Our kids need quality education

Our public schools are bursting at the seams. Catholic schools, which used to provide quality education, are closing down. Unless you come from a family of some means, chances are you are not going to get a good enough education to move up or even keep your current social status.

It wasn’t always that way. My late father was educated from the beginning in public schools and he became a doctor, the country’s top tropical medicine expert in his time. But good public education, during my father’s era, was a priority of the American colonizer.

When I was growing up, my father sent me to Paco Catholic School for my elementary education, not so much because the public school system then was not good enough, but because it was his concession to his religion… to give his children a good foundation in Roman Catholicism.

But he took us out of Paco Catholic as soon as he could. I had my high school in UP Prep, as good a secondary education as anyone could get at that time.

Those were the days when a public school education could be quality education. Today you only get that in the Science High Schools. For everyone else, a public school education at the elementary and secondary level almost dooms you to stay put or even be worse off than your parents.

Just take UP today. Despite UP’s effort to democratize admission, kids from better off families still dominate enrollment. It is tough for a high school graduate from a provincial high school in a poverty stricken province to compete with those who graduated from exclusive schools. There was a time when UP even had to conduct remedial classes for public school graduates in basics like English and Math so they could survive the demands of a UP education.

The K -12 education reform launched by the Aquino administration is a good starting point towards improving the quality of our high school graduates. Indeed, the two years we lack in primary and secondary education compared to international practice could be a disadvantage. That’s two more years they now have to master the basics before being thrown into the tender mercies of college education or the world.

But I am afraid that unless we are able to improve the quality of public school teachers, have a well thought out curriculum and enough classrooms, it would just be more of the same. The additional two years won’t make a difference in the readiness of our high school graduates to tackle the world.

This is why I took notice of a recent story on how the Ayala Corp.has launched APEC (or Affordable Private Education Center  Inc.), an effort to provide affordable quality secondary education. APEC is a joint venture between Ayala Corp. and the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pearson, an international learning company.

They intend to establish a chain of high schools that would be affordable yet able to provide quality education. This is exactly what is needed today, specially because we have started to lose the Catholic schools which used to provide this service.

I particularly like the way Ayala saw its self interest being served by having something like APEC. Ayala saw the increasing demand for skilled graduates, but it noted that many Filipino graduates are still unable to get the kind of employment that would lift them out of poverty.

Ayala also saw how the Philippine education system is facing growing challenges, especially in the light of a fast growing population. They saw DepEd’s K-12 program as a bold step to improve education. They also saw how this government program would benefit from private sector help.

Ayala is not new in this effort to provide quality education to talented students from families who cannot afford it. Their initial effort is called Centex or Center for Excellence in elementary education.

The problem with Centex is that it is so limited, just in Tondo and Bauan, Batangas. I can understand that the costs of having more would be too much to ask of one conglomerate. But I remember suggesting that Ayala consider “franchising” the Centex concept as a CSR activity of other local and foreign conglomerates.

In a way, the concept of Centex and APEC is the same… low cost quality private education for talented children from economically deprived families. I understand this private sector involvement in basic education is also a growing phenomenon across the developing world (such as the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, Africa).

The aim of APEC is to enable high school students to go straight to professional employment upon graduation or to be able to pursue higher studies. This year, APEC launched 11 schools in Metro Manila, starting with Gr 7 (Junior HS) and would continue to add levels every year, until Gr 10.

Its pilot program in Gr7 and Gr8 at Emilio Aguinaldo College, I am told, was a strong indicator of success. Other APEC sites are in five cities: Manila (2), Caloocan (1), Marikina (1), Quezon City (5), Pasig (2).

APEC employs an advanced curriculum developed with Pearson that follows the Department of Education’s K-12 curriculum and enhanced to align to international standards. APEC focuses on essential academics. It aims to develop among its students professional skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving; leadership development; and an underpinning of values, such as determination, integrity, and compassion.

APEC aims to transform thousands of lives through affordable and high quality education. For this school year, APEC charged a total all-in annual cost of P23,000 – inclusive of use of books and computers.

The fees include a one-time admission fee of P4,000 and 10 monthly installments of P1,900. The first 70 enrolees at each school would avail of a 20- percent discount, which would bring the monthly installment down to P1,490, or approximately P50 per day.

Chito Salazar, president of the Philippine Business for Education and of the Phinma education business, gave a good reason for conglomerates to support K-12. “If companies are concerned about the quality of their human resources, they must care about our country having the best possible basic education system. And this requires a 12-year cycle; thus, they must care about the fate of the K-to-12 Law.

“But it goes beyond just developing a pool of qualified employees. The business sector should also care, for as a good corporate citizen, it should care about the welfare of our people and our society.

“Basic education is exactly that: basic. It’s meant to provide our people with the competencies, knowledge, and attitudes needed to live a productive and dignified life. A good, solid education is likewise the best way for many of our people to rise out of poverty.

“So whether our high school graduates choose to go to college, pursue a job immediately after, or become actors, athletes, poets, carpenters, or plumbers, they need the skills this education level provides. They need quality basic education.”

Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Corp.’s president and COO, summed up why this is a concept whose time is now:

“The global demand for Filipino talent is proof that one of the Philippines’ greatest resources is its people. Ayala believes that investment in education is key to securing national competitiveness, and every Filipino’s future. Our vision is to provide affordable, world-quality education that can allow every student to achieve his or her full potential.”

There must be a way we could get the business sector to work with Ayala on this one. As I suggested with Centex, Ayala should find a way to “franchise” the concept so that we could have more Centex and APEC classrooms all over the country. This is the only way to assure our future competitiveness.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco