Sadists

Sadists

If his son has not been involved in homicide, it would be better for Francisco Cruz, a physician of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, to surface — preferably with his son — and shed light on the death of Cris Anthony Mendez. The 20-year-old public administration student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City died of injuries from a severe beating over a week ago apparently during a fraternity hazing.

A VMMC security guard identified Cruz as the person who, together with his son, brought Mendez to the hospital early in the morning of Aug. 27 in a Toyota Innova with government license plates SAB-393. Three other vehicles arrived later. Were the passengers members of the Sigma Rho fraternity, which Mendez was reportedly trying to join? The guard was not sure if Mendez was still alive when rushed to the emergency ward.

With so many details available to investigators, perhaps it would be easier to obtain justice for Mendez. Hazing has persisted because fraternities in this country have a twisted concept of brotherhood. Older members who occupy prominent positions in government and the private sector cover up crimes, from misdemeanors to heinous ones, committed by younger fraternity brothers. The judge who convicted members of the Aquila Legis law fraternity for the hazing death of Lenny Villa, for example, has curiously run into a lot of legal troubles. There is little effort among senior fraternity members to put a stop to hazing. Having experienced painful initiation rites, the older members apparently want applicants to undergo the same suffering.

What do these violent, degrading initiation rites promote? It cannot possibly be fraternity. Such rites give full rein to every fraternity member’s inner sadist, with violence inflicted in the cowardice of anonymity. It is tempting to compare this Neanderthal behavior with those of animals, but it would be unfair to the beasts, which kill only for food or in self-defense and never for sadistic fun. If Doctor Cruz and his son are not parties to such inhuman behavior, they should face investigators.

Discouraging cheating

Discouraging cheating

Over a year after the qualifications of Philippine nurses were compromised by a cheating scandal in the nursing board examinations, the government is finally set to file criminal charges against the operators of two review centers. Certain quarters are calling for similar charges against the operators of another review center plus the indictment of suspected sources of the leaked test questions, believed to be personnel of the Professional Regulation Commission. Investigators have not identified the possible beneficiaries of the leaked questions in the June 2006 nursing board exam. If anyone is ever identified, the person should also be prosecuted and barred from the nursing profession.

Apart from prosecuting the suspected culprits, the government should consider a proposal to include course reviews in the regular school curriculum. Graduates of all courses that require licensure examinations want refresher courses before taking the exams. The review program for nursing graduates can be free. Schools, after all, gain prestige from the good performance of their graduates in professional licensure examinations. Or else schools can charge fees that are lower than those in review centers.

The government need not shut down existing review centers. Graduates of certain nursing schools may believe they can get exam pointers from these review centers that they cannot hope to obtain from their schools. But the review centers will have to compete with the review programs that will be included as part of the regular nursing curriculum. Review centers may also be required to have formal link-ups with nursing schools.

In the wake of the nursing board exam scandal, the government should also be on the lookout for cheating schemes in other professional examinations. Similar scandals have rocked the medical board examinations as well as the bar exams. Schools and fraternities have been implicated in previous cheating scandals.

The best way to discourage cheating is by sending the culprits to prison — both those who leak test questions as well as the beneficiaries — and by imposing stiff penalties on schools whose operators participate in any form of cheating in examinations. The nation awaits the outcome of the nursing board case.

New Englishes

New Englishes

FILIPINOS have long learned to read, speak and write En-glish. Call it what you will, "American English, Philippine style" or "Philippine English" or whatever, it is still English language. And it is one of many new Englishes spoken and written in many countries of the world, from the Philippines to Singapore and Malaysia, from India, Ceylon to Pakistan, from North America, Australia, New Zealand, to South Africa.

Unlike Filipinos who learned American English, in those other countries the peoples there learned English from the British. And today, as I wrote in this column last Thursday, English is being learned by millions and millions of young students in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Austria and Greece. In these nations, with strong national identities, they are aggressively promoting bilingualism. And their citizens, young and old alike, are remarkably becoming proficient in English.

And here in the Philippines, our people have learned English long, long ago. As a matter of fact there was a time when English and Filipino were considered both as official languages, until some language nationalists succeeded in making Filipino as the national language in the 1987 Constitution.

And, very recently, a group of educators, savants, writers and two National Artists in Literature went to the Supreme Court to stop a Department of Education order implementing a presidential directive mandating that English be used as the medium of instruction for math and science in public schools, beginning with the third grade and for all subjects in secondary schools.

This is strange, indeed. They are prominent persons who are what they are today because they read, speak and write in English! And they want to deprive our young students of learning a second language? They don’t want our youth to acquire English skills which would surely be useful to and help them compete in a globalize world where English is growing rapidly as an international language.

Instead, they insisted that Filipino and the regional languages should be used as the primary media of instruction. They said that the government’s failure to do it has, "led to serious difficulties in learning among elementary and high school students, such as ineffective communication in the classrooms, low academic achievement and a high dropout rate."

They continued, "the harmful effects of using a foreign language for learning are not just limited to low academic achievement and cognitive growth, it impairs the emotional security and sense of self-worth and the ability to participate meaningfully in the educational process by lower class children who develop an inferiority complex as they are stigmatized by their use of the native tongue."

Furthermore, they added, "the use of Filipino would enable them to learn to read and write since it is easy for them to understand… This change will make students stay in school longer, learn better, quicker and more permanently, and will in fact be a bridge to more effective learning in English and Filipino."

These are quotations from their petition filed with the Supreme Court. If you, the ordinary citizens, have become breathless or moved to mirth or irritation by just reading their long-winded, boring, unbearable, run-on and hard to read sentences, and getting lost in the thick verbiage, what more of the fifteen magistrates of the land?

Wouldn’t those learned justices, who write their decisions well, vividly, and wisely in plain English that every one can understand, throw that petition (of those savants, linguists and writers), which smacks of pedantry, into the garbage heap?

Already, according to the Social Weather Stations, our national proficiency in English has declined by 10% over the last 30 years. And, sad to say, we are being left behind, particularly by China where some 175 million people are now studying English, in the global march to English proficiency.

Indeed, English has become the lingua franca of the world.

Cyber-Ed dreams

Cyber-Ed dreams

Aside from it being the most exciting that will happen to the Philippine educational system since the Thomasites, it is, without a doubt, the best response to the challenges we face in the basic education sector today,” Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said in a DepEd statement about the Cyber-Ed Project (CEP).

The statement continues: “The Cyber-Ed Project uses satellite technology to provide an efficient and cost-effective solution to the need to deliver educational services to public elementary and secondary schools throughout the country. It links these schools to a nationwide network that provides 12 video channels, wireless wide area networking, local area networking and wireless Internet connectivity.

“A total of 37,794 schools, or 90 percent of all public schools nationwide, would be connected in the next three years. These schools would receive live broadcasts featuring lectures and presentations from master teachers as well as coursewares on demand and other valuable resource materials.”

Lapus also said: “The real challenge in basic education lies in narrowing the disparity between those who perform well and those who do not. Those in the far-flung areas will benefit from this technology since they will be given access to our best teachers and our best resource materials.”

The CEP, the department says, is based on China’s E-Education Project which covers some 500,000 schools and universities.

The project will cost P26.48 billion. Funding will come from a loan from China for 86 percent of the cost, so that the Philippines will shoulder only 14 percent or P3.71 billion. We will have to pay for the loan over the next decades.

Lapus explained that satellite-based distance learning technology is widely used worldwide—in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Thailand, India, Indonesia and China.

In the countries where satellite-supported MDE (Modern Distance Education) technology is successfully used, students in spacious classrooms watch and listen to teachers—the best in their fields—on TV or on their computers. One computer per student is the norm for lessons are done in real time. The teacher giving the lesson is often doing so live. The lessons are even interactive. This means each student uses his or her computer to answer or ask questions.

Most of those enrolled in MDE schools are teenagers and older high school and college students—as well as adults taking continuing-education courses. Their classrooms have all the space for the TV sets, computers and other equipment. The schoolbuildings are equipped with satellite discs and are wired to receive and send all sorts of multimedia transmissions.

If Secretary Lapus’ vision comes true, we would be envied even by China and the USA. For we would become the world’s greatest achiever in primary and elementary pedagogy and in the use of information communications technology (ICT) for six to 12-year-old children.

Ground-zero realities

Many experts oppose the Cyber-Ed Project for technical and financial reasons. We will only focus now on whether the department’s CEP indeed addresses and solves the most urgent problems of Philippine public-school basic education.

The most urgent problems now of our public school system as purveyor of basic education all arise from fundamental lacks.

(a) The lack of school buildings and classrooms. This school year, 41,000 classrooms are needed despite the large size of classes and the 3-shift use of schoolhouses. Some pupils sit on the floor and write on their laps. Some classes are held on staircases, the teachers look up to their pupils from the landings below. Where will the TV sets and computers—ideally one for each child—be placed? The average number of pupils in a basic education classroom is 43.9. If five eight-year-old classmates share one computer will they learn anything?

(b) The lack of electrical power in areas where pupils severely need the most help—in slums and in mountain and island communities of the archipelago. These are where you find the schoolchildren most left behind by those in the richer areas. How can the TV sets and computers receive satellite-fed lessons if there is no electric power?

(c) Lack of good and competent teachers—because many have become OFWs—in English, Math and Science. Does CEP address this lack adequately?

(d) Lack of thorough and methodical training and assessment of teachers. Indeed, the Cyber-Ed Project would be able to provide first-class TV and multimedia training and competency upgrading of teachers. What about teachers in far-flung areas mentioned in (b) above?

(e) Lack of good, error-free teaching materials, textbooks, teaching manuals, etc. that every child and teacher should have. Will Cyber-Ed use the electronic versions of the same error-riddled textbooks and guides?

There has also been a lack of analysis of the project as a means of “narrowing the disparity between those who perform well and those who do not” among the littlest children in the public primary and elementary schools. Those who are most behind now, will even become greater victims of the “knowledge and information gap.” For the best performers in the urban areas will end up being the most benefited by the CEP while the worst performers in the slums and the mountaintops will become the most disadvantaged.

Also not given weight is that MDE/Cyber-Ed—in the USA and China—has been found to be inappropriate for kids in primary and elementary schools.

It’s the basics, stupid

It’s the basics, stupid

Fifteen years after a congressional commission defined the problems besetting the education system, much remains to be done to check and reverse the worsening state of basic education. Some of the commission’s recommendations have been adopted, such as the establishment of the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. But it seems the separation of higher learning and vocational education from the responsibility of the old Department of Education, Culture and Sports has only underscored the knotty state of basic education and along with that, the problematic bureaucracy and workings of the new but graft-prone Department of Education (DepEd).

As the Inquirer series, “Education in Crisis,” demonstrated, despite the commission’s findings and recommendations, education has taken a turn for the worse. A Unesco report ranked the Philippines 74th in terms of the Education Development Index, below Mongolia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. Results of the National Elementary Achievement Test and National Secondary Achievement Test showed that students could only correctly answer less than 50 percent of the questions. And Philippine students performed poorly in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science study, ranking 41st in a field of 45 in Science and 42nd in Math.

Apparently the education system faces two major challenges: access to education, and issues of quality. The commission already identified 15 years ago the need to stress basic public education because that’s all the formal schooling the masses of Filipinos get and because they are entitled to that constitutionally. But the shortage of classrooms has become graver through the years -- some 41,000 as of this year, which means P16 billion is needed for the construction of new classrooms. The student-teacher ratio is the worst in the region so that the Philippines has an average class size of 43.9 students in public elementary schools and 56.1 in public high schools.

The sticky problem of access to education can be seen in the high dropout rate. Fifty-one percent of Filipinos have had only elementary education. Only 14.3 percent of rural poor Filipinos graduate from high school or have higher educational attainment.

Access, of course, refers to “quantity.” And when numbers are involved, can corruption be far behind? This seems to bug Sen. Edgardo Angara, who headed the congressional commission. He said that international donors and business concerns had given the DepEd a tremendous amount of money but the department had nothing to show for it. No assessment has been made of the impact of the scarce resources put by donors and businesses into the DepEd. The needs of the DepEd are “a bottomless pit,” he concluded.

Angara also expressed suspicion about DepEd statistics, which he described as “inaccurate, sometimes even falsified.”

Eventually, issues of quantity, including accuracy of statistics, have a bearing on the other major problem of Philippine education: quality. In fact, the report had suggested the close link between quantity and quality, arguing that since throwing money into the system would not be good enough, then it would be better to go for value-added -- in another word, quality. “There’s only one thing we can do,” the commission report said. “We must extract more efficiency and more productivity from both our education budget and our education department.”

There’s the rub. As Angara has said, there has been no impact report on the money poured into the DepEd by donors and businesses. For example, multilateral and bilateral institutions have poured millions into textbook development, but the textbook regime of the DepEd remains under a cloud of doubt over defective and substandard textbooks. Moreover, Congress keeps on passing laws establishing new public schools without checking if existing schools are delivering the goods well. Meanwhile, the government is pushing for an ambitious cyber education program to would be backed by international funding, except that even Filipino IT experts doubt if the Philippines has the competence to establish and manage such a program; and in any case, what’s immediately needed is to address the basic lack of classrooms and teachers, not the lack of multimedia.

Obviously education reforms are needed, but they should start at the heart of the matter: a bureaucracy that is supposed to address the needs of the education system but can’t get the basics right.

Filipino or Pilipino or Tagalog?

Filipino or Pilipino or Tagalog?

Sometime last week the Batasan gallery was treated to a heated debate about language. The spectacle was not quite as raucous as brawls in the Taiwan legislature but it raised some sticky problems which remain unresolved. Concretely the problem centers around the question: What is our national language?

The 1973 Constitution, through Article XV, Section 3, made a distinction between “Pilipino,” which together with English was made an “official language,” and “Filipino,” which was envisioned as the “common national language.”

The “Pilipino” referred to was actually the Tagalog commonly in use as distinct from the pure Tagalog of literary writers. Together with English, Pilipino was, under the 1973 Constitution, the official language. “Official language” means the medium of communication for all official acts of or transactions with the various departments and agencies of the government. Moreover, by Presidential Decree No. 155, Spanish continued “to be recognized as an official language in the Philippines for as long as important documents in government files were in the Spanish language and not translated into either English or Pilipino language.”

“Filipino,” on the other hand, was seen by the 1973 Constitution as a language yet to be developed. Consisting of a fusion of the various existing Philippine languages, it was envisioned as the “common national language.” It was hoped that it would be symbolic of the Filipino nation and expressive of the Filipino soul. It was also expected to become the official medium of communication.

Major changes were made by the 1987 Constitution. The debate in the Batasan last week was a reverberation of what transpired during the deliberations of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the basic policy on language is stated in Section 6 of Article XIV. It says: “The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.”

As can be seen, Filipino, which was seen as a dream by the 1973 Constitution, is now categorically declared the “national language.” While the 1987 Constitution has retained the distinction between Filipino and Pilipino, it in effect has demoted Pilipino, the more developed language, in constitutional stature. In its stead, Filipino has been made the national and official language.

This did not go unnoticed on the floor of the Commission and it prompted a Cebuano Commissioner to ask whether the command of the 1973 Constitution to the Batasan to develop Filipino as a national language had already been accomplished. In reply, linguistic experts were cited as saying that even prior to 1973 Constitution Filipino was already a lingua franca though not popularly known as Filipino. Whereupon a defender of Filipino obliged with a demonstration. He said: “[W]e are referring to the masses of our people—the ones we came in contact with in our public hearings. They are the ones who say, ‘Sain kayo maglakad tapos dini?’ instead of the purist saying ‘Saan kayo magtutungo pagkatapos dito?’ But we understand what they mean when they say, ‘Mas guapo giud ang bana ko sa bana mo’ or ‘Guapo kuno ang kanyang amiga’ or ‘Yawa kawatan pala ang soltero’ or ‘Huwag ka man magtapon sa road’ or ‘Mayroon pa ngani.’ These speakers of the lingua franca throughout the country make themselves clearly understood because consciously or unconsciously, they use words that most Filipinos can comprehend.”

If that is a sampling of the language which embodies the Filipino soul, it makes you wonder what the Filipino soul looks like!

The Constitutional Commission, however, was quite aware that Filipino, as illustrated above, was undeveloped and undergoing evolution. Hence the second sentence of Section 6 adds: “As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.” Hence, too, the second paragraph of Section 6 is very tentative in referring to Filipino as “medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.”

Section 7, however, categorically makes Filipino the official language for purposes of communication and instruction while tolerating English also as official language “until otherwise provided by law.” In effect , too, the second paragraph reduces Pilipino, together with other regional languages, to official “auxiliary media of instruction.” Likewise, the promotion of Spanish has been reduced to optional effort in the same way as Arabic. These last are in recognition of the special role Spanish has played in Philippine history and of the affinity of large segments of the South to Arabic.

So, when Congressman Lopez spoke at the Batasan in celebration of Linggo ng Wika, did he speak in Filipino, Pilipino or Tagalog?

Losing the workforce

Losing the workforce

While the nation suffers from an acute lack of schoolteachers and deteriorating English proficiency, Thai students are learning English – from thousands of Filipino teachers. A recent report said about 3,000 Filipinos are currently teaching in Thailand, receiving salaries ranging from the equivalent of P17,000 to P43,000 a month. That’s higher than the basic monthly pay of government doctors in this country — enough incentive for Filipinos to move to a neighboring country that was once at the same development stage as the Philippines, but which has since inched ahead.

It’s not just Thailand that has become a destination for Filipino teachers. Filipinos are teaching various subjects including English in countries such as Cambodia and even in the United States. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the annual increase in the number of schoolteachers still cannot keep up with the exploding student population. A number of those recruited aren’t up to the job, unable even to detect grammatical and factual errors in textbooks — errors that are painstakingly pointed out by the bane of substandard textbook manufacturers, Antonio Calipjo Go.

The exodus of qualified educators is bound to continue as the lack of decent employment opportunities persists. This is the dark side of those glowing economic figures about massive remittances from Filipinos working overseas. There aren’t enough decent jobs to absorb the country’s growing workforce. As recent studies have shown, unemployment is particularly high among new graduates.

The government is providing career counseling so more students will take courses that are in demand in the job market, such as those in information and communication technology. But even when there is a big job demand, such as in education and health services, Filipinos are still leaving for abroad, lured mainly by higher pay. Even if the cost of living is higher in many of these other countries, Filipino workers know they will still have enough left over to send back home. Others leave to escape conflict areas or simply to enjoy the better quality of life that more progressive countries offer. Unless the Philippines can match those attractions, the nation will continue to lose its workforce.

Lethargic concern for education

Lethargic concern for education

Somehow it simply goes against common sense to believe that the transfer of National Economic and Development Authority Director General Romulo Neri to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has anything to do with addressing the gaps in our tertiary education.

Why would Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opt to appoint an economist to head the office mandated to promote quality higher education for all? Aren’t there so many education advocates out there who can effectively take over the job?

And why would she think that Neri will be able to troubleshoot the problems in tertiary education in just six months? What reforms can he possibly implement in so short a time? Why break the momentum now when reform programs in higher education are in place?

Not a few believe that Neri’s “demotion” is “punishment” for his position on the National Broadband Network (NBN) issue. Is Arroyo then treating an education institution as a temporary “penitentiary” to keep her allies in check?

Or let’s say Arroyo planned this arrangement very carefully -- she wants an economist to steer higher education in line with her economic agenda; reengineer tertiary education and match it with jobs available in the foreign labor market (e.g., nursing and teaching professions) -- which would further deplete our country’s pool of nurses and teachers; orient our higher education toward filling in the needs of our burgeoning industries today -- which means we will be training more of our workforce to be call center agents, medical transcribers, food and beverage attendants and mining workers.

Meanwhile, our agriculture, forestry, fisheries and health sectors -- the very sectors essential to our country’s genuine productivity and sustainability -- will suffer. Neri, thus, will be implementing not CHEd’s mandate, but merely Arroyo’s unsound economic policies in the realm of higher education.

Still another possible motive that some critics suspect is behind Neri’s transfer: the reportedly not-so-good relations among the three education chiefs at the Department of Education, CHEd and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) -- particularly between replaced CHEd Chair Carlito Puno and Tesda chief Augusto Syjuco. Arroyo reportedly wants to improve the coordination between the two agencies. If this is so, why make way for the one saddled with allegations of corruption? At least Puno had the backing of state colleges and universities which expressed their dismay over his removal from CHEd.

The general conclusion we can deduce from all these is that Neri’s transfer was an imprudent decision meant only to serve GMA’s interests.

All that Arroyo has done points out the fact that this administration does not take education seriously.

ANNIE ENRIQUEZ-GERON, general secretary, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), 15 Clarion Lily St., Saint Dominic Subdivision I, Congressional Avenue, Project 6, Quezon City

Shame

Shame

Has anyone heard of cows being “inseminated by seamen” or plants that are “sewn together”? Bernard Lamb, lecturer at Imperial College, London, has found such errors in papers submitted by his students, and he doesn’t think they are funny. He plans to publish these and similar egregious spelling mistakes in Quest, the journal of the Queen’s English Society, as part of a shame campaign that he hopes will not only make students strive to improve their spelling but also force education officials to improve the quality of English education.

Lamb studied 17 British universities in 1992 and found that teachers were “despairing” of their students’ poor grasp of the English language. “Ministers say things are getting better, but they are not,” said Lamb, 15 years later.

In the English professor, Antonio Calipjo Go has found a soul mate, whose crusade and experience parallel his own. Since 2001, the academic supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City has been waging a lonely crusade to correct errors in the textbooks being used by pupils in elementary schools. He has written letters to newspapers, sought media interviews and put out newspaper advertisements in a shame campaign aimed not so much at schoolchildren as at education officials and book publishers.

All to no avail. Six years later, Filipino schoolchildren still read such enlightening stuff as: “Many Filipino men and women have brains” or “Galileo invented a magnifying telescope to study the moon.” And their vocabulary is enriched by learning that the male organ is called “titi” while a pimp is known as “titatita.”

And what did Go get for all his pains? At first, the Department of Education, or DepEd, went through the motion of having his complaints investigated by a panel of experts, who agreed that there were errors in the textbooks he had mentioned but who maintained that these were not as many or as serious as he made them out to be. (In one book, according to Go, the reviewers hired by the DepEd found 9 conceptual errors, 20 factual errors and 47 language errors, but they still gave it a 90-percent rating for “correctness.”) Then some book publishers sued him for libel. Later, DepEd officials and the authors of some textbooks sought to discredit his efforts by saying he had either exaggerated the mistakes or made them up altogether.

More recently, after Go took out full-page ads to expose more errors in more textbooks, some DepEd officials cooked up a conspiracy theory. Go, they intimated, is serving as the point man for somebody who is seeking the education portfolio, and that is why he can afford to throw away hundreds of thousands of pesos to put out those ads.

What his detractors seem to have forgotten is that Go launched his crusade for better textbooks long before Jesli Lapus became secretary of education. And he has yet to be heard blaming Lapus directly for the existence of those error-filled textbooks, since he obviously knows the incumbent secretary had nothing to do with their publication.

Given the suspicion, if not outright hostility, with which DepEd officials regard his efforts to bring the mistakes to their attention, is it any wonder that Go can’t be dragged into cooperating with them? Can anyone blame him if he wants to meet with them only in the presence of some neutral parties?

It’s a pity and a shame that textbook reform is being sidetracked by these personal issues. Both sides realize the importance and urgency of correcting those textbooks. The sooner they sit down to compare notes, the earlier our young pupils will have books that advance their knowledge instead of books that mislead and miseducate them.

Substandard

Substandard

Since the administration of Joseph Estrada, scandals have hounded the production of textbooks. At the time, influence-peddling and corruption were blamed for the publication of textbooks riddled with typographical, grammatical and even factual errors.

Today no one is being accused of influence-peddling at the Department of Education to favor any particular textbook producer. Experts have also been called in to check the contents of textbooks. But errors remain, as the country’s most zealous textbook watchdog has again announced to the nation. Educator Antonio Calipjo Go has incurred the ire and disdain of a number of his peers for pointing out textbook errors. Some quarters have challenged certain points he has raised, saying he was the one who had erred in his appreciation of grammar and facts. Many of the items he has cited, however, are in fact erroneous, and some mistakes are downright atrocious.

The problem of substandard textbooks is particularly worrisome in public schools, which rely on book handouts from the government for students’ needs. With an ever-growing student population, public schools suffer from an acute shortage of textbooks. It is not unusual for one classroom of up to 80 students to share only one book per subject. If that book is riddled with errors, and the teacher lacks the qualifications to detect the mistakes, the entire school year will be wasted on what we describe as miseducation.

With many of the country’s best teachers now working overseas, there aren’t enough educators left to detect textbook errors, especially in teaching English or subjects that are taught in English. Exclusive private schools have it easier; students who live in English-speaking households can themselves detect grammatical mistakes. But factual errors cannot be detected quickly enough.

The government has been making noises about the need to stop the deterioration in the quality of Philippine education. If the government is sincere in addressing the problem, it should give priority to improving the quality of textbooks. Companies that publish textbooks riddled with errors must be blacklisted by the government. In addition, prosecutors should consider filing appropriate charges against both the company owners and the education officials who approved the book deal for wasting public funds. Unless this problem is addressed decisively, millions of Filipinos will face a bleak future because of substandard education.

Folk knowledge

Folk knowledge

Is there any scientific basis for the belief that mushrooms emerge after thunderstorms? What about the belief that planting fruit crops at early dawn increases the chances for larger fruits?

A book published back in 1998 by the University of the Philippines (UP) Institute for Science and Mathematics Development (now Nismed, the “N” for “National”) reviews the empirical basis for such beliefs and practices from agriculture, fishing, food and nutrition and medicine. I’ll get back to the mushrooms and planting in a while, but let me first talk about the book’s focus, captured in its title: “Philippine Folk Science: A Sourcebook for Teachers.”

I bought the book many years back and remembered it recently while preparing a paper for a conference organized by the International Organization for Science and Technology Education (IOSTE). Appropriately, UP Nismed hosted the conference, which had sustainable development as its theme. I was requested to deliver a paper on the relationship of culture to science education and sustainable development.

Culture and knowledge

As a medical anthropologist, I’ve been training medical students and physicians to become culturally sensitive in their clinical practice. The IOSTE request was somewhat more challenging, but the links were still fairly easy to make. Sustainable development means development in a way that does not jeopardize future generations. That does become a challenge especially because our development models have always emphasized massive consumption of resources. It was presumed that the more you consume, the more rapid the development.

When sustainable development came around, science educators found out that they had to rethink their curriculum. Can you do “modern” science using smaller-scale technologies? Maybe even more radically (and this was where my presentation came in), can we return to local beliefs and practices -- the ones so often labeled as “backward” and “primitive” -- to advance science?

For several decades now, even before sustainable development came into vogue, anthropologists have been exploring “indigenous knowledge” (yes, with its own abbreviation, IK), arguing that such knowledge has much to offer. Some of the earliest work around IK was conducted in the Philippines by anthropologists. In 1957, for example, the Food and Agriculture Organization published a book, “Hanunoo Agriculture,” by Harold Conklin, describing the agricultural practices of the Hanunoo, an ethnic group living in Mindoro. Conklin documented the Hanunoo’s vast knowledge of their natural environment, which they applied to shifting agriculture, or "kaingin."

I’m sure some readers reacted to that word, thinking immediately about soil erosion and destructive floods. But kaingin need not be destructive. When populations were smaller and people had access to large tracts of land, they knew how to move from one part of their land to another, planting in some plots and allowing others to rest. It was a system that worked, with its own IK.

This is a good time to return to the examples I gave at the beginning of this column. Why the field of mushrooms after thunderstorms? Because the sudden downpour causes dormant mushroom spores, already in the soil, to germinate. The lightning fixes atmospheric nitrogen, which, when it reaches the earth, is used as a nutrient by the growing mushrooms.

And planting at dawn? The authors of “Philippine Folk Science” say it makes sense because that’s when soil is moist and solar radiation is low.

Folk science

“Philippine Folk Science” was compiled by a team of Filipino scientists that included Dr. Vivien Talisayon, dean of the UP College of Education and one of the conveners of the IOSTE conference. She told me that some Western scientists dislike terms like “folk science,” pointing out that “science is science.”

They do have a point. You have science when people formulate a hypothesis (in Tagalog, "kutob") that is tested by observation and experimentation, and when they’re open enough to revise those hunches based on empirical evidence.

Business corporations have always been quick to recognize the value of folk science and IK, sending expeditions out to remote areas to gather information about medicinal plants, food crops and other natural products that have commercial potential.

In my IOSTE presentation, I reminded the science educators that tapping into IK isn’t a matter of extracting knowledge, it’s also being open to new ways of looking and thinking. Paul Sillitoe, in his book “Local Science vs. Global Science,” points out that Charles Darwin got some of his ideas about evolution from the natives of the Galapagos Islands. The natives could tell which islands tortoises and finches (a type of bird) came from, by looking at parts of their anatomy. Darwin realized, from those observations, that the anatomical differences were actually adaptations to different environments.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in traditional “wellness” practices. The example I gave at the IOSTE meeting was Buddhist meditation. Formerly scoffed at as a faddish practice that worked only on the gullible, meditation is now the subject of research by neurologists and psychologists. Monks are wired up with electrodes so researchers can figure out what goes on in their brains and their bodies as they meditate. The studies show there are very real physiological changes during meditation, with many favorable effects. The most startling are findings that meditation (and, we know now, mental exercises) allows the central and autonomic nervous systems to “regenerate” or compensate for damaged parts. Medical scientists now talk about “neuroplasticity,” or how the nervous system can be trained and exercised to prevent or slow down dementia and senility.

I don’t want to romanticize all that indigenous knowledge; certainly, there are many irrational beliefs that persist, but you find them as well among “modern” scientists, even with doctorate degrees, who stubbornly cling on to outdated theories.

Science -- “indigenous” or “modern” -- thrives best in an environment where there is dialogue and peer review. At the UP College of Medicine, I’ve convinced professors not to use terms like “primitive” and “superstitious” to refer to folk practices. We’re making some progress there, a recent example being a group of medical students looking into “pasma,” a folk illness. I’m going to describe their fascinating findings next month.

Yes, “Philippine Folk Science” is still available at UP, but I hope we’ll see more publications of that type. IK and folk science consist of accumulated experiences through several generations that need to be validated, but the first step is to rediscover them, together with our young so they take pride as well in things local. Unless we do that, we’ll lose all that knowledge, together with all their potential contributions to sustainable development.

The population question, again

The population question, again

IT is reported that the Philippine population is now nearing the 89 million mark. The very mention of our population numbers triggers thoughts about our “population problem.” This in turn leads our thoughts to the conflicting position of the Church and many concerned people in the business and political world regarding the proper approach and solution to this concern.

For all the talk in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines about “critical collaboration,” the population question is one area where the CBCP has not been able to, precisely, collaborate critically with the government in approaching, assessing and solving the “problem.” In fact, in this matter, the CBCP and the government have long had an adversarial relationship, dating back to the Marcos times. I am one of those who believe that there can be some kind of collaboration between the CBCP and the government in this matter.

Here, what I want to do is state clearly what is non-negotiable and what is negotiable in the positions taken by the CBCP. Then, I want to suggest how there can be some sort of limited but helpful collaboration between the CBCP and the government.

The non-negotiables: (1) The Church teaches that direct abortion, direct sterilization and direct contraception are wrong in themselves and should not be resorted to. Hence, there is no way that it will say yes to the promotion of these immoral practices. (2) The Church believes that the decision regarding the number of children the couple should have lies with husband and wife themselves. Hence, the Church will object to any coercive type of birth control. (3) The Church considers truthfulness a basic moral consideration in any activity. Hence, the Church cannot accept and propagate deceptive information and will demand that full and truthful information be given regarding birth control methods.

These are the only non-negotiable points regarding the Church’s position on birth control.

It is not the official Catholic position that there is no population problem in our country. It is not the official Catholic position that we should not decelerate our population growth rate. A good Catholic may hold the position that there is a mismatch between our population growth rate and our resources to meet the needs of our growing population. A good Catholic may hold that we should slow down our population growth rate to a manageable level.

Again, while the Church advocates only natural family planning in order to implement a responsible parenthood program, the Church does not reject as immoral any method of birth control that is not directly abortifacient, sterilizing or contraceptive.

So, in what ways can the Church and the government collaborate? Personally, I think it will be a waste of time for the Church and the government to try to come to a consensus that there is indeed a population problem, and that our population growth rate should be curbed. Within the Church itself, that question has not been settled. And I believe that it need not be settled in order to achieve effective collaboration.

But the Church and the government can still collaborate toward improving our economic and social condition as a people. They should agree on promoting responsible parenthood. They should agree to project this message together: “Couples should bring into the world only the children whom they can raise up as good human beings.” There will be no objection from the Church to this message, which expresses part of the meaning of responsible parenthood according to Catholic teaching. If all couples get this message and put it into practice, we will arrive at the optimal population growth rate.

In addition, the government can offer to subsidize (without strings attached) the natural family planning program of the Church. Again, there are no insurmountable obstacles for the Church to receive such assistance for a thoroughly moral natural family planning program.

It will be more difficult to effect collaboration if the Church should be asked to take part in government programs of birth control. Bishops have some reservations about being co-opted and being made a part of a government population control program with morally objectionable components from their point of view.

With such beginnings, the Church and government may later on develop other forms of collaboration beneficial to our people.

The Good Soldier

The Good Soldier

Speculations abound on the transfer, albeit temporary, of Romulo Neri from the National Economic and Development Authority to the Commission on Higher Education.

Neri himself, however, admits Finance Secretary Gary Teves was not too happy with his statement that the budget deficit could balloon to P100 billion this year. The official projection stands at only P63 billion. This should end the talk.

After all, Neri’s new assignment is just as crucial as his Neda post.

He says he will focus on making higher education more responsive to the practical needs of industry. This will ensure college graduates will find enough job opportunities that will employ their specific skills.

Neri also intends to look into schools’ tuition increases, which have become unprecedented despite the low rate of inflation in recent years. The high cost of education causes students to drop out of school altogether.

There are also industry-specific issues and emerging sectors that need regulation and direction.

Effectiveness of education reforms and programs is measured by the competitiveness of a nation’s graduates. The goal is to give them career placements abroad or, more importantly, here in our own country, as agents of genuine development.

As every other presidential appointee, Neri serves at the President’s pleasure. He says that like a good soldier, he will take whatever task is given him.

He couldn’t have displeased anybody enough because he got “exiled” to an agency that plays a central role in the empowerment of human capital, as the President said in last week’s State-of-the-Nation Address.

She can only give this job to somebody who enjoys her confidence.

Textbooks that miseducate

Textbooks that miseducate

ONE of the urgent problems that education troubleshooter Romulo Neri may look into is the big number of textbooks that miseducate Filipinos because they are shot through with grammatical and factual errors.

This anomaly is public knowledge and has existed for decades. Efforts to correct the mistakes have generally been unsuccessful. The books continue to be printed, reprinted, sold and taught at elementary and secondary public schools. According to the experts, solecisms in language and in fact also crowd many college textbooks.

Two or three years ago, the Department of Education commissioned a study to look into the problem. The department asked the National Historical Institute, the University of the Philippines and other offices to make an assessment of the trouble and to offer solutions. We have not heard from DepEd regarding its study.

On history, we have had the investigations of Dr. Augusto de Viana of the historical institute, the essays of the historian Ambeth Ocampo and books by Benito Legarda Jr. and others to show the historical lies that popular myth and schools have helped perpetuate.

On language and logic, we have heard from Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor at the Marian School in Quezon City, (read his ad in The Times and other papers), our language policeman Jose A. Carillo, parents, scholars and journalists who have heard complaints about these heresies or have read their contents for verification.

A host of reasons explains why substandard books have entered the public school: a reported book cartel among authors, middlemen and publishers, poor evaluation system, the reported influence of supervisors on the choice of reading materials, poor oversight and monitoring, authors writing out of their depth. The collective failure to write and speak English correctly has victimized students.

The UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines and the Department of Education are working on an aspect of the problem but we wish they could do no more.

While admitting the abundance of flawed textbooks in public schools, Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former Health secretary and project leader, said that their study is focused on books dealing with social studies and health education, and on the production of “resource books.”

At a news briefing, Galvez-Tan said an earlier study by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization confirmed the poor quality of these textbooks. The researchers gauged the accuracy, balance, readability, consistency and organization of the materials to arrive at their conclusions.

He singled out a Grade 5 textbook on health and science for having “condemnable” errors. Errors filled every page, he moaned.

His approach, however, to the problem is to publish a “resource book” for every subject “so that teachers can correct what they see wrong in the previous textbooks.”

What does it mean? In previous press releases on the subject of “resource books,” DepEd said such a guidebook would simply take note of a published error and correct the mistake. It’s like adding an “erratum” page to a book.

Not enough. What the Department of Education should do is get rid of all badly written textbooks and replace them with well-written ones.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus should also create a national commission to deal with the problem, hire experts, define their work and give them a deadline. If he doesn’t do it, Mr. Neri should look into the matter.

Here are a few gems culled by Mr. Go: 1. “Jose Garcia Villa wrote the story “’Woman With Two Navels.’” 2. “He became the primetaker of his family’s farmland.” 3, “’Here’s for you!’” the guard said while hitting Basilio.”

Here’s for you, you poor student!

How to save water

HERE, according to Maynilad Water Services, are some practical tips on saving water:

Report leaks, busted pipes and hydrants to the government or to your water provider.

Make sure all taps are closed.

Have leaks repaired promptly.

Recycle water. Use rinse water from the laundry or kitchen for flushing the toilet, cleaning the car or watering plants.

When washing clothes, don’t let the basin overflow under a running tap.

When using the washing machine, wash with a full load every other day.

Use only the right amount of water to cook food or wash dishes.

Use a basin or fill up the sink halfway when soaking, soaping or rinsing dishes or cleaning vegetables. Don’t use running water for this purpose.
Don’t water your plants too often.

Never soak your lawn with water.
When washing your car, use a pail, not a water hose; a cotton rag, not a sponge.
Don’t hose down your driveway. Use a water pail and broom.
Avoid unnecessary flushing.

Turn the tap off when washing, shaving or brushing your teeth.
Using a timba and tabo is preferable to using the shower.
Don’t stay under the shower longer than necessary.
Place a heavy brick in the water tank to reduce the volume of water.
And our small contribution: Shower with your wife or girlfriend.

The dark side of globalization

The dark side of globalization

ONE dark side of globalization is the increasingly uneven distribution of income between the rich nations and the poor ones as well as between the rich families within a given country and the suffering masses. But I have seen another dark side of globalization during my ongoing residence in a European country. The anti-family and anti-marriage cultures of many European countries are setting bad examples to the emerging economies and can undermine the stability of the most important unit of society, the family. Almost subliminally through the international press, citizens of the developing countries are being exposed to a lifestyle that goes against their traditional values. A very popular lady politician from a major European country has been living in with another important politician, without the benefit of a civil or religious marriage, and has borne four children with him. They just separated after more than twenty-seven years of living together. A major European government is obliging all schools to offer a subject called Education for Citizenship with a syllabus that openly teaches children about the amorality of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. With their consciences totally deformed by the millions of abortions they have been aware of for decades, some of which involve killing the baby just before or immediately after being born, some mothers in another European country have actually murdered their newly born babies and buried them in their gardens or flower pots. I can go on and on. But these are a few of the examples of practices that can eventually contaminate the cultures of developing countries.

In the Philippines, the most visible practices affecting sex, marriage, and the family are those of the United States. It would be important for parents and educators to be aware of these practices and know how to separate the chaff from the grain as they try to transmit the appropriate values to their children. Especially critical for training in appropriate behavior concerning sex and marriage is the usually turbulent adolescent period, when the youth can be especially vulnerable to wrong examples from abroad. A recent publication published by the Oxford University Press entitled Forbidden Fruit by Mark D. Regnerus is a useful guide to understanding "sex and religion in the lives of American teenagers." There are both positive and negative aspects of the US adolescent lifestyle that can be educational to parents and educators in the Philippines.

In a review of the book by W. Bradford Wilcox that appeared in the Weekly Standard, we are informed that as regards sex and religion, the US is divided between Red America and Blue America. In Red America, especially in the South, Regnerus finds that teenagers particularly teenagers hailing from evangelical Protestant homes – are more likely to hold traditional beliefs about sex. Sex is supposed to be reserved for marriage. In the words of one evangelical teen, "Sex is a great gift that God gave us and so...I think it should only be used then, when you’re married." But Regnerus also finds that, despite their avowed sexual traditionalism, Southern teens – including evangelical teens – typically end up losing their virginity before teens who hail from the North, particularly Jewish and mainline Protestant teens.

In Blue America, by contrast, teenagers – especially those hailing from Jewish and mainline Protestant homes – do not necessarily object in principle to premarital sex. As Clint, an 18-year-old mainline Protestant from Michigan, puts it, "There’s no reason... that, you know, you should save yourself for marriage in every single instance... You know it’s, it’s a situational thing." But surprisingly, teens from the North (and again, especially Jewish and mainline Protestant teens like Clint) are more likely to abstain from sex, despite their avowed sexual progressivism. Indeed, in spite of his flexible sexual morality, Clint is a virgin who reports that he is glad he hasn’t found himself in "that situation" – that is, having sex, because it’s "one less thing to worry about." These differences are explained by the author by referring to class and cultural differences among the American social groups studied.

Forbidden Fruit has another valuable finding that can be immediately communicated to Filipino parents and educators. Contrary to what the apostles of adolescent "sexual health" would have us believe, teenagers are kidding themselves if they think that a condom will protect them from all the consequences of sex. Among other things, Regnerus finds that, for most teens, sex is a gateway into sex with multiple partners; in other words, if a teen engages in sex with one partner, odds are that he (or she) will move onto other partners before he enters adulthood.

Regnerus also reports that 55 percent of sexually active teens wish they had waited longer to have sex. Regret is especially high among adolescent girls, who are more likely than boys to report they were pressured to have sex, that they did not realize how emotionally involved they would get after sex, or that they felt abandoned in the wake of a brief sexual encounter. Not surprisingly, teenage girls who are sexually active – particularly teenage girls who have had more than one partner, which is the norm (as we have seen) among those who are sexually active – are significantly more likely to report they are depressed than their peers who are virgins. Kimberly, an 18-year-old from Utah, reports that sex "messed me up emotionally and physically... I mean I was depressed for a while but my friends helped through it... I think people don’t realize how emotionally involved you get."

Regnerus presents findings that suggest that the abstinence movement has played an important and often unheralded role. One important group in that movement is True Love Waits. Regnerus estimates that more than 2.5 million teenagers have taken abstinence pledges since the campaign was initiated by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1993. Although most young men and women who take the pledge ultimately end up losing their virginity before marriage, pledgers are significantly more likely to delay sex by more than a year, to have fewer partners, and to abstain from sex before marriage, than teens who did not take the pledge. These behavioral changes, in turn, translate into lower level of teen pregnancy and abortion among the millions of American teens who have pledged abstinence through True Love Waits.

Before it is too late, parents and educators in the Philippines should be strongly committed to helping their teenage children weather the turbulent years of adolescence, strengthening their character so that they do not succumb to the wrong examples with which they are bombarded by mass media, the Internet, telenovelas, and films. An outstanding initiative is that of the Educhild Foundation, Inc., the Development Advocacy for Women Volunteerism (DAWV) Foundation, and the InterMedia Consulting A.C., an international foundation that promotes family and educational values in collaboration with I Am S.T.R.O.N.G., a decision-making program for young people carried out with the Department of Education. On November 20 to 22, 2007, these four organizations are holding an international congress in Manila on Education in Love, Sex, and Life. The Congress will be attended by parents, educators, students and officials of government, church, media, and other experts who will discuss topics on adolescent psychology, human sexuality, sex education at home and in school, teenage lifestyle and chastity education in order to actively promote initiatives all over the world in defending family values and sexual morality

The dark side of globalization

The dark side of globalization

ONE dark side of globalization is the increasingly uneven distribution of income between the rich nations and the poor ones as well as between the rich families within a given country and the suffering masses. But I have seen another dark side of globalization during my ongoing residence in a European country. The anti-family and anti-marriage cultures of many European countries are setting bad examples to the emerging economies and can undermine the stability of the most important unit of society, the family. Almost subliminally through the international press, citizens of the developing countries are being exposed to a lifestyle that goes against their traditional values. A very popular lady politician from a major European country has been living in with another important politician, without the benefit of a civil or religious marriage, and has borne four children with him. They just separated after more than twenty-seven years of living together. A major European government is obliging all schools to offer a subject called Education for Citizenship with a syllabus that openly teaches children about the amorality of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. With their consciences totally deformed by the millions of abortions they have been aware of for decades, some of which involve killing the baby just before or immediately after being born, some mothers in another European country have actually murdered their newly born babies and buried them in their gardens or flower pots. I can go on and on. But these are a few of the examples of practices that can eventually contaminate the cultures of developing countries.

In the Philippines, the most visible practices affecting sex, marriage, and the family are those of the United States. It would be important for parents and educators to be aware of these practices and know how to separate the chaff from the grain as they try to transmit the appropriate values to their children. Especially critical for training in appropriate behavior concerning sex and marriage is the usually turbulent adolescent period, when the youth can be especially vulnerable to wrong examples from abroad. A recent publication published by the Oxford University Press entitled Forbidden Fruit by Mark D. Regnerus is a useful guide to understanding "sex and religion in the lives of American teenagers." There are both positive and negative aspects of the US adolescent lifestyle that can be educational to parents and educators in the Philippines.

In a review of the book by W. Bradford Wilcox that appeared in the Weekly Standard, we are informed that as regards sex and religion, the US is divided between Red America and Blue America. In Red America, especially in the South, Regnerus finds that teenagers particularly teenagers hailing from evangelical Protestant homes – are more likely to hold traditional beliefs about sex. Sex is supposed to be reserved for marriage. In the words of one evangelical teen, "Sex is a great gift that God gave us and so...I think it should only be used then, when you’re married." But Regnerus also finds that, despite their avowed sexual traditionalism, Southern teens – including evangelical teens – typically end up losing their virginity before teens who hail from the North, particularly Jewish and mainline Protestant teens.

In Blue America, by contrast, teenagers – especially those hailing from Jewish and mainline Protestant homes – do not necessarily object in principle to premarital sex. As Clint, an 18-year-old mainline Protestant from Michigan, puts it, "There’s no reason... that, you know, you should save yourself for marriage in every single instance... You know it’s, it’s a situational thing." But surprisingly, teens from the North (and again, especially Jewish and mainline Protestant teens like Clint) are more likely to abstain from sex, despite their avowed sexual progressivism. Indeed, in spite of his flexible sexual morality, Clint is a virgin who reports that he is glad he hasn’t found himself in "that situation" – that is, having sex, because it’s "one less thing to worry about." These differences are explained by the author by referring to class and cultural differences among the American social groups studied.

Forbidden Fruit has another valuable finding that can be immediately communicated to Filipino parents and educators. Contrary to what the apostles of adolescent "sexual health" would have us believe, teenagers are kidding themselves if they think that a condom will protect them from all the consequences of sex. Among other things, Regnerus finds that, for most teens, sex is a gateway into sex with multiple partners; in other words, if a teen engages in sex with one partner, odds are that he (or she) will move onto other partners before he enters adulthood.

Regnerus also reports that 55 percent of sexually active teens wish they had waited longer to have sex. Regret is especially high among adolescent girls, who are more likely than boys to report they were pressured to have sex, that they did not realize how emotionally involved they would get after sex, or that they felt abandoned in the wake of a brief sexual encounter. Not surprisingly, teenage girls who are sexually active – particularly teenage girls who have had more than one partner, which is the norm (as we have seen) among those who are sexually active – are significantly more likely to report they are depressed than their peers who are virgins. Kimberly, an 18-year-old from Utah, reports that sex "messed me up emotionally and physically... I mean I was depressed for a while but my friends helped through it... I think people don’t realize how emotionally involved you get."

Regnerus presents findings that suggest that the abstinence movement has played an important and often unheralded role. One important group in that movement is True Love Waits. Regnerus estimates that more than 2.5 million teenagers have taken abstinence pledges since the campaign was initiated by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1993. Although most young men and women who take the pledge ultimately end up losing their virginity before marriage, pledgers are significantly more likely to delay sex by more than a year, to have fewer partners, and to abstain from sex before marriage, than teens who did not take the pledge. These behavioral changes, in turn, translate into lower level of teen pregnancy and abortion among the millions of American teens who have pledged abstinence through True Love Waits.

Before it is too late, parents and educators in the Philippines should be strongly committed to helping their teenage children weather the turbulent years of adolescence, strengthening their character so that they do not succumb to the wrong examples with which they are bombarded by mass media, the Internet, telenovelas, and films. An outstanding initiative is that of the Educhild Foundation, Inc., the Development Advocacy for Women Volunteerism (DAWV) Foundation, and the InterMedia Consulting A.C., an international foundation that promotes family and educational values in collaboration with I Am S.T.R.O.N.G., a decision-making program for young people carried out with the Department of Education. On November 20 to 22, 2007, these four organizations are holding an international congress in Manila on Education in Love, Sex, and Life. The Congress will be attended by parents, educators, students and officials of government, church, media, and other experts who will discuss topics on adolescent psychology, human sexuality, sex education at home and in school, teenage lifestyle and chastity education in order to actively promote initiatives all over the world in defending family values and sexual morality

Ten wrong and unpopular legacies

Ten wrong and unpopular legacies

A YEAR ago, when the President had some of the weakest approval ratings, the Chief Executive said: “When history looks back, I’d rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular.” Thus spoke President Bush.

Last March Sen. Ralph Recto said, “I’d rather be right than popular.”

So it was that one of GMA’s punch lines last Monday was one of the oldest clichés in the book. The hitch is one can be wrong and unpopular too to a wised-up citizenry.

1. A year ago, GMA spoke out in favor of Charter change, which was wrong, unpopular and unconstitutional, but she put behind it the prestige of her office. That is one of her legacies.

2. We have a new abomination, the Human Security Act, another legacy confirming why Bismarck said two things people should not see being made: laws and sausages. Awful. Looking at it, I can better understand why Churchill said that “[t]he quality of a nation’s civilization can be largely measured by the methods it uses in the enforcement of its criminal laws.”

2.1. The new Act is criminal in nature. Its uncanalized invasion and destruction of privacy, the cherished right to be let and left alone, is another horrid legacy to remember GMA by.

3. Human-rights violations in the form of abductions and extrajudicial killings are another legacy. The SONA star last year was Gen. Jovito “Berdugo” Palparan, last heard to be still looking for some appointive or elective job. GMA realized soon enough that he represented another garbage of a legacy.

3.1. Holmes said even a dog knows when it is being kicked or stumbled over. Now, when Chief Justice Rey Puno convened a summit meeting on extrajudicial killings, GMA was slapped hard indeed. She had made the unprecedented meeting necessary.

4. GMA critics say another legacy is we are now seen as No. 1 in corruption. Her defenders mumble we are only No. 2.

5. Another legacy is that she is seen to be a captive of the military and of alien interests. She is only as strong as they want her to be, with the trade-off being survival. Did Tru­man brag?

5.1. It was said that government agents abducted the wife and three teenaged kids of the leader of the kidnap-for-ransom gang to force the release of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi. No probe was ordered. Fearing the military and police, she showed the same chilling callousness when abduction was mentioned by Garci.

6. Her subservience to the military and police is exceeded only by her genuflecting to the Americans, Italians and other aliens, doing for them what she would not do for Pinoy victims.

To solve kidnappings, we can well offer money the way the Americans make it work in Mindanao. Else, we can have JayJay Burgos’ name changed to Giuseppe Bur­gossi, to get results.

6.1. In the case of JayJay, when Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco named certain suspects from the military, Injustice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez fell all over himself to relieve him.

7. Another legacy is the low to which she has dragged the electoral process. An egregious choice was that of Comelec Chairman Ben Aba­los, universally distrusted save in his own household.

8. Opening the country wide open to foreign interests completes our enslavement. They come while our people in the millions leave as their investments benefit but a few of our own plutocracy who are very wealthy to begin with. When the region prospers, we cannot help but improve too.

9. Dysfunctional families, fornication and indiscipline all over, and a fake educational system are among her souvenirs.

9.1. Our environment is degraded. The DENR is now a way station for one biding his time to get another post. Lito Atienza lusts after Local Government or Tourism but there is no vacancy. DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno was the one who bragged that to rescue Fr. Bossi, the key was “sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander.” Sounds too much like raping the rapist.

This is the same imaginative fellow who in the Ducat caper saw the incompetent policemen behaving like the Kestone cops. His remedy: throw the remote control monitor at the TV. Angie Reyes for Energy? Naming people with no obvious qualification for the jobs concerned is another sorry legacy.

10. The problem has been GMA is only tough when it comes to ensuring her survival. Abbe Sieyes, asked about his role during the Terror, answered: “I survived.” Is that all? What a legacy as she presides over the liquidation of all the values we held dear, integrity, competence and delicadeza.

We hope our nation will survive, and it will, and finally have a leader who will be right and popular, the opposite of GMA. In a democracy, we can reject Gloria Arroyo’s legacy based on Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

She is unpopular for a reason. She is often wrong too. Her legacy is a society sans values and is in a state of moral rot.

Teaching scientific inquiry

Teaching scientific inquiry

DURING the question-and-answer period, after the speech of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus on cyber education to the first plenary session of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NSAT) on July 11, a young woman from UP’s Open University asked: “How is science inquiry to be taught by television?” These are not her exact words but I think I captured her thought accurately enough.

Secretary Lapus was not prepared to answer such a pointed question. He took the easy way out. He quoted himself. Cyber education will widen access and close the gap between excellent, middling and bad schools by giving all students the same lectures by the most qualified teachers through satellite-beamed science lessons.

This answer is way off the mark. The young lady had the bell curve in mind while Secretary Lapus was thinking of squashing it flat.

I’ll allow that a Cabinet official whose experience and training are in private business and Congressional politics, cannot be expected to answer such a question, but I do hope that he will not forget it when he continues to flog to an increasingly skeptical public the wonders of Chinese educational technology.

Teaching scientific inquiry is “at the heart of science and science learning,” to quote the US National Science Education Standards.

The purpose is to replicate in the classroom the practices of scientists in research laboratories. In this way, science becomes more interesting—but also more demanding—if students become understudies or apprentices of professional scientists.

This is not easy to put in train; it requires institutional coordination, financing, and a curriculum that permits direct exposure to scientific practice.

Few science teachers know how scientists work. Classroom science moreover cannot be made to simulate what takes place in research laboratories.

What’s great about teaching scientific inquiry is that it’s not a dumbing down of science. Individuals can shine; there is healthy intellectual competition among peers.

However, students in grade or high school do not yet know enough science to be able to identify science problems and the arguments that will lead to their “solutions.”

How then can science inquiry be taught in a classroom?

I’ll take off from the keynote address of Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, who’s also the president of the Ateneo de Manila University.

I was impressed by what Ateneo has down for the schools in Payatas. The key interventions were ownership by the community of the schools and detailed teachers guides in science and math. Nothing was changed—not even class size. But the performance of the Payatas schools in standardized tests was astounding. Their charges increased their scores by at least 20 percentage points.

The ground is ready to introduce the teaching of science inquiry in Payatas. Ateneo can second to these schools a physics or chemistry teacher and a math tutor to teach measurement.

The project that the Payatas kids will be interested to work on is methane. As a former dumpsite, Payatas is literally oozing with methane. CH4 is a colorless, odorless, flammable gas that is the main constituent of natural gas. It’s the simplest of the alkanes and is used as a fuel and as a source of other chemicals.

Schoolchildren in grade 6 and high school can be grouped into teams to handle the different components of the project.

The chemistry of gases could be taught by following John Dalton’s simple experiment: a lighted candle is allowed to burn for a minute before it is covered with a large glass. Within seconds the flame is extinguished. Combustion is a chemical reaction that depends on oxygen. The byproduct of this reaction is carbon dioxide, the gas that replaced the oxygen to mix with all the other gases in the atmosphere.

Even the experiments of James Joule were carried out with simple equipment. To discover the mechanical equivalent of heat, Joule used a hollow copper cylinder that was immersed in an insulated jar of water. Once he had established that the temperature of the water and the cylinder was the same, he pumped air into the cylinder until the pressure reached 22 atmospheres. Using Robert Boyle’s theory of gases, Joule was able to calculate the mechanical work required to reach that point.

Great science need not depend on expensive equipment.

Small-scale experiments on the composition of methane, its energy content, including ideas on how to liquefy it are good starting points.

The kids will have to be required to record their observation and their experiments—the key skills in real science.

But the records must be in a form that could be passed on to other groups and even to succeeding classes because these studies will last for several years.

It’s inevitable that they will be find themselves needing the math to do the measurements, gather numerical data, and formulate hypotheses. Their introduction to the real number system, the complex number system, and even to differential calculus will be based on a felt need rather than on a requirement imposed by a teacher.

Competition between teams and individuals within the teams should be fostered by the teachers who should function as referees rather than as sources of knowledge or information. The children themselves will essentially be teaching themselves. The teacher can then gauge the aptitude of each student for science or technology.

Those who have a bent for technology can design a system of pipes so that the methane may be used for cooking in their homes. If someone could donate a used engine they can even experiment on methane as a fuel.

From physics and chemistry, it’s a small step to biology. Methane is produced by anaerobic microbes. It is also emitted by trees, plants, and cows. The biggest producer of methane are rice fields.

Before the kids leave school, the role of methane in global warming can be discussed, not in terms of slogans, but on the science that underlies climate change.

This, Secretary Lapus, is how science inquiry is taught. Can your cyber education do all this?

How's your English?

How's your English?

The debate on the government’s plan to put back English as the medium of instruction in public schools has reached the Supreme Court. A group of do-gooders called Wika has filed a petition to block the plan. It even put up a small public demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, dutifully recorded on national TV.

I do not much care if the case is sub judice. I am wading into the debate.

I have not read the petition. But, as reported in the press, the reasons put forth in the petition were nothing new.

First, Wika claims the plan is anti-poor. Kids from poor families are not raised to speak English and are therefore at a disadvantage. The disadvantage will only be temporary. The poor kids will catch up soon enough. In the end, the bright ones, poor or rich, will rise above the rest. The important thing is for the poor kids to have equal access to high quality education, with English as the teaching medium.

Second, Wika claims the Filipino will lose his heritage. I am not sure what this means. I am a Bicolano. Like all Bicolanos I know who have transplanted themselves in Metro Manila, I speak Tagalog and English most of the day, week in and out. We have never lost our Bicolano heritage: Strong family ties, a wonderful sense of humor, deep religiosity, a fervent devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia.

Third, Wika claims the plan is unconstitutional. Not being a lawyer, much less a constitutionalist, I will leave this issue to Fr. Joaquin Bernas to tackle.

Surely, everybody agrees that, in this day and age, to have a good command of oral and written English is desirable.

But English is a very difficult language to master. The late Rev. Francis D. Burns opened Ateneo de Naga in 1939. When he arrived in Naga City, he had already taught in Ateneo de Manila University for about seven years before. He had his own ideas about teaching English. He established the English rule in Naga: As soon as a student stepped in campus, he was to speak nothing but English. If a classmate hears him speak in the dialect, he was to be reported for punishment. Fr. Burns believed that forcing the student to speak English was the best way to learn the language. Believe me, it worked. We learned.

Today, when Congressman Tupas of Cebu pushes the use of English as the medium of instruction from second grade in public schools, in spite of the Wika petition, he follows in the footsteps of Fr. Burns.

We must give the Filipino the communication skills in written and oral English to succeed in this era of information technology.

Take the insurance industry. Fifty years ago, an agent could make a good living with just enough command of English to get along. Today, the agent is always a college graduate.

If a Filipino has a desk job in an insurance office, he has to be proficient in English. All insurance policies, the Insurance Code, the implementing rules and regulations of the Insurance Commission and the jurisprudence are all in English. Business is done in oral and written English, domestically and internationally.

Countries in the region are desperately teaching English to their populations. China has imported one million English teachers. India has a specially designed crash course for their citizens. South Koreans stay in the Philippines for a couple of years to learn English.

We are way ahead of everybody. Ever since the American colonizers sent over a shipload of teachers on the transport Thomas a hundred years ago, we have been grappling with the nuances of the English language.

As a result, we are the third largest English-speaking country in the whole world, next only to the United States and the United Kingdom. Why should we lose this edge?

Finally, haven’t you noticed that the debate is being conducted by the participants, including Wika, in perfect English?

Upgrading teachers: multifaceted approach

Upgrading teachers: multifaceted approach

By Evelina M. Vicencio, Ph.D.
Chair, Training Committee, Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE)

ONCE a teacher always a student." Learning for a teacher and for other professionals as well, does not end with a diploma. A teacher has to keep on studying to keep abreast of new developments in his/her area of teaching, about present-day learners, about new methods, and about education in general.

Teacher upgrading in the Philippine public school system is a major responsibility of the DepEd, which has established the National Education Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) to take care of this function. Simulating the bureaucracy of the Department, teacher upgrading usually employs the cascading or "echoing" approach, upgrading top-level management first, whose responsibility it is to train the next in rank and so on, from the Regional Directors, the Superintendents, the Division Supervisors, the District Supervisors, the Principals, to the teachers at the bottom. With information passing through so many layers, input reaching the teachers is oftentimes either diluted, abridged, incomplete, erroneous, or all of the above. The worst scenario is a breakdown in the chain, such that no upgrading reaches the teachers at all, the most common cause of which is "no more funds." The private schools fare a little better because of the smaller size of the private school sector.

The need for teacher upgrading and the inability of the government to discharge this function fully, has prompted non-government organizations involved in education to pitch in and share in this undertaking. One such organization is the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE) established and incorporated on April 12, 1994, formerly with offices at the Allied Bank Building, Makati City.

FUSE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization formed for educational, cultural, scientific, and social development pursuits. It aims to elevate and maintain a high standard of education through improved teacher training, especially in science, mathematics, and English. These three subjects have been identified as the learning areas where Filipino students have fared poorly in the National Achievement Tests (NAT) as well as in international examinations. FUSE teacher upgrading can therefore be considered as needs-based because it responds to a need relevant to the present-day situation of Philippine education.

The Foundation’s commitment to quality education is expressed in its framework "Service to teachers is service to the nation." In its 13 years of existence, FUSE has been engaged in upgrading teachers’ skills, especially in the fields of English, science, and mathematics.

A Multifaceted Approach

FUSE subscribes to the statement that planning training interventions is never likely to be satisfied by rigid adherence to a single approach, so that since its establishment in 1994, it has been partnering with government and private educational institutions in providing teacher upgrading using a multifaceted approach, to reach as many teachers and educators in the most effective and efficient way.

Characteristics of the Multifaceted Approach to Teacher Upgrading

The multifaceted approach to teacher upgrading employed by FUSE has the following characteristics:

* It satisfies both FUSE’s vision, mission, and goals and its clientele’s needs;

* It is balanced in terms of learning areas (English, Science, and Mathematics);

* It is well-organized, properly sequenced; it provides adequately for differing needs and abilities of participants; it offers flexibility to trainers and participants, and is responsive to change;

* It was developed through a systematic and orderly process;

* It is regularly evaluated, with provisions for feedback and mechanisms to permit refinement, updating, and continuing effectiveness;

* It uses varied learnercentered strategies;

* It encompasses all types and levels of teachers;

* It uses a variety of delivery systems suited to teachers’ learning styles;

* It can be offered inhouse or off-site as long as facilities and equipment are available

Varied Modes of Teacher Upgrading

FUSE employs six modes of teacher upgrading: Formal and non-formal, responding and initiating, and institutionalized and special.

Formal and Non-formal

Formal upgrading involves enrolling in courses leading towards a degree. FUSE formal upgrading enables teachers of mathematics and the sciences to pursue graduate courses in partner universities as FUSE scholars. The project called Science and Engineering Education Program (SEEP) was established in 2005. Annually, it supports the graduate studies of 80 scholars teaching in the public schools. This enables the teachers to pursue master’s degrees full-time either in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, or Biology.

Most of the non-formal teacher upgrading offered by FUSE consists of shortterm training courses developed to improve teacher competence in the three target learning areas. The training courses are in the form of seminars or workshops or a combination of both, taken by teachers in one day or over several days, either continuously or weekly. The non-formal courses follow syllabi. Examples of non-formal courses are the 12-day FUSE summer English workshops, the half-day Trainers’ Professional Development Seminar, and the 2-day FUSE Training Courses on the Use of CONSTEC (Continuing Studies via Technology) DVDs in Teaching English and the Sciences.

FUSE undertakes teacher upgrading and offers the same opportunity to its members in the form of a non-formal monthly forum / General Assembly, educational visits, and participation in international conferences. Most of the FUSE members are top-level executives of the Department of Education, heads of universities and colleges, and subject-matter specialists. FUSE members have gone on educational visits to educational institutions in Hong Kong (1997 and 2002), Malaysia and Singapore (1999), and Beijing, China (2003). They also participated at the 5th UNESCOACEID International Conference on Education (1999) in Bangkok and at the 9th UNESCO-APEID International Conference on Educational Innovations in Shanghai (2003).

Responding and Initiating

The first teacher upgrading courses (Summer English Workshops) were initiated by FUSE. The workshops were conducted for three summers (1994-1996) in different parts of the country and trained more than 1,000 high school English teachers.

Most of the training courses that followed were all in response to requests by organizations and institutions that wanted to partner with FUSE, for example, the PELT (Philippine English Language Teaching) workshops conducted in 1997-1998 in cooperation with the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government, the British Council, and the Ateneo Center for English Language Teaching (ACELT).

At present, the non-formal training courses being conducted are all FUSE-initiated — the two-day FUSE Training Courses on the Use of CONSTEC DVDs in Teaching English and the Sciences.

Institutionalized and Special

Institutionalized training courses are designed to address recurring problems or concerns and are therefore conducted on a regular and continuing basis. The present FUSE courses on the use of CONSTEC DVDs are institutionalized courses that the Foundation has been offering since 1997 to the present.

On the other hand, special courses are one-time programs developed to meet a specific need. The Teacher Training on Classroom Technology Solutions seminar and the ELAN: Training School Heads and Mid-Level Managers are both examples of special courses undertaken by FUSE.

Different Target Participants

FUSE upgrades not only teachers’ competence but other educators’ as well — administrators, supervisors, trainers, and other people involved actively in education.

Training courses have been designed and held for school administrators and supervisors, elementary and high school teachers, faculty of tertiary level institutions, and FUSE trainers and members.

Priority Learning Areas

The FUSE training courses focus on three learning areas considered the most difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach:

* English

* Science: Elementary Science and Health, High School Physics, High School Chemistry

* Mathematics (Algebra)

Flexible Delivery Systems

FUSE uses and has made use of four training delivery systems to suit different learning styles of teachers: interactive multi-media, distance training, centralized, and a combination of any two or all of the three.

Interactive multimedia training (IMT)

Interactive multimedia training (IMT), sometimes called interactive training systems (ITS), interactive performance systems, performance support systems (PSS), or on-demand learning systems, are learner-controlled systems that can match many teachers’ preferred learning styles. Multimedia combines a variety of formerly independent sound and visual media, with a computer in control. Such is the nature of the CONSTEL (earlier called Continuing Science Education via Television [1995] then Continuing Studies via Television [(1999]) VHS tapes that FUSE started distributing nationwide and using in its teacher upgrading courses.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, Chair of the FUSE Board of Trustees, proudly stated that the program (CONSTEL) would radically transform the educational system in several ways and make our schools at par with those of other advanced countries.

Each set of VHS tapes in the Sciences has 40 telelessons or episodes -- Science Made Easy, Chemistry in Action, and Physics in Everyday Life -- or a total of 120 episodes, with corresponding printed Teaching Support Materials (TSMs). The TSMs provide the Science teachers with comprehensive background information about each topic, including varied and interesting learner-centered strategies that develop higher order thinking skills. The TSMs are congruent with the principles and philosophy of the Basic Education Curriculum, integrating Values Education, Core Life Skills, and competencies in other learning areas, especially English. Hence, the skills are integrated, the approach is interdisciplinary, and the activities are interactive. The suggested activities and instructional materials and equipment are likewise culture responsive and utilize resources found in various communities in the Philippines. On the other hand, the VHS tapes in English has 45 episodes, dealing with the teaching of listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and literature, with a testing component built into each macro-skill or macro-topic. These VHS tapes are also accompanied by Teaching Support Materials.

From 1996-2004, videotapes were distributed to schools personally by FUSE officials and members and through the branches of Allied Bank. However, observations made by FUSE officials in visits to recipient schools showed that many teachers were either not using the tapes or using them improperly, i.e., just letting the students view the whole episode, which actually are for teachers. So, the Training Committee of FUSE decided to design training courses on the use of the CONSTEL tapes in teaching the learning areas. These training courses have become FUSE’s banner courses from 2004 to the present.

The institutionalized training courses on the use of CONSTEC or Continuing Studies via Technology (formerly CONSTEL) VCDs /DVDs in English, Science and Health, Physics, and Chemistry also gave rise to the need for a permanent training site for FUSE. Thus was established the Learning Center for Teachers (LCT) in 2005 located at the Pearl of the orient Tower on Roxas Boulevard.

Distance training

FUSE embarked on distance training through the radio simulcast over Cable 77 in cooperation with the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Science and Mathematics Education (UP-NISMED) that offered two sets of distance education programs enrolled in by 45 teachers in some key regions of the country.

Centralized or conventional training involves instructors, a group of participants, and a classroom and employs standard strategies, for example, lecture, discussion, demonstration, and practical exercises methods of instruction as well as the use of audio-visual aids.

Centralized training is customized to meet the participants’ needs. It is flexible because the instructor can adjust the content and teaching strategy to the participants’ needs. It has also disadvantages: its success depends on the competence of the instructor, which is why FUSE trainers are carefully chosen.

Movable Training Sites

Learning Center for Teachers (LCT)

FUSE offers regular interactive multimedia combined with centralized training in its Learning Center for Teachers (LCT) during the school year. The main advantage of training courses held at the FUSE LCT is that it has laboratories for science classes; an audio-visual room; a library; equipment, such as computers, duplicating machines, televisions, VCDs, etc.; and clerical staff to assist in administrative matters.

Off-site

During summer, off-site training courses are held in the provinces in response to requests from the Regional/Division offices of the Department of Education and from private institutions.

Looking forward, FUSE expects to train more teachers using the multi-faceted approach, reach out to a greater number of educators throughout the country, assist the government in shaping and carrying out comprehensive and efficient programs, and help achieve the vision of government that every Filipino youth, regardless of social status, can avail of the privilege of being on equal terms with the rest of the world.