MANILA, Philippines--The next administration should “immediately” add two more years to elementary and high school education in the country, an education expert said.
In an interview with the Inquirer, University of the Philippines (UP) history and education professor Maria Serena Diokno said the Philippines is the only country in the world stuck in a 10-year basic education system.
Diokno said a longer basic education was needed and its implementation was “just a matter of political will.”
It takes six years to complete grade school and four years to complete high school in the country, compared to other countries where basic education takes 12 years.
Diokno said: “If you look at our higher education system, you will see the deficiencies in our basic education. Instead of college-level teaching, we have to do remedial lessons.”
She said this was true even among students entering UP.
The biggest barrier to implementing the 12-year basic education course, however, is the additional cost it will entail not only for parents but also for the government, she added.
In a lecture delivered at UP Diliman last week, Diokno said that adding two years to basic education would “relieve the pressure on higher education to fill in the learning gaps.”
She said higher education institutions should meet with the Department of Education (DepEd) on this proposal.
Colleges and universities should inform the DepEd of the “competencies we expect your graduates to have when they enter us,” she said.
Diokno and three other professors delivered lectures last week at a UP forum on the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (Besra).
Five key reforms
Besra was drafted in 2006 to achieve universal education access and total community involvement by 2015.
Besra, implemented beginning 2007, includes five key reforms focused on schools, teachers, social support, learning, and complementary interventions like private support.
Capacity-building
Besra is a good program that strengthens community and school relations as well as builds up the capacities of teachers, De La Salle University professor Allan Bernardo said.
It has made progress in the few schools where it has been implemented, UP sociology professor Ma. Cynthia Rose Bautista said.
Its promised improvements, however, are hampered by several factors, Bautista said. These include the perception of key players that Besra is a “project with a completion date” instead of being a continuing program; its compartmentalized implementation; and the politics behind the hiring of teachers in the local level.
Diokno agreed that Besra was a “good program.”
Last week’s lecture was aimed at convincing the next administration “not to start from scratch” in improving basic education, Diokno said, aware that new governments usually undo projects of predecessors.
Diokno said: “It is a good reform agenda. You should not start from scratch. We are already lagging behind.”
