By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Yesterday morning, a prominent print journalist messaged me via Messenger that she was assigned by a Hongkong newspaper to do an article on the PISA results of the country and would appreciate it if I answer a few questions. Here are my answers:
1. What is your reaction to the survey 2. Are you surprised?
I am still angry because we brought the embarrassment upon ourselves by allowing our Department of Education (DepEd) to make harebrained experiments with our educational system for almost two decades now. It did not come as a surprise because I knew that the reading proficiency of our school children in public schools is a disgrace. Imagine non-readers in high school and their population growing each school year as the DepEd thought until lately that the solution to the problem was to cover it up. The problem started in 2001 when the DepEd for reasons it only knows loosened the standards by replacing the time-tested No Read, No Move rule in Grade 1 with the Zero Non-reader in Grade 4. Before the change was made, non-readers in Grade 2 were rare but not long after the decision, we had then in high school. That’s because not only did the DepEd move the cutoff but also refused to enforce it. Under the K-12 Curriculum, children are supposed to have learned to read in Grades 1 and 2 but DepEd is not enforcing the cut off most probably because it is scared stiff of the havoc that will ensue in the event it declares that henceforth, nobody who could not read will leave Grade 2.
3. Do you agree with the survey?
I do. I guess even DepEd agrees with the results because it is looking for excuses elsewhere.
4.What can you say about the state of Philippine education?
It is in disarray, in tatters. And with the way the DepEd has been carrying on since the PISA results came out, those who are hoping that the disaster would serve as wake up call are in for a disappointment. First and foremost, the debacle is about reading proficiency not only because of the reading part itself but because one has to comprehend the questions in math and science to answer them correctly but we still have to hear DepEd say the word since yesterday. This does not come as a surprise either because it refused to recognize and face the reading crisis until only recently.
5. Why would students score so low?
Many factors including the fact that they could be the most pampered students in the world. Secretary Leonor Briones was just being true to the current no sweat culture in the DepEd when she expressed agreement with the no assignment proposals in Congress. DepEd has tinkered with the grading system so that what used to be a failing performance in the past could now pass. But the most deadly factor is the mass promotion practice where the DepEd in so many ways discourages the retention of pupils. Stupidly, the DepEd denies that it has a mass promotion practice pointing out that there is no such issuance but at the same time, admits the presence of non-readers in middle school and high school when reading competency is requirement in Grades 1 and 2. Among a significant portion of the student population, the thinking now is already “anyway I will pass.”
