two weeks ago, an old friend wrote in her facebook account about her experiences as a new public school teacher in the province...she just started work this month....anyway she got really depressed because of the situation of her students....each child uses only one notebook for all subjects...the parents can afford just that...they also do not have a lot of books....they just share what limited books they have....after working in a private school where all students could afford to buy notebooks and books that must have been really depressing....
last week, while on our way to skygarden in quezon city, i heard two friends talking about books...i eavesdropped...i learned that one of them asked for books from the others....it turned out her niece is studying in a public school and she was only given one book....yup...not one set of books but one book...she found out about this when she found a note from the teacher in her notebook...the note says that her niece is not doing her homeworks...
now there are talks (loud talks) that there are plans to increase the 10-year basic education to 12...if that will happen do they think they can provide all the books that the students need...we only have 10 years now and we could not give all the students even half of the books that is required...try to go to the provinces, sirs....there you will see the real state of the classrooms....here in manila all public school students probably receive the complete set....but as you move farther away from the capital, book supply also moves far away from what is proper, appropriate, needed or required....
can they build enough classrooms?...they couldn't even have all the old (dilapidated) buildings repaired....look at what happened to one school where a student died when an old building collapsed...look at classrooms being used by a class with 60 - 70 students....look at classrooms divided into two to accaommodate two big sections....look at desks shared by 3 - 4 students.......look at students studying under 'talisay trees'...look at 'stages' used as classroomS and not as venues for performances.....
students need good teachers to learn....will they be able to provide enough teachers for this additional two years....if they could provide that, will they be able to pay them enough....a lot of good teachers now are going abroad because they do not get paid well here....some education graduates would even prefer to work as domestic helpers (no, i'm not saying this is bad....this is just not what they trained for) in other countries because the pay is better....
some people advocating this 12-year basic education are saying that they are going to increase the budget for education...can they and will they really do that?...even if they do, i think what ever additional budget they will give to education will not be enough to even compensate for the deficit every school child is now experiencing....and then they will add two years???....
i wonder....what is their real reason for thinking about this 12-year basic education curriculum?
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