By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
The news report “Palace takes ‘constructive view’ of PH dismal performance in math, science, reading” in the December 5, 2019 Philippine Daily Inquirer website quoted Palace Spokesman Salvador Panelo as saying “education officials are on the right track as we address the issues and gaps in the basic education sector.” We wish to point out, however, that too much trust on the judgment of the Department of Education (DepEd) can be disastrous to the country. That’s specially now that education has placed the country in the glare of the wrong spotlight.
Very instructive is what happened during the times of Presidents Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. Even granting that getting rid of the “No Read, No Move” bulwark of Philippine education and replacing it with the alien “Zero Non-reader in Grade 4” policy in 2001 which would turn out to be a major blunder had the blessing of Arroyo, for sure DepEd officials did not update her of the emergence of non-readers in first year high school a few years later, an unprecedented and unthinkable phenomenon before that time.
From 2010 to 2016, as the DepEd dutifully mouthed Aquino’s agenda “Every Child a Reader by Grade 1 by 2016”, they did nothing towards achieving the target. The DepEd did not even bother to tell Aquino that existing reading regimen policies and likewise the K to 12 Curriculum which was developed during that time were not aligned with the agenda. The K to 12 puts reading competency in Grades 1 and 2 so how could children be reading in Grade 1?
Also despite his “Every Child a Reader by Grade 1 by 2016” tagline, the DepEd continued with the “mass promotion” practice which was initiated sometime in the early 2000s wherein the retention of pupils regardless of performance is discouraged or even prohibited. The total disregard of the agenda of Aquino and the continuing observance of the “mass promotion” de facto policy had the effect of worsening the reading problem as the number of non-readers in middle and secondary school escalated while Aquino believed that by the time he exits, Grade 1 pupils would be reading.
When President Rodrigo Duterte took over, the DepEd people just changed the reading slogan to “Every Child a Reader at His/Her Grade Level” and there was no attempt to correct the wrong policies and practices which lowered the reading proficiency levels of school children and further diminished the quality of our education. One need not be a rocket scientist to see that the failure of the three presidents to check if their education secretaries were doing the right thing contributed to the PISA debacle as it cannot be disputed that children who could hardly read are not expected to score high in reading test or in any test for that matter.
Duterte still has a chance to turn things around and give the country a better shot in the next PISA if he even just asks the DepEd to explain why there are non-readers in high school when the curriculum places the learning of reading in Grades 1 and 2 and more importantly to order the strict implementation of the K to 12 reading cut off. On the other hand, if he continues to maintain a hands off policy on DepEd affairs deferring to Secretary Leonor Briones all the time just like Arroyo and Aquino foolishly did with their own DepEd secretaries, Duterte will also be known as the president who did not care if Filipino children could read or not. (Published in the December 11, 2019 Philippine Daily Inquirer.) **
