EDITORIAL - The other crisis

Over the weekend the secretary of education disclosed plans to add at least two more years to primary and secondary education in public schools. This may help arrest the precipitous slide in the quality of education, especially in public schools, but it will have to be complemented by improvements in many other aspects. With serious budget constraints, even two more years of schooling will not be enough to deal with the crisis in education.

This crisis is worse than the political and economic ones, according to Education Secretary Florencio Abad, and he has a point. An educated citizenry can make informed choices and will not keep picking leaders based merely on popularity or political patronage. An informed electorate will not tolerate vote-buying or poll fraud, knowing the consequences of compromised elections on the future of the nation. Informed voters know that the future of their children is inextricably linked with the future of their country, which is why they must pick the right leaders and make their voices heard in national affairs.

The slide in the quality of education has also meant a corresponding decline in national competitiveness. This is catastrophic in the age of globalization. Already Filipino workers are starting to be edged out of jobs overseas by foreign competitors. Even outsourced jobs are going to other countries such as India where labor costs are still low but the workforce is skilled and English proficiency keeps improving. Soon the Filipino worker may find himself left with only the jobs that nobody wants.

There is little good news in Philippine education. Abad said that in the latest national achievement test for senior high school students, the average score was a dismal 46.80 percent. Sixth graders who took the elementary assessment test fared no better, scoring a disheartening average of 58.73 percent. This school year, public high schools are packed with students who flunked after the grading system was modified last year to give more weight to science and mathematics rather than physical education and music. This is a crisis with long-term dire consequences for the country, but national leaders are too preoccupied with their political fortunes to care.