.6%
male: 92.5%
female: 92.7% (2002)
GDP: purchasing power parity $390.7 billion (2004 est.) 4.5% (2004 est.)
** Source CIA World Factbook

SECONDARY EDUCATION
Private schools enroll a much higher percentage of students at the secondary level than at the
elementary level. Approximately 40 percent of the nations secondary schools are private enrolling
approximately 32 percent of all high school students (Department of Education, 2003). There are two
main types of secondary schools: the general secondary school, which enroll more than 90 percent
of all high school students, and the vocational secondary school. In addition, there are also science
secondary schools for students who have demonstrated a particular gift in science at the primary
level. Vocational high schools differ from general high schools in that they have a heavier
concentration in vocational training and practical arts. As in primary school, secondary school
students are rated four times a year. If a student fails to get a final rating of no less than 75 percent
in a particular subject, he or she repeats the subject the next year, but is, nevertheless, promoted to
the next grade. A certificate is issued to secondary school graduates.
Duration: Four years (grades VII X, age 13 to 17)

Entrance Requirement: Admission to public school is automatic for those who have completed six
years of primary school. Some private secondary schools have competitive entrance requirements
based on an entrance examination. Entrance to science high schools is also by competitive
examination.

General High Schools

Curriculum: Communication arts (English and Filipino), social studies (including anthropology,
Philippine history and government, economics, geography and sociology), mathematics, science and
technology, youth development training (including physical education, health education, music and
citizen army training), practical arts (including home economics, agriculture & fisheries, industrial
arts, and entrepreneurship), values education and some electives including both academic and
vocational subjects.

Vocational High Schools

Secondary vocational schools offer a higher concentration of technical and vocational subjects in
addition to the core academic subjects studied by students at general high schools. These schools
tend to offer technical and vocational instruction in one of five main fields: agriculture, fishery, tradetechnical, home industry, and non-traditional courses while offering a host of specializations.
Curriculum: During the first two years students study a general vocational area (see above). During
the third and fourth years they specialize in a discipline or vocation within that area. For example, a
student may take two years of general trade-technical courses followed by two years specialization
in cabinet making. Programs contain a mixture of theory and practice.

Science High Schools

There are four public science high schools: Manila Science High School, Philippines Science High
School (Manila), Cebu City Science High School and Quezon City Science High School.
Curriculum: As well as following the general secondary curriculum, there are advanced classes in
science and mathematics.
Leaving Certificate: Students who successfully complete a minimum of four years of secondary
education usually receive a Diploma (Katibayan) from their high school and, in addition, are awarded
the secondary school Certificate of Graduation (Katunayan) by the Department of Education.
Students are also awarded a Permanent Record, or Form 137-A, listing all classes taken and grades
earned.
SECONDARY SCHOOL GRADING SCALE
Percentage

Alpha

WES

95 100

90 94

B+

B+

85 89

80 84

B-

B-

75 79

0 74

HIGHER EDUCATION
In academic year 2002/03 there were 1,479 institutions of higher education (CHED, 2003) registered
in the Philippines, of which 1,305 (88 percent) were in the private sector. In academic year 2000/01
total post-secondary enrollments amounted to 2,637,039 students (of whom 73.1% were in the
private sector DOE, 2003).
Public institutions of higher education include 111 chartered state universities and colleges, 44 local
universities and colleges, 12 government schools (usually technical, vocational and education
training institutions offering higher education programs), five special institutions (mainly providing
training in areas such as military science and national defense), and two Commission on Higher
Education (CHED)-supervised post-secondary education institutions.
Prior to 1994, the supervision of tertiary schools was the responsibility of the Bureau of Higher
Education, a division of the former Department of Education, Culture and Sports. With the passage
of the Higher Education Act in 1994, an independent government agency, theCommission on Higher
Education (CHED) was created to exercise general supervision and control over all colleges and
universities both public and private in the country. The commission regulates the
establishment or closure of private higher education institutions, their program offerings, curricular
development, building specifications and tuition fees. Private universities and colleges follow the
regulations and orders of CHED, although a select few are granted autonomy or deregulated status
in recognition of their committed service through quality education and research when they reach
Level III accreditation.
Similarly, in 1995 legislation was passed providing for the transfer of supervision of all non-degree,
technical and vocational education programs from the Bureau of Vocational Education, also under
the control of the Department of Education, to another new and independent agency, the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). The establishment of TESDA has increased
emphasis on and support for non-degree vocational education programs.
In addition to regulating higher education, CHED is also responsible for developing policies to
support quality improvement in the higher educational system. As a matter of policy, CHED
encourages institutions to seek accreditation and provides a number of incentives in the form of
progressive deregulation, grants and subsidies to institutions with accredited programs. However, all
educational programs can operate legally if they have government recognition in the form of applying

for and receiving a grant of authority and official recognition to operate. Government recognition
should not, however, be confused with accreditation.
A CHED database of higher education institutions and programs is available HERE.

Accreditation
The voluntary accreditation system is modeled on the regional accreditation system practiced in the
United States, although only program evaluations and not institutional evaluations are performed.
Four accreditation associations, recognized by the Department of Education and organized into a
federal system, encourage private institutions to raise the level of their programs above the minimal
standard: the Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities Accrediting Agency
Incorporated (ACSCU-AAI); the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and
Universities (PAASCU); the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on
Accreditation (PACUCOA); and the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of
the Philippines (AACCUP). With the exception of AACCUP the accrediting agencies collectively
constitute a federation, the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines (FAAP), which
coordinates and certifies the activities of the individual agencies. To date, there are 221 higher
education institutions with 832 programs in various stages of the accreditation process (Pijano,
2003). A voluntary accreditation system in the technical and vocational sector is currently being
implemented by the Technical and Vocational Education Accrediting Agency of the Philippines
(TVEAAP).
There are four levels of accreditation. As defined by CHED, Level I gives applicant status to schools
that have undergone a preliminary survey and are certified by FAAP as capable of acquiring
accredited status within two years. Institutions with programs accredited at Level II receive full
administrative deregulation and partial curricular autonomy, including priority in funding assistance
and subsidies for faculty development. Programs with Level III accredited status are granted full
curricular deregulation, including the privilege to offer distance education programs. Level IV
institutions are eligible for grants and subsidies from the Higher Education Development Fund and
are granted full autonomy from government supervision and control. Level IV accreditation is
reserved for academic programs considered to be comparable in quality to those of internationally
renowned universities. To date, there is only one institution in the country whose programs have
been granted Level IV status De La Salle University(Pijano, 2003).
The most current online list of AACUUP assessed programs is available HERE.

UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION

The structure of the tertiary system in the Philippines in terms of awards and style of programs
offered at Philippine universities strongly resembles the US higher education system.
Admission Requirements: Entrance to universities and other institutions of higher education is
dependent on the possession of a high school Certificate of Graduation and in some cases on the
results of the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT), or in many colleges and universities the

results of their own entrance examinations. NSAT is administered to fourth-year high school
students to gauge the quality of the individual institutions they are attending, it was not designed or
intended as an admission test, but has nonetheless served that purpose for some institutions.
Privately administered testing programs through the Center for Educational Measurement (CEM) are
also widely used by colleges for admissions purposes. The two most common ones are the College
Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) and the Admission Test for Colleges and Universities (ATCU). From
1973 to 1994, the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) was used for admission to postsecondary degree programs; it was abolished and replaced by the NSAT because it was considered
by many not to be discriminative enough. The Philippine Education Placement Test (PEPT) is a
national examination designed to evaluate the grade level of students returning to the school system
or seeking admission to college based on knowledge and skills gained through formal and nonformal methods.

Programs and Degrees

Stage I: Bachelors (Batsilyer) degree programs are a minimum of four years in length. During the first
two years of study students are required to take general education courses (63 credits), with courses
counting towards the major usually being undertaken in the last two years of the program. Some
institutions offer five-year programs in science, pharmacy and agriculture (200 credits). Engineering,
architecture (226 credits) and music programs normally require five years of study.
Some institutions offer a two-year (generally 70 credit) Associate (Asoyado) degree program, usually
in arts, science or commerce. Graduates of these programs can, if desired, transfer into the last two
years of a bachelor degree program. An increasingly popular associate and certificate program is
midwifery and the sole tertiary-level credential in the field is the two-yearGraduate in
Midwifery certificate. A four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is the sole entry-level degree
for nursing. Graduates are required to then take licensing examinations.
The post-secondary programs leading to the Doctor of Dental Medicine and Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine normally require six years of study, usually involving two years of appropriate preliminary
studies and four years of specialized studies.
Academic Credit System
Degree programs at all colleges and universities are weighted according to a system of instructional
units based on class hours where one unit of instruction equals one hour of lectures or three hours
of lab work per week. Typically, courses are three units in value and require 54 hours of classroom
instruction over an 18-week semester. Four-year bachelor degree programs in the arts and sciences
require a minimum of 120 units for graduation, although the minimum at many schools is likely to be
140 to 160 units. Some programs may require as many as 185 units.
Stage II: Master of Art/Science (Masterado, Dalubhasa, or Kadalubhasaan) degrees usually require two
years of full-time study and a minor thesis or comprehensive examinations. The entrance
requirement for most master degree programs is a bachelor degree in an appropriate discipline, with
an average grade equal to or better than 2.00, 85 percent or B.

Some professional degrees, such as law and medicine are undertaken following a first bachelor
degree. The first degree awarded in medicine is the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), which generally
requires that students study basic medical sciences for the first two years followed by two years in
clinical rotation. This is generally followed by a one-year internship, after which graduates take the
licensing examination and, as appropriate, three to five years residency (for specialization). All
students seeking admission to medical programs must attain a passing score on the National
Medical Admission Test (NMAT) as established by each institution. TheBachelor of Laws (LL.B or
L.I.B) also requires four years of study following the first degree. The Juris Doctor (J.D.) requires an
additional eight units (2-4 classes) of coursework and a thesis beyond the requirements for the LL.B.
Students of both programs are expected to complete an internship of not more than 12 months,
completion of which combined with completion of the LL.B/J.D., qualifies them to take the bar
examination administered by the Supreme Court. A few universities offer four-year masters
programs that build on a four-year bachelors degree for veterinary medicine, rather than the usual
six-year program (see above).
Stage III: Doctor of Philosophy (Doktor sa Pilospiya) programs often involve a substantial amount of
coursework, while the dissertation may comprise as little as a quarter or a fifth of the total credits.
Ph.D programs usually require two or three years of full-time study beyond the masters degree.
Programs that require primarily coursework without original research emphasis, and usually without
a major dissertation, award professional degrees identified specifically as Doctor of the programs
disciplinary field, such as Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Public Health (D.P.H.) and others. The
entrance requirement is usually a master degree, with an average grade of 2.00 or B.
Two academic degrees in law are offered in addition to the first professional degrees: the twoyear Master of Law (LL.M) and the three-year Doctor of Civil Laws (D.C.L). Both require a J.D. or
LL.B for admission.

NON-UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION

Technical and vocational schools and institutes offer programs in a variety of fields, including
agriculture, fisheries, technical trades, trade technical education, hotel and restaurant management,
crafts, business studies, secretarial studies, and interior and fashion design. The entry requirement
is a high school diploma, and entrance examinations are generally not required. Postsecondary
programs lead to either a certificate (often entitled a Certificate of Proficiency) or a diploma.
The Professional Regulation Commission regulates programs for 38 different professions and
administers their respective licensure examinations.

Programs and Degrees

Credentials are awarded by individual institutions and authorized by TESDA. TESDA has (recently)
established a process called the Technical Occupation Qualification and Certification System
(TOQCS) through which standards are set for a specific set of craft/trade-level qualifications based
upon the type of program and occupational skill level involved. All technical credentials are referred
to as certificates and are awarded after the successful passing of standardized examinations
administered by TESDA. The national certificates generally require a program of study of between
one and two years. There are a series of tests that lead to certifications on a four-step ladder ( Level
I, II, III and Technician or Master Craftsman). All four levels do not exist in all occupational

categories. Technical and vocational institutions label their credentials by a wide variety of titles in a
particular field, these include diploma, associate, graduate or craftsman.
Some technical institutes are authorized to award bachelor degrees in a similar range of subjects to
those of technical and vocational schools. Community colleges offer two-year programs leading to
an Associate Degree in a range of vocational areas.
A list of TESDA-recognized technical and vocational schools and programs is available HERE.

TEACHER EDUCATION
In general elementary-level teachers must hold a minimum of a bachelors degree in elementary
education (B.E.Ed), while preschool teachers must have at least six units of pre-primary education.
At the secondary level, the basic qualification is a bachelors degree in secondary education
(B.S.Ed), or a bachelors degree in another area with the addition of at least 18 units in professional
education. All these programs are four years in length.
WES GRADING SCALE
Scale 1

Scale 2

U.S. Grade Equivalents

1.00-1.50

91-100

1.75-2.25

85-90

2.5-3.00

75-84

0-74

* May represent a conditional failure or a conditional pass. Grading scale may vary. Please refer to
grading scale on transcript

ARTICLE ADDRESS: http://wenr.wes.org/2004/11/wenr-novemberdecember-2004-education-in-thephilippines/

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PIER World Education Series. Philippines Workshop Report. Washington, DC: Projects for
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