Leave private schools alone

When he was DepEd Secretary, the late Raul S. Roco called heads of private schools and told them that he was giving them the freedom to do whatever was best for their students. “I have to take care of 40,000 public schools (at that time),” he said, “I don’t have time to take care of you. Will you please take care of yourselves?”

As a result, during his term, private schools prospered (or died) because of the market, not because or in spite of government regulations.

We should remember that the DepEd prepares its rules primarily for public schools. Private schools make up a minority of schools in basic education.

Rules are meant for the majority of the population, not for the exceptions.

A good example is the general rule that you must go from one grade to another in sequence. We know a number of very smart students around the world who jump grades (are accelerated).

The most famous examples are Michael Kearney (finished BS Geology at age 10), Moshe Kai Cavalin (BS Astrophysics at age 11), Alia Sabur (jumped from Grade 4 to First Year College), Adragon De Mello (Ph.D. by age 18), Gregory Smith (finished all of elementary school in one year), Akrit Jaswal (performed his first surgery at age 7), Sho Yano (entered college at age 9), and Tathagat Avatar Tulsi (finished MS Physics at age 12). (This list is from teachthought.com.)

Surely, one cannot change the rule that children should finish elementary and high school before entering college. Such a rule applies to most of us mere mortals, but there are exceptional individuals that have to be covered on a case-by-case basis.

My contention is that private schools are the exceptions in the landscape of education in our country.

Of course, private schools cannot be exempted from the Mother Tongue rule. That rule is not a creation of DepEd. It is in the law. As lawyers say, the law may be harsh, but it is the law. If a private school breaks the law, it teaches its students by its example that the law is made to be broken. As all teachers know, it is what teachers do rather than what they say that influences the behavior of children.

There are so many other regulations, however, that are not in any law. They are only regulations created by DepEd. These regulations need not be imposed on private schools.

In practice, private schools do not follow the DepEd curriculum anyway. For example, the DepEd curriculum does not include Science in Grade 1, but many private schools teach it. DepEd specifies a certain number of hours on campus for students, but most private schools keep their students on campus much longer. DepEd requires only one year of Kindergarten before Grade 1; many private schools require more than one year of schooling before Grade 1.

There is also the question of tuition. DepEd does not and cannot ask parents to shell out money for the schooling of their children. Many private schools depend on tuition income for their survival.

Why DepEd has to regulate tuition in private schools is beyond me. If parents want to pay more money for their children’s education, why stop them? It’s their money.

On the other hand, if parents do not want to spend money for their children’s education, then they should send their children to public schools. There is excellent education available for free in public schools.

The key difference between public and private schools lies, however, not in tuition or quality but in their ultimate goals for children.

DepEd intends graduates of the K to 12 cycle to be “holistically developed Filipinos with 21st century skills, prepared for higher education, entrepreneurship, and employment.” These skills are “middle level skills,” consisting of “information, media and technology skills; learning and innovation skills; life and career skills; and effective communication skills.”

Compare that with the mission/vision of typical private schools.

Ateneo de Manila High School, for example, “forms Christ-centered young men of competence, conscience, compassion and commitment who will be a positive transforming difference in the life of the nation and the global community.”

The MIT International School emphasizes “mathematics, science, oral and written English,” as well as “music, painting, dance, and other arts.” (Disclosure: I am on the Advisory Board.)

The Manila Times College of Subic “adheres to the general principles of European, particularly German, dual-education, which allows students to work within real-life situations throughout their school lives.” (Disclosure: I head this school.)

The Benthel Asia School of Technology High School in Cebu “adopts a technical curriculum focusing on home economics, civil, electrical, and mechanical technology.”

The Zamboanga Chong Hua High School “commits to the total development of basic literacy, numeracy, thinking, feeling, and work skills, enriched by Chinese language studies, thereby integrating Chinese-Filipino students into the mainstream of Philippine society.”

DepEd cannot, need not, and should not do what these private schools are doing. If parents want more than what the government has to and is able to provide, they can send their children to private schools.