RP's basic education blamed for discrimination of professionals abroad

The country’s 10-year basic education curriculum (BEC) is to blame for the discrimination faced by Filipino professionals and college graduates in other countries.

Dr. Mona Dumlao-Valisno, presidential assistant for education, admitted that the non-recognition of Filipinos’ college diplomas and doubt of their professional skills was mainly due to the Philippines probably being the only country in the world with a 10-year basic education curriculum compared to the 12-year basic education curriculum in other countries.

“One of the major issues on the recognition of our professionals is the 10-year basic education curriculum in the country,” Valisno told The Star.

“They keep discriminating us when they look into the credentials of our professionals,” Valisno added.

“We are the only country with a 10-year basic education curriculum,” Valisno said.

Valisno shared that foreign education and human resource organizations always call attention to the country’s 10 year BEC when the Philippines moves for the recognition of Filipino college diplomas and licensed professionals in a particular country.

“It is always raised when we try to push for the recognition of our Filipino professionals,” Valisno said.

But realizing that the Philippines does not have the financial resources to implement a 12-year basic education curriculum, Valisno said that the government was looking for other ways to go around this concern.

While they were considering certain strategies like implementing a two-year pre-university schooling for those determined to get a university diploma leading to a professional course program, Valisno said that the Philippines is now pushing for an international cognitive skills test for migrant professionals.

Valisno said that such a test would measure the cognitive skills of an individual and remove the educational attainment as a major measure of an individual’s skill level.

Valisno said that the concept for an international cognitive skills test was mainly similar to the Philippine Educational Placement (PEP) Test which she drew up when she was the head of the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports’ National Education Testing and Research Center in the late 1970s.

“The PEP Test which I started worked like that as it sought to measure an individual’s cognitive skills,” Valisno said.

“Education is not just going to school but learning as a whole. Learning is not confined in the four walls of a classroom but also outside the classroom, like within the family, among peers, in the Internet, or the media,” Valisno said.