(Content provided for by Aaron Benedict De Leon- Youth Spokesperson of GT, Vice President for Corporate Communications-Green Team National Board)
Education is a vital sector which needs much support, because it is an independent function towards solving other societal problems such as poverty, unemployment and other economic deficiencies. Thus, there is a need for us to revisit the complex problems of our educational sector.
Institutions would be at the top of the rank, because it must be the parallel structure which needs to be addressed first so that the active participants in the educational process will be engaged in changes to be made in the system.
INSTITUTIONAL REFORM IS THE PRE-CONDITION FOR TAKE-OFF IN EDUCATION
Our educational system is currently predicated on an authoritarian system, called the Prussian system of Education. This traditional view that we have towards education,- that if we provide books, classrooms, volume of teachers and an instruction manual, everything as a result would be quality education, has resulted in many frail and unwanted results, and has encouraged dependency on the part of our students.
This was a system which traces it roots to the time of Napoleon, as the Prussians devised a system that would teach “duty, discipline, respect for authority, and the ability to follow orders," in reaction to the fall of his rule.
The Prussian system instituted compulsory attendance, national training for teachers, national testing for all students (used to classify children for potential job training), national curriculum set for each grade, and mandatory kindergarten. The purpose of the system was to instill loyalty to the crown; and train young men for the military and bureaucracy.
However, there were inflicted motives by the State to decrease the right of the people then to self-determination. The Prussian system wasn’t designed for the good of the individual but for the good of the government. In accordance to this implicit motive, it advocates that "The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way, that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will." It also had a view that "Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished. "
The system was intended to satisfy the state's desires for the people, and does not support a democratic process of free will and a right of self-determination amongst the participants of the process.
Unfortunately, this system does not support our advances towards a growing democracy. In this system, the teacher acts as the sole provider of sufficient knowledge, and the student, in his aim at satisfying the demands of the system, recognizes the fact that it must act in accordance to the medium of instruction.
There are some instructors who have drifted away from this system, but there is a need for the National Government to institutionalize the system and the medium of instruction for our children. Our curriculum has not become responsive to the changes and the dynamism of today's modern society, and does not align itself with the system set forth by other developed nations. It does not take into account an increased technical discourse and interactive learning which would help the individual further his knowledge, given his ability to re-invent and innovate the fundamentals which seem to have become non-responsive to the modern world.
We must institutionalize a system that will allow our students access to the fundamental laws of each field of study, and must give him the ability to discern later on what is right and what is wrong. It is still important that the fundamentals be established so that he will have a clear reference on how to further the good side and change the bad side. We must make our classrooms an atmosphere of interactive learning, and our measurement of knowledge and readiness to take the next level should not be based on hallow assessment and achievement tests, but should be based on the capacity of a student to expound and assess the positive and negative arguments for and against the concept/theory, and that can be achieved through a culture of research that must be promoted at the higher levels.
STAKEHOLDERS ANALYSIS TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
The major players in the educational system’s welfare must always be at the forefront of any attempt to reform the current system. It is the State’s role to provide students adequate opportunities to avail of a quality education, and financial and doctrinal incentive to teachers, because they too have a right to more knowledge, and sustainable living.
I. Access to Education for students
The students must be provided a greater means to get into school, which includes programs which would allow them convenience of enrolling at least cost. A whole sale integration program, by allowing young people to get education and pursuing it at least cost, and by ensuring graduates get quality jobs, is the pursuit of the series of programs being pushed for. This will be government’s investment in ensuring that there is repayment financially (through SSS contributions for the Student Loan Application Program) and in human capital, focusing on strengthening domestic markets and avoiding brain drain.
a. Conditional Cash Transfers Program- This is an economic strategy which aims to providing social assistance to families that cannot sustain the education of their children, and an investment in human capital to ensure that the future workers of our nation will be fully equipped education wise to answer the challenge of the business world. This is a continuing program of the DSWD and will be expanded, giving priority to regions and areas which need capacity building, those regions/areas which cannot sustain for themselves. This strategy has been proven effective in other developing countries, particularly in the African countries.
b. Student Loan Application Program- This provides high school graduates the opportunity to study in college with the least worries of repaying its financial obligations right away. This provides them the vehicle to study with convenience, and without the burden of discontinuing studies in the middle of tertiary education because of non-compliance to shorter terms. This will allow young people to repay their loans once they already have a job, through their SSS contributions. Students who are interested in this program must apply for an SSS number, as an assurance from the government’s part that they will be repaying their loans.
II. Worker Incentives
Those who are involved in the educational process, our teachers, professors and administrators- also deserve to further their respective knowledge to cope with the changing and evolving times, and must be provided adequate source of technology to aid them in imparting knowledge to their students
a. Doctrine for teacher development- Government will institutionalize trainings to engage teachers to further their studies, through management workshops and other forms of increasing their capacities to impart up to date knowledge to their students
b. Legislation of higher wages for educators- Government, in its investment to human capital, seeks to provide higher wages, because workers in the educational system also deserve to have a sustainable living, like any other private or public sector employee. This will also prevent our best teachers from going elsewhere because there is an enacting law and institutions willing to provide adequate benefits for them so that they can continue their profession here in our country.
INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT TO AID THE CHANGES
The need for sufficient infrastructure and technology to aid those involved in the process is also important, and it is also the State’s responsibility to protect the integrity of the educational institutions, by providing it with adequate logistical support, a wide array of capital-intensive technologies needed, and an atmosphere conducive for learning and sharing, for both teachers and students.
I. Budget Management/Re-engineering of the Education Budget
We need to expand the base of our education budget, and use certain legislative powers for funding such as the CDF/Pork barrel as a tool for development. We have to increase the capacities of the Department of Education for funding, to not only adequately provide more buildings, books and other learning materials, but to also look into alternative forms of education, like E-TV and interactive models, which may be at a lesser cost and does not replenish over time, compared to books and other paper materials.
Education is a vital sector which needs much support, because it is an independent function towards solving other societal problems such as poverty, unemployment and other economic deficiencies. Thus, there is a need for us to revisit the complex problems of our educational sector.
Institutions would be at the top of the rank, because it must be the parallel structure which needs to be addressed first so that the active participants in the educational process will be engaged in changes to be made in the system.
INSTITUTIONAL REFORM IS THE PRE-CONDITION FOR TAKE-OFF IN EDUCATION
Our educational system is currently predicated on an authoritarian system, called the Prussian system of Education. This traditional view that we have towards education,- that if we provide books, classrooms, volume of teachers and an instruction manual, everything as a result would be quality education, has resulted in many frail and unwanted results, and has encouraged dependency on the part of our students.
This was a system which traces it roots to the time of Napoleon, as the Prussians devised a system that would teach “duty, discipline, respect for authority, and the ability to follow orders," in reaction to the fall of his rule.
The Prussian system instituted compulsory attendance, national training for teachers, national testing for all students (used to classify children for potential job training), national curriculum set for each grade, and mandatory kindergarten. The purpose of the system was to instill loyalty to the crown; and train young men for the military and bureaucracy.
However, there were inflicted motives by the State to decrease the right of the people then to self-determination. The Prussian system wasn’t designed for the good of the individual but for the good of the government. In accordance to this implicit motive, it advocates that "The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way, that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will." It also had a view that "Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished. "
The system was intended to satisfy the state's desires for the people, and does not support a democratic process of free will and a right of self-determination amongst the participants of the process.
Unfortunately, this system does not support our advances towards a growing democracy. In this system, the teacher acts as the sole provider of sufficient knowledge, and the student, in his aim at satisfying the demands of the system, recognizes the fact that it must act in accordance to the medium of instruction.
There are some instructors who have drifted away from this system, but there is a need for the National Government to institutionalize the system and the medium of instruction for our children. Our curriculum has not become responsive to the changes and the dynamism of today's modern society, and does not align itself with the system set forth by other developed nations. It does not take into account an increased technical discourse and interactive learning which would help the individual further his knowledge, given his ability to re-invent and innovate the fundamentals which seem to have become non-responsive to the modern world.
We must institutionalize a system that will allow our students access to the fundamental laws of each field of study, and must give him the ability to discern later on what is right and what is wrong. It is still important that the fundamentals be established so that he will have a clear reference on how to further the good side and change the bad side. We must make our classrooms an atmosphere of interactive learning, and our measurement of knowledge and readiness to take the next level should not be based on hallow assessment and achievement tests, but should be based on the capacity of a student to expound and assess the positive and negative arguments for and against the concept/theory, and that can be achieved through a culture of research that must be promoted at the higher levels.
STAKEHOLDERS ANALYSIS TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
The major players in the educational system’s welfare must always be at the forefront of any attempt to reform the current system. It is the State’s role to provide students adequate opportunities to avail of a quality education, and financial and doctrinal incentive to teachers, because they too have a right to more knowledge, and sustainable living.
I. Access to Education for students
The students must be provided a greater means to get into school, which includes programs which would allow them convenience of enrolling at least cost. A whole sale integration program, by allowing young people to get education and pursuing it at least cost, and by ensuring graduates get quality jobs, is the pursuit of the series of programs being pushed for. This will be government’s investment in ensuring that there is repayment financially (through SSS contributions for the Student Loan Application Program) and in human capital, focusing on strengthening domestic markets and avoiding brain drain.
a. Conditional Cash Transfers Program- This is an economic strategy which aims to providing social assistance to families that cannot sustain the education of their children, and an investment in human capital to ensure that the future workers of our nation will be fully equipped education wise to answer the challenge of the business world. This is a continuing program of the DSWD and will be expanded, giving priority to regions and areas which need capacity building, those regions/areas which cannot sustain for themselves. This strategy has been proven effective in other developing countries, particularly in the African countries.
b. Student Loan Application Program- This provides high school graduates the opportunity to study in college with the least worries of repaying its financial obligations right away. This provides them the vehicle to study with convenience, and without the burden of discontinuing studies in the middle of tertiary education because of non-compliance to shorter terms. This will allow young people to repay their loans once they already have a job, through their SSS contributions. Students who are interested in this program must apply for an SSS number, as an assurance from the government’s part that they will be repaying their loans.
II. Worker Incentives
Those who are involved in the educational process, our teachers, professors and administrators- also deserve to further their respective knowledge to cope with the changing and evolving times, and must be provided adequate source of technology to aid them in imparting knowledge to their students
a. Doctrine for teacher development- Government will institutionalize trainings to engage teachers to further their studies, through management workshops and other forms of increasing their capacities to impart up to date knowledge to their students
b. Legislation of higher wages for educators- Government, in its investment to human capital, seeks to provide higher wages, because workers in the educational system also deserve to have a sustainable living, like any other private or public sector employee. This will also prevent our best teachers from going elsewhere because there is an enacting law and institutions willing to provide adequate benefits for them so that they can continue their profession here in our country.
INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT TO AID THE CHANGES
The need for sufficient infrastructure and technology to aid those involved in the process is also important, and it is also the State’s responsibility to protect the integrity of the educational institutions, by providing it with adequate logistical support, a wide array of capital-intensive technologies needed, and an atmosphere conducive for learning and sharing, for both teachers and students.
I. Budget Management/Re-engineering of the Education Budget
We need to expand the base of our education budget, and use certain legislative powers for funding such as the CDF/Pork barrel as a tool for development. We have to increase the capacities of the Department of Education for funding, to not only adequately provide more buildings, books and other learning materials, but to also look into alternative forms of education, like E-TV and interactive models, which may be at a lesser cost and does not replenish over time, compared to books and other paper materials.
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