The best of times

Something is marvelous in the state of education.

Congress has started thinking seriously of another Congressional Commission on Education – an EDCOM II to review and update the findings of the 1991 EDCOM I – or at least an Oversight Committee to tally the pluses and minuses of the present trifocal education structure (the three foci or education agencies being DepEd, CHED, and TESDA).

President Noynoy Aquino is deadly serious about bringing our educational system up to the level of the rest of the civilized world, by – among other things – adding two years to basic education and ensuring that every Filipino child is already a reader by the end of Grade One. He was elected President on the basis of this educational platform (as well as his unwavering stand against corruption, of course).

DepEd has started implementing its new curriculum, with Kindergarten now having its own set of minimum learning competencies and high school Filipino and English subjects being grounded on Philippine literature.

CHED is revising the 1996 General Education Curriculum to prepare students for life in the 21st century, with its knowledge economy, ethical dilemmas, geographical mobility, rapidly changing technology, digital divide, climate change, and other elements so different from those of the world of today’s parents and teachers.

TESDA is trying to return to its original vision of stimulating technical and vocational education, rather than spending its time doing actual training.

The Congressional Commission on Science, Technology, and Engineering (COMSTE) has firmed up its proposals to increase the pool of Filipino scientists and engineers by, among other things, having a science section in all public high schools.

The Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP), established by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in 2001, is well on its way to achieving its vision of making every Filipino culturally literate by, among other things, ensuring that public schools teach children how to be good Filipinos, rather than good foreigners.

Private schools are rapidly learning what academic freedom really means – the freedom to think, to research, and to innovate. More and more interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, even nondisciplinary courses are being offered in more and more varied types of schools. CHED is doing its part by declaring that it will return to its original mandate of being a developmental, rather than a regulatory, agency.

The increase in the number of autonomous and deregulated private higher education institutions (HEIs), the passage or revision of charters of government schools, the linkages with and even actual coming into the country of foreign universities, the local moves to join international accrediting or quality assessment initiatives (such as the Washington Accord, the Bologna Process, and the Asia-Pacific Quality Network), the professionalization of schools through investments by industries, the increasing involvement of industry itself in educational planning and reform – all these and more are signs that, finally, after so many years of studies and pilot projects, education will dramatically improve.

We have studied the educational system too many times. These are just a few of the “comprehensive” and “final” studies of our education: the Monroe Commission of 1925, the UNESCO Mission Survey of 1949, the Swanson Survey of 1960, the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) of 1970, EDCOM I, the Presidential Commission on Educational Reform (PCER) of 1998, the Philippine Education Sector Study (PESS) of 1999, and the Presidential Task Force to Assess, Plan, and Monitor the Entire Educational System (PTFE) of 2007. We have studied long enough. We are now putting our money where our mouth was.

We have had literally hundreds of pilot projects. We have empirical proof that many of these experiments were successful. We have piloted programs, structures, strategies, methods, techniques, and so on long enough. We are now putting our money where our instincts were.

In the Curriculum Summit I called last July, the participants (most of the top education officials in the country) asked me to organize a second summit. Although I am still perfectly willing to do that for the sake of the country, I am very happy that DepEd has agreed to organize, host, and fund it.

Yes, never has there been such an exciting time as today for Philippine education.

TEACHING TIP OF THE WEEK. From the Teaching and Learning Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) comes this research-based quote: “Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much by just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.”

UMPIL OFFICERS. Congratulations to the newly-elected officers of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL): Abdon M. Balde Jr., chair; Karina A. Bolasco, vice chair; Michael M. Coroza, secretary general; Romulo P. Baquiran Jr., treasurer; Rebecca T. Añonuevo, auditor; directors: Marne Kilates, Mario I. Miclat, Charlson Ong, and Fidel Rillo; sectoral representatives: Joaquin Sy, Phillip Quimpo; representatives of children’s literature writers; and representatives of Bisaya, Iluko, and Sebuwano writers.