The Old Testament of teachers and the children’s New Testament

The 10 Commandments have negation laws such as Thou shall not steal, Thou shall not kill, etc. But in the New Testament, Christ gives positive commandments like Love your enemies. Rules are arbitrarily imposed in conventional schools. At every turn everybody says DON’T.

The following are the Old Testament of the conventional teachers: 1) Don’t make noise; 2) Don’t help others with their work; 3) Don’t speak when you are not spoken to;  4) Don’t be jealous if someone is better; 5) Don’t fight back if someone hurts you; 5) Follow the fixed schedule of each subject. The general idea is everyone is at fault and we must straighten them as much as possible.

 Here is the child’s New Testament: 1) They make friends with their enemies; 2) They admire, not criticize; 3) They obey teacher; 4) They tell the truth; 5) They sympathize with the wrong doer; 6) They comfort the unhappy; 7) They help the weak; 8) They prefer to work continuously without interruption; 9) They show the strongest attraction toward good, so do not find it necessary to “avoid evil.”

20-year attempt to add kindergarten to K-12

For both Secretary Lourdes Quisumbing and Bureau Elementary Education (BEE) Director Juanita Guerrero the 1986 collaboration to set up the Coordinating Council for Early Childhood Education in the Philippines (CONCEP) was a major attempt to institutionalize preschool into the Philippine education ladder. This established the DECS order no. 29, 87 creating CONCEP as the preschool advisory council to DECS. Led by the current DECS-BEE director the founding members were Lily Canlas, Emmy Garon, Nina Lim-Yuson representing privately owned preschools. I represented Montessori preschools while Mesdames Covar, Lesaca and Valdevilla acted for UP Early Childhood Education department and Precious Pimentel spoke for Miriam College. Dr. Quisumbing called a national convention immediately. Three national conventions were held one after the other: in 1987 at the UP alumni center, 1988 and 1991 at the Operation Brotherhood Montessori headquarters in Greenhills.

Working side by side were preschool organizations such as Organization Mondiale Educazione Prescolaire (OMEP), Pre-Elementary Educators of the Philippines Inc. (PEP), Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines (CEAP), Association of Childhood Education International (ACEI), Association of Early Childhood Education (AECE), and preschools handled by public school PTAs attended. The third convention had a DECS Memo no. 207 signed by then Secretary Isidro Cariño who replaced Dr. Quisumbing.

By this time, I had been appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Salvador Laurel, also Vice President of the Philippines, as the country representative to the highest governing body of UNESCO, the executive board in Place de Fontenoy in Paris. I would attend both Spring and Autumn sessions in Paris in 1986 and 1987.

When president Fidel V. Ramos was elected, Dr. Armand Fabella became the secretary of Education. I was made a member of the EDCOM (Senate-Congress Education Commission) survey of schools in the country from 1990 to 1991. Right after, secretary Fabella also appointed me a member of the Basic Education Taskforce with its chairman Dr. Eligio Barsaga, SEAMEO research director. The taskforce looked into five crises: raising the quality of elementary schools and high schools with upgraded Teacher Training and Curriculum the Planning Academic Leadership of Principals, Evaluation and Monitoring and the missing Early Childhood Education. Regional meetings were held in Tagaytay, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Subic, etc.

Pagsasarili preschoolers acquire competencies of third graders

Between 1987-2017, the O.B. Montessori Child and Community Foundation (OBMCCFI) helped establish a total of 160 Pagsasarili Preschools, including the Pulung Bulo Elementary School in Angeles. Pampanga. It started with DSWD Day Care Centers in seven ZIP-NHA areas of Manila, then seven in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Ifugao. In 2007 the UNESCO director general called for quality Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). DepEd Sec. Jesli Lapus engaged the OBMCCFI to help the Montessori alteration of 24 public preschools all over Luzon including 12 in MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan).

Among the local mayors and governors who helped spread quality preschooling was Governor Vilma Santos Recto who was so completely sold to the idea of converting day care centers to preschools, so that as Mayor of Lipa, she made sure of having 15 Pagsasarili trained teachers every year between 2005-2009, totaling 60. When she became governor the preschools totaled 126. Last year 2017, Mayor Antiporda of Buguey, Tuguegarao and Mayor Henry Teves of Bayawan, Negros Oriental added three more Pagsasarili Preschools.

Teachers, parents and grandparents fully admire the children’s accomplishments, especially their character development. In general, having acquired third grade competence, they become honor students. At home, they love to work and are orderly. No longer timid, they converse with ease. A grandmother in Mamburao commented, “Marunong pang mag Ingles ang apo ko. Parang anak mayaman.”

A chance to reverse our failure to meet unmdg #2 to ensure quality primary education

Traditional education makes use of the teacher actively directing the lessons of children with notebooks, blackboard and textbooks. What is missing? The Pagsasarili system has a third factor that conditions and maximizes the self-confidence of preschool children: the Prepared Environment of work. The classroom has four open shelves of Practical Life exercises, Language, Math and Cultural Arts (Geography World and Asia Puzzle Maps, Classified Botany and Zoology Cards, History Family Charts).

Although EDCOM 1990 already recommended the institutionalization of ECE, it is only in January 2012 that it became a reality with the R.A. 10157 Kindergarten Education Act. The question, however, is the right choice of curriculum. Given the successful replication of the Pagsasarili Preschools, which automatically maximize the competencies of Pagsasarili preschoolers to acquire third grade competence, what choice do we have?