PROBLEMS AND

ISSUES IN
EDUCATION
(PHILIPPINE CONTEXT)
 A topic presented
in the course Educ
303 (Economic
Foundation of
Education)
Prof. James L. Paglinawan
Home Page
Home Page
 Present Date

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Quality of Education
•Decline in the quality of Philippine education at
the elementary and secondary levels.

Reality Check:
 Results of NAT among elementary and high
school students and NCAE were way below the
target mean score.
 2004 High School Readiness Test: 0.64% scored
75% or better or 8,000 students out of 1.2
million examinees passed.
 Present Date

Quality of Education (con’t)

Return to

Reality Check:
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 Self-Assessment Test for English: 19% scored

75% or better or 10,000 out of 51,000 teachers.
 Decline in Quality of Education in the Philippines
 Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMMS) as of year 2003.
 Math: Philippines ranked no. 43 out of 46
countries
 Science: Philippines ranked no. 42
 No. 1 Singapore
 No. 2. Taipei
 Present Date

Affordability of Education
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•Big disparity in educational achievements across

social groups.

Reality Check:
 Socioeconomically disadvantaged students have
higher drop out rates in elementary level.
 Most of the freshmen students at the tertiary
level come from relatively well-off families.
 Present Date

Budget for Education

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•The Philippine Constitution has mandated the

government to allocate the highest proportion of
its budget to education.

Reality Check:
 Philippines still has one of the lowest budget
allocations to education among
the ASEAN countries.
 Present Date

Mismatch: Home Page

• There is a large proportion of "mismatch"

between training and actual jobs.

• This is the major problem at the tertiary

level and it is also the cause of the
existence of a large group of educated
unemployed or underemployed.
Problems and Issues in the Philippine Educational System
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Historio Internationa Emascula Fly-by- Cultural Abandon

graphy lization tion night Insensitive ment

Substandard Contractuali Specializa Copy-Pasting Mcdonal Nonsustaina

Textbooks zation tion Culture dized bility

Poor Liberal Purveyor of Marginali Monolithic Boring

Art myth zation education Teachers
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Giving heavier premium to the

history of the colonizers in the
Philippines, and not to the history of
Filipinos.

Teaching of History subjects from the

elementary to tertiary levels and will
most likely perpetuate in the next
generations to come.

The history of the Filipino people and the

colonial history of the Philippines are two
different topics altogether.
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To be skillful in arithmetic and

computer literacy, fluent in foreign
languages (specifically English and
Nihonggo)
Docile in order to serve as workers of
the transnational businesses of the
advanced, capitalist countries.
Call center phenomenon in the
Philippines, India and other
developing states.
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Victimized by the over-worked and

under-paid policy of the system of
the past and present dispensations.

Leads to the emasculation and

demoralization of their ranks.

Explains why the teaching profession is not

attracting the best and the brightest from the
crop of students anymore.
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Teachers, more often than not, are

victimized by the over-worked and under-
paid policy of the system of the past and
present dispensations.

This leads to the emasculation and

demoralization of their ranks. This
probably explains why the teaching
profession is not attracting the best and
the brightest from the crop of students
anymore.
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The proliferation of fly-by-

night educational institutions
is counter-productive.

Produces a pool of half-

baked, unprepared, and
incompetent graduates.
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Women, the common

tao and the indigenous
people are almost
historically excluded
from the Philippine
historiography in favor
of the men, heroes
from Luzon and the
power elite.
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The state—in an incremental

fashion—is abandoning its role to
subsidize public education
particularly in the tertiary level.
This comes in the form of
matriculation, laboratory and
miscellaneous fee increases in order
to force state colleges and
universities (SCUs) to generate their
own sources of fund.
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Some textbooks which are already

circulation are both poorly written
and haphazardly edited.
Take the case of the Asya: Noon at
Ngayon with an identified total
number of more than 400 historical
errors.
This is a classic case of profit-
centeredness without regard to social
accountability.
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In the name of profit, owners and

administrators of several private schools
commonly practice contractualization
among their faculty members.

Contractual employees unlike their

regular/tenured counterparts are not
entitled to fringe benefits which
consequently reduces the over-all cost
of their business operation.
Job insecurity demeans the ranks of the
faculty members.
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Some colleges and universities, even for high

schools, encourage their faculty pool to be
generalists (under the guise of
multidisciplinary approach to learning) in
order to be able to handle various subjects
all at once.

But some faculty members have turned out

to be objects of mockery and have lost their
self-esteem since some of them were
pushed to handle Technical Writing, General
Psychology, Filipino, and Algebra at the
same time.
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Over-dependence to the cyberspace has

dramatically reduced the capability of
students (even teachers) to undertake
research.
‘Copy-pasting’ has even turned into a
norm among some students whenever
they are tasked to submit a research
paper or even a film review.
Plagiarism has already transformed into
a more sophisticated form in the context
of today’s electronic age.
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The system, methodology, and even

content of education in the Philippines
are mere haphazard transplantation
from the West.
It is therefore Eurocentric, culturally
insensitive, and non-reflective of the
local milieu.
This is based on the xenocentric (foreign-
centered) premise that other culture or
system is far more superior than one’s
own.
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Teachers, administrators and

publishers are all left in limbo
whenever the DepEd would come up
with another totally different
directive from what it used to have in
a rather very sudden interval.
The case of the grading system,
timeframe allotted to various
subjects, MAKABAYAN program,
readiness test, and learning
competencies (LC).
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Liberal education is intended to form a holistic

individual equipped with communication,
critical thinking, mathematical, creative, inter-
personal and intra-personal skills.
This explains why we also have Philosophy,
Languages, Humanities, Natural Science, Social
Science, Physical Education and even Theology in
our college curriculum, and not only our major
subjects.
Equally alarming is the lack of enthusiasm and
motivation exhibited by some professors to handle the
subject especially if they believe that it has nothing to
do with the course or area of specialization of their
students
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Education has been very effective in

mainstreaming and perpetuating the social
myths in a subtle and indirect manner.

Some of these myths are the perceived

superiority of white, educated men, ‘official’
history as advanced by the western point of
view,
Globalization is the only way to achieve
economic development, and stereotypes
against the minoritized and the
disenfranchised.
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In the name of profit and as a response to the

dictates of the market forces, colleges and
universities prefer to offer more courses in
line with the health sciences like nursing,
medical transcription, and care-giving.

This is done at the expense of the already

undersubscribed yet relevant courses like Area
Studies, Pilipinolohiya (Philippine Studies),
Development Studies, Philippine Arts, Art
Studies, Community Development, Social
Work, Islamic Studies, Clothing Technology,
and Ceramics Engineering.
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Some educators in the

name of conservatism and
for the sake of convenience,
prefer the old-style teaching
paradigm where they view
themselves as the fountain
of knowledge and their
students as nothing but
empty vessels to be filled up
(banking method of
education).
 Home Page

There are no boring

subjects, only boring
teachers. But at least
we should recognize
them because they
still serve a purpose.
They serve as bad
examples.
Facts and Figures on
Philippine Education
Problems, Issues
and Concerns
The problematic education quality in the country as well as
the hindrances faced by Filipino students in gaining good
education begin at the early childhood and kindergarten
education stage.
 Republic Act 6972 or the Day Care Law, which mandates the
establishment of a day care center in every barangay, has
improved the number of day care centers to about 87 percent
(36,338) of the total barangays in the country as of the
second quarter 2010 from 78 percent (31,464) in 2002.
The gross enrollment rate of the four- to five-
year-old children from 19.2 percent in 2004
to 24.7 percent in 2008 or reducing to about
four in 10 the number of five-year old
children not in school.
Real expenditures per student of DepEd
(in 2000 prices)
 2007 GDP Per Capita

The relatively low investment of the Philippines on

education may be the reason for the declining
education quality.
The lack of research in HEIs is also seen as another
factor in the low quality of tertiary education in the
Philippines.
In 2010 , the share of DepEd budget to total
education expenses was 85.7 percent,
up from 81.7 percent in 1998.
 The high population growth in the country is also another
factor in the high persistence of high pupil-teacher ratio
(PTR). Another reason is the failure to adequately implement
the teacher deployment policy.
 Teachers report that boys are difficult to discipline,
have a hard time sitting still, do not participate in
class and are unable to focus on written tasks such as
assignments and exams.
 The government has imposed a moratorium on the
establishment of new SUCs. The rationalization of HE system
will also reduce the number of duplicative programs
 Home Page

The Scholarship system in the Philippines is also

problematic as the country's student assistance efforts to
date are “meager and fragmented.”
 Some
Reforms
Proposed
Home Page
 Present Date

Sources: Home Page

 Burgonio, T. Congress adds P4B to budget of DepEd. Philippine Daily Inquirer. June
5, 2006, p. 1.
 Del Mundo, F. State of RP Education. 2nd of a series. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p.
A22.
 Cheryl M. Arcibal . Updated May 25, 2012. http://www.philstar.com/school-special
 Osorio, E. When our teachers say goodbye. Philippine Daily Inquirer. June 4, 2006,
p. 28.
 Philippine Daily Inquirer. Editorial. Same old problems. June 6, 2006.
 Robles, J. Ground zero. Standard Today. Une 5, 2006, p. 6.
 Secretary Lapus outlines the state of Philippine Education. educnews. December
2006, p. 1.
 Prof. John N. Ponsaran. Notes About the Problems and Issues in the Philippine
Educational System: A Critical Discourse.
 Tubeza, P. Challenge to big business: Put more cash in school plans. Philippine Daily
Inquirer. July 30, 2006, p. 7.
 Tubeza, P. Gov’t needs P120B a year to save public school system. Philippine Daily
Inquirer, p. 11.
James L. Paglinawan
Issues in Philippine Education

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