Details, indeed. I'd accept it as a reasonable platform statement, since it's an expression of a certain action — up to the point where he goes off the rails with the 'output-oriented curriculum'. How to implement the extended school years to best effect is another matter that I think would be an issue for debate once or if the opportunity to pursue the objective was realised by the Senator.

Just taking a whack at this one….

“Pilipino as the early-grade medium of instruction: The Philippine language would be mandated as the medium of instruction for Grades 1 through 3. The rationale for this is that studies that have shown early education is more effective if conducted in ones’ native language.”

– I assume the definition of Pilipino is basically any dialect spoken in the Filipino home, which includes Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, etcetera. If this is to be done, we’d better consider all the textbooks and other education materials should be printed in the local dialect.

– All my teachers taught in English from Junior Kinder onwards and we graduated elementary with education that apparently equaled first year high school — we were ahead by one year in the subjects of math, science, literature, and history.

– This is an old idea that keeps cropping up.

“Increase basic education from 10 years to 12: Basic education (Elementary and High School) would be increased from a total of 10 years to 12 years. A remedial year would be added between grade school and high school, and competency evaluations for students would be conducted in Grades 3 and 6. The bill also calls for “an ‘output-oriented’ high school curriculum that would equip graduates with the right skills, whether they choose to pursue college or already be employed.” “

– We already have pre-school (1 year), kinder (1 year), elementary (6 to 7 years), and highschool (4 years) or a total of 13 years of basic education. (Pre-schooling is offered by my barangay, I am not aware of whether it is offered by other barangays.)

– A better way would be to make basic education classes whole day, instead of half day, which means more time will be given per subject. But then again, that would mean needing more classrooms.

“Utilise a long-term planning process for Education: The bill provides for rolling five-year budget plans ‘that are consistent with quantitative and qualitative targets for education.’ “

– Where are we going to get the money? Or does Roxas assume that the will come from wherever it usually comes and that would suffice? Every year the budget for education eats up a fairly large chunk of the national budget (next to debt servicing), but the budget is still not enough to wipe out all the backlogs.

– I think Gordon’s proposal is better because it takes into account that the yearly budget for education will never be enough and there is a need to produce an additional source of funds just for education. It also proposes that the DepEd be made to concentrate on academic concerns while leaving the logistical concerns (building of schools, buying of equipment, etcetera) to the HEAP corporation. How can you trust DepEd or another government agency to build classrooms at twice the price of what it really costs?

Intensive training and upgrading programs for teachers: Additional training programs conducted in Pilipino for teachers of Grades 1 to 3, and remedial training courses in English, Science, and Math for teachers who did not major in those subjects.

– Again, where are we going to get the money?

Establish a Pre-Need Code: The Pre-Need Code of 2008 (SB 2077) establishes regulations of the pre-need industry, which previously had been under the loose authority of the SEC. The intention of the Code is to prevent the kind of well-document financial disasters that befell pre-need companies and their customers in 2006 and 2007.

– This was just thrown in to connect to his previous stand on the Pre-need industry. The funny thing is, while he lambasted some pre-need firms, he also turned a blind eye on other pre-need companies. What gives?

– This really belongs to the area of finance, rather than education although pre-need firms do service needs to provide financing for education.

Details, indeed. I’d accept it as a reasonable platform statement, since it’s an expression of a certain action — up to the point where he goes off the rails with the ‘output-oriented curriculum’. How to implement the extended school years to best effect is another matter that I think would be an issue for debate once or if the opportunity to pursue the objective was realised by the Senator.

Increase basic education from 10 years to 12: Basic education (Elementary and High School) would be increased from a total of 10 years to 12 years. A remedial year would be added between grade school and high school, and competency evaluations for students would be conducted in Grades 3 and 6. The bill also calls for “an ‘output-oriented’ high school curriculum that would equip graduates with the right skills, whether they choose to pursue college or already be employed.”

Am not quite sold on the idea of increasing the number of years required for primary and secondary education.

That would put unnecessary strain on families whose main priority is to get their dependents on their feet and earning income asap. Increasing the amount of time kids have to spend in school may only result in increased dropout rates.

There is already a shortage in school resources that already impact the quality of the classroom time racked up by kids which will remain the same (and may even be further spread thin) if the amount of said classroom time is increased.

Therefore there may have to be more focus on improving the density of learning (as opposed to increasing the volume of exposure to learning).

Devil’s in the detail of course…

from the campaign website, its the mother language for grades 1-3

In the spirit of fairness and expanding the public debate, I have invited Senator Roxas, through his campaign blog, to respond to this post. If he does – and I hope he will – I will post his contribution immediately. I would like to encourage anyone else who is interested in hearing his reply to also send him a message requesting that he do so.