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extracted text: OCTOBER 19 6 1 Xnterwd m weond el*M mail matter at the Manila Poet Office on Dec. 7, 1955* VOL. XIII MANILA, PHILIPPINES No. 10 OUR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION Dr. Vicente G. Sinco We need to remind our selves that nothing could be more vital and more critical to a democracy than education. A dictator ship or an oligarchy can af ford to be unmindful of the intellectual condition of the people within its orbit. But the reality of a genuine de mocratic system of govern ment and society, the system we have decided to adopt, is not possible without educa tion. And when we speak of education for a democracy, we mean intellectual upbring ing designed not merely for an elite or a chosen few, not even for a larger group such as a privileged political par ty, but all citizens. The va lidity of this statement may be easily confirmed by the cases we see at present in the countries which have lately become independent states in Asia and in Africa where the spirit of national ism fomented by a mere handful of individuals has precipitated their political se paration from the colonial powers without adequate ad ministrative training and educational preparation. Much as we sympathize with them in their desire for inde pendence, in moments of ser ious reflection we cannot help but view with deep ap prehension the undesirable conditions, the state of dis order, perplexity, confusion, and even suffering they find themselves in. We can only hope that having been thrown into the sea of polit i c a 1 manumission all by themselves they might man age to learn how to swim before they sink and get drowned. In expressing these thoughts of apprehension, it is not our purpose to assume an attitude and position of superiority. For while in some respects we have in deed attained a certain level of education and a sufficient ly widespread literacy, often times we are assailed by doubts whether or not the educational competence of our^ people as a whole has reached the degree necessary to create an atmosphere, a cli mate, that could invigorate the processes of democracy in our country and could thus insure the enjoyment of the rights and blessing that go with it. We do not need to be profound observers to de tect a considerable amount of weak spots in our present system, not so much in its formal framework as it is in the implementation of the es sential methods and practices which are the real determi nants of a democracy. The education that is need ed to strengthen democratic institutions is not merely quantitative but also qualita tive. It is not necessarily ac quired by the establishment and operation of a multitude of schools and colleges. If the instruction in these institu tions is inadequate and in ferior in quality, mere num bers do not have much signi ficance. On the contrary, it may only deceive us and give us a false sense of satisfac tion. We are well acquainted with the rapid multiplication of the number of graduates from educational institutions awarding diplomas and deg rees in different professions and occupations — from tea chers. stenographers, secreta ries, and lawyers, to engine ers, doctors of medicine, ar 4 Panorama chitects, pharmacists, etc. In many cases, these diplomas are not much better than mere certificates of attend ance over a certain number of years in the colleges issu ing them. They are far from being reliable evidence of quality education their hold ers received. Let there be no mistake about this: that the problem of education in our country cannot be solved by merely increasing the number of schools, colleges, and univer sities, and by making it pos sible for them to increase the number of pupils, students, and teachers. The problem cannot be considered solved until there is a definite im provement in the quality of in struction and in the educa tional competence resulting from it. It is safe to say that the percentage of persons going to our schools and colleges has been increasing rapidly every year since the end of the last War. But it is also safe to say that the quality of instruction and education that these persons have been receiving during the same period ’ of time has been de teriorating almost as fast as the increase of their number No wonder that in the report of a group of American and Filipino educators that made a survey of our educational system a little over a year ago under the chairmanship of Prof. J. Chester Swanson of the University of Califor nia, we find these words: “Much of the education of the Philippines is simply not good enough to justify the great faith of the people. What will happen to this un questioning faith in educa tion when the people learn that it is not solving their problems? Will they lose faith in education or in those who are responsible for their edu cational services?” Those of us who are neith er too proud nor too self-cen tered to accept honest and objective criticisms have to admit the validity of this un complimentary statement. We have to admit that the qual ity of the education that the large majority of our child ren have been receiving has not been good enough. It has deteriorated, I repeat, since the second World War; and the deterioration has been ra pid and alarming. We have not taken so far any deter mined step to arrest it. No wonder that the report of this mixed group of educa tors has this suggestion to make: “Educators must-Wbrk to provide a public school October 1961 5 program good enough to prove that faith in education is justified. This will require not only providing good schools, but also creating in the public an understanding of the difference between good and poor schools.” There are several causes of this state of educational de terioration in our country to day. One of them may be the insufficiency of filnds made available for our educational program. Undoubtedly, much can be done to raise educa tional standards if appropria tions for educational devel opment be set aside in lar ger amounts. But like invest ments in business or in in dustry, their size does not al ways guarantee success if funds are mishandled, mis used, and misdirected. It is, therefore, absolutely necessa ry that a study of the system, the personnel, and the mate rials involved be seriously and intelligently undertaken in order to avoid as much as possible not only financial losses but also unnecessary wastage in time, attention, and effort; and what is more, in order to prevent disillu sionment and frustration in our faith in education as the firm foundation of individual and social development. Public opinion is extreme ly important for any success ful implementation of any program of educational im provement. It must be arti culate, insistent, intelligently directed, and courageous. It should aim at creating public appreciation ' of efforts 'to raise the quality or standards of our schools and colleges. Such appreciation should be expressed frankly, openly, and sincerely, not in mere words but in deeds, in action, and in decisions. The coopera tion of all parents, business men, industrialists, and all other elements of the com munity has to be actively gi ven if we are sincere in our belief that our social, poli tical, economic, and moral betterment depends largely upon education. There has been no well-di rected and strong public opinion on the problem of good and desirable education in our country. This is shown by the fact that what is al most invariably considered by the press as a crisis in education is the usual delay in accommodating the 800 thousand or more children in the public schools in June. When the Department of Education gives the usual as surance that additional clas ses would be open, the so6 Panorama called crisis in education is considered solved and ended. To call such condition as a crisis in education is a gross exaggeration. The real crisis in the education of this country consists in the steady decline of the effectiveness of our schools and colleges in maintaining reasonably good standards of teaching and learning. Unless the basic causes of this state of educational im poverishment are correctly recognized and arrested, no amount of financial assist ance will be of much help in improving our educational work. One of these causes has reference to the character and content of the curricu lum. Another cause concerns the qualifications of our tea chers. The third has rela tion to the attitude, and in terest of our youth in work and study. * * Any intelligent and objec tive analysis of our educa tional problem is bound to discover these three factors as among the most basic causes of the weakness of our educational program and of the inferior academic record of the great majority of our students. There are, however, a few schools that have been turning out fine products in spite of handicaps arising from the excessive centrali zation of our educational sys tem. They have been able to remedy to a certain extent these basic defects. Their re cord shows that with a well qualified teaching staff and with the proper motivation, discipline, and determination on the part, of the school au thorities, there can be no question that the youth of the nation will acquire a super: ior type of education. The young Filipino has the capa* * BREVITY The ' best illustration of the value, of brief speech reckoned in dollars was given by Mark. Twain.His story was that when he. had listened for five minutes to the preacher telling of the heathen, he Wept, and was. going to^contribute fifty dollars; after ten minutes more, of the ser-. moil, he reduced the amount-of. his-prospective contribution to twenty-five dollars; .after half ah hour more of. eloquence, he cut the sum. to five dollars. At the. end. of an hour of oratory -when the plate -waspassed, he stole two dollars.October 1961 city for acquiring it. What he needs is proper stimulation to awaken that potentaility in him for better performance. But before discussing these basic causes of the weakness of our school system and its educational efforts, I should like to bring to your atten tion the significance of the problem of education today. Time and again we have told ourselves that the most val uable resources of our coun try are our human resources — our >people; just like our abundant natural resources, they have to be correctly cultivated in order to draw out from them the best qual ities in their possession. To day we live in an age of intensive development in science and technology which are causing tremendous changes not only in our con ditions of living but also in our ideas and in our atti tudes in life and work. The nation that cannot keep up with the rapid strides of ad vanced countries will have to face more numerous and more complicated problems affecting its economic, social, and political conditions. Such problems as unemployment, standard of living, economic and social stability, popula tion explosion, food supply, public sanitation and health, and peace and order may well become threats to the security and even to the very existence itself of a na tion as an independent poli tical unit. They have to be solved not in the distant fu ture but at the present time or during this generation. These considerations ren der the problem of educa tional improvement for our people a matter of transcen dent importance. Any post ponement in the adoption of practicable solutions to this problem will make it more and more difficult and will increase our inertia to impe rative changes. Let us bear in mind that educational stagnation neutralizes and even defeats in the long run movements of improvement in practically all the other phases of the nation’s life and work. We are about to reach what modern economists call the take-off stage of econo mic development. We have reached a point when our in dustrial development is quite well started. But that en couraging growth of our in dustrial and economic life is bound to be slowed down if not aborted and arrested un less we pay much attention Panokama to the problem of the educa tional improvement of our people. It is not enough that we talk about education. That is the easiest thing to do. As a matter of fact when it comes to the subject of education in conversation or speech-mak ing almost every one seems to talk as an expert and feels qualified to express critical opinions on college methods, university programs, and aca demic activities without hav ing seen actual academic per formance nor understood edu cational objectives nor read and studied books and publi cations on current educational practices and theories pro duced by learned scholars and experienced educators. To pass judgment on the work of our educational ins titutions, we need to be deep ly involved in the study of educational problems. We need to participate actively in tasks or activities of indiv iduals or groups regularly en gaged in serious educational work. Otherwise, judgments and criticisms based on halfbaked ideas or obsolete prac tices are likely to produce more harm than good. It does not seem to be widely known among our people today that a great deal of interest and deep concern in the problem of education al improvement are being ta ken in all progressive coun tries today. Let us take for example the United States. In spite of its leadership in the field of industry and eco nomic activities and of the excellent work of its colleges and universities, its leaders, not only in educationa itself but also in politics, in busi ness, and in civic and reli gious affairs, are nevertheless very much concerned with the quality of the education that the young Americans have been receiving over the years. They realize that edu cation cannot stand still with out affecting the welfare and improvement of the nation. Beginning with President Truman, clear through Pres ident Eisenhower, and down to President Kennedy com missions and committees have been formed for the purpose of analysing the con ditions of American schools, their teachers, their acade mic and technical courses, their methods of instruction, and their policies. They are determined to discover what ever weakness exists in the products of their educational practices. National as well as local surveys have been un dertaken and reports of the results of such surveys have 9 been published so the peo ple could be fully informed. The reports are live subjects of private and public discus sions in large and small con ferences, in newspapers, and in radio and TV programs. All these activities indicate the intense interest of the people of the most powerful country in the world today in the value and the urgent need of being constantly aware of the swift changes of educa tional ideas and methods. There is more than mere fear and apprehension of the Russian advances in science and technology shown by. leaders of the United States in their intense concern with the quality of the education of the American youth. There is a deep realization on their part that in this age of revo lutionary changes the country that is satisfied with what it has today will be left far be hind tomorrow. Its economic, social, political, and other problems assume new. aspects and it is only through the improvement of education that these could find satis factory solutions. We in our country; on the other hand, do not seem to be keenly apprehensive of the condition of our educational institutions. Our leaders have not been deeply disturbed by the poor educational perform ance of our youth in general. We do not seem to be wor ried over the large number of young men and women who finish the high school and even the college course without knowing enough of the subjects they are sup posed to have taken. We do not seem to mind that many of these graduates do not even know how to read with comprehension or to do mul tiplication and division. Our attention is absorbed in poli tics and elections. Even these reflect the low educational level of most of our electo rate. Issues are absent. The struggle for public offices is carried out on the basis of personal attacks, exposure of private faults, and accusa tions of alleged moral delin quencies and puerile compari sons of individual school achievements. While we should elect only the able and the honest to public posts, it is sheer childishness and po litical immaturity to have oneself elected by an appeal to personal prejudice and hatred of one candidate against another. Democracy is not intended for the illite rate, the moron, and the fee ble minded. Neither is it in tended, for the sage and the philosopher alone. It is in 10 Panorama tended for the man who is sufficiently educated so that he can with understanding, appreciate whatever is excel lent in life, and is able and willing to use his mind and do his own choosing. To keep and maintain it, the people should worry about educa tion, superior education. Coming now to the causes that have retarded our educ a t i o n a 1 development as pointed out by competent ob servers, we should mention first of all the defective cur riculum of our schools in gen eral. It is defective not in its quantitative aspect but in its superabundance of subjects and activities, some good, others indifferent, and still others useless. Too many sub jects clog and confuse the mind of the student, produc ing what might amount to something like mental suffo cation. Without going into the de tails of the solution of this problem, all I can say at this moment is that the improve ment of the curriculum calls for a reduction of the num ber of subjects it contains to those that are most essential in developing the power to understand and to think ac cording to the different stages of a ‘person’s intellec tual maturity. As all men and women of experience know, no more effective way of learning is the process of taking one. thing at a time. Concentration is needed in every task and activity that requires mental or physical effort. For this reason the British scholar and mathe matician, Alfred North Whitehead, made this signifi cant statement: “In all mo dern educational reforms the watchword must be concen tration” The improvement of the curriculum therefore is best achieved by limiting its content to the basic sub jects needed for the cultiva tion of the intellectual com petence of the student. For we should all understand that education does not con sist in the accumulation of more information in one’s memory, but rather in learn ing how to think and how to arrive at pertinent conclu sions. While we need mate rials which are necessary in the process of thinking, and while it is necessary that such materials be of high quality, their acquisition may be easily left to the mind that has learned how to learn. Superior education is not possible without superior teachers. Our educational problem has reached a criti OCTOBER 1961 11 cal stage simply because the great majority of our schools and colleges have not had a sufficient number of wellqualified teachers. A large proportion of the teachers now employed in our schools are not competent enough to produce good students. They are graduates of schools of education that emphasize me thods of teaching and pay scant attention to learning subject matter. It is quite ob vious that one cannot give what he does not have, no matter how much he knows the method of giving. The good teacher should not only have the know-how but also the know-what and the knowwhy. It goes without saying that to improve the education of our youth good teachers are indispensable. To produce them there is need for change and modification in the sys tem of education for our tea chers. Consequently, some time and much effort are needed before we could hope to transform our educational institutions today into cen ters adequately equipped to improve the quality of the instruction for our youth. The improvement of the cur riculum is not as difficult as raising the quality of instructon. The curriculum does not work automatically. Without well qualified teachers, the curriculum is of very little use. The third cause of the de terioration of the educational performance of our students proceeds from the character, the habits, and the attitudes of a large portion of our youth. The general complaint of our teachers and profes sors in our university is that a large number of our stu dents do not study; they do not spend enough time to pre pare their lessons before com ing to class. Study is work, mental work. There are times when I feel that this aversion on the part of our students to men tal work might be attributa ble to the idea propagated by some educationists that work experience is gained only through manual work and physical exertion. There are moments when I suspect that this aversion to mental effort on the part of many students. especially those coming from the public schools, might be the effect of the so-called activity me thod which stresses the prag matic principle of learning by doing and even by play ing. Professor Brand Blanshard of Yale University commenting on this princi12 Panorama pie stated: “We are all prag matists from five to ten. But I am inclined to think that a person who is still a prag matist at forty is suffering from arrested development. A person who limits the fruits of the spirit to those that that can be tested in action is not so much freeing himself from older dogmaticism as fettering himself by a new one.” And I should add that education is a fruit of the spirit. The development of the mind is not something that can take place by the mere presence of a good teacher, by the mere possession oi proper books and other nistructional materials, by the mere attendance of the stu dents in the classroom, and to wait for the teacher to pour the precious liquid of knowledge into his empty brain, after which he could go out and be ready to pour the needed amount of learn ing into the job he has se lected for himself or into the problem he meets in life. Education is more like a pro cess of developing the mus cles or of building up the skill of a prospective athlete so that he could win a prize or at least make a good showing in a contest. To repeat, many of our students today come to their classes without spending even an hour in preparing their lessons. And there are many among us parents who complain when their sons and daughters have to observe class schedules that demand even only a modicum amount of preparation or else flunk in their subjects. This is a problem that serious-minded educators and responsible ci tizens of our country should frankly face; and they should welcome gladly every re quirement prescribed for its solution. For it involves more than the mere fulfillment of academic duties. It involves the fundamental need of dev eloping the habit of work, di ligence, persistence, and the quality of moral stamina and even physical endurance. It is this dicipline of work, purposeful wor-k? that quality education requires and en courages. That is why quality education inevitably pro duces men of character, not weaklings, persons of integ rity, not drones, parasites, or grafters. These problems have faced our Board of National Edu cation in its work of plan ning a program of educa tional improvement suitable to the needs of our nation. OCTOBBK 1961 is After the completion of the survey of our public schools undertaken by the mixed group of American and Fi lipino educators I refered to a while ago, the Board creat ed a committee in May, I9 60, to study the possibility of reorganizing the entire Philippine educational sys tem. That committee met practically every week from July, 1960 until April, 1961, when it rendered its final report to the Board. The membership of the commit tee consisted of ranking of ficials from the Department of Education, the University of the Philippines, and out standing citizens in business. It was assisted by members of the staff of the Bureau of Public Schools and of the Colleges of Education, Arts and Sciences, and Engineer ing of the University of the Philippines. Its report has been widely published in the different newspapers of this city. The suggestions and re commendations embodied in it have been appreciated by persons interested in the im provement of our education al system and by the press in general. We do not have the time to discuss them in detail at this moment. I shall therefore mention but very briefly the general objectives and the overall organization of the educational system proposed. The present organizational setup of the elementary school consisting of a four-year pri mary and a two-year inter mediate curriculum is pre served. The reason is that it is an urgent obligation under our Constitution for the gov ernment to provide at least free primary instruction and that the actual government budget for the support of our public schools is so li mited that to comply with this constitutional mandate it is imperative that unneces sary prolongation of the ele mentary curriculum should be avoided. The objective of elementary education is to produce functional literacy. The goal of secondary edu cation is intelligent citizen ship. A basic secondary school of three years is pro posed, offering a rounded cur riculum of general education which covers only the essen tial subjects needed by the in telligent citizen. The basic secondary school serves two purposes: One is to provide a terminal course for all those who may not wish to continue their studies. The other is to serve as a foun dation for two distinct cours es, namely, the collegiate sec 14 Panorama ondary course and the voca tional secondary course. The collegiate secondary course, as well as the voca tional secondary course, ex tends over a period of two years. The collegiate second ary course serves as a prepa ration for college work. The vocational secondary course is intended for the training of moderately skilled work ers and craftsmen. For those who desire to improve them selves further, an additional two years of vocational courses are offered, leading to the training of technicians or more highly skilled crafts men. Then for those who de sire to become teachers in vo cational schools or to develop themselves into technologists, an additional course of two years in higher technical training is suggested. The courses for colleges embody two important fea tures. One is the reduction of the number of required subjects to the essentials in mathematics, the natural sciences, humanities, and so cial sciences. The aim is to develop the power to think, to improve the ability to make relevant judgments, as well as to enhance a person’s liberal education. The second feature of the suggested col lege curriculum is flexibility; The purpose of this is to give the authorities of a college a greater degree of freedom in adopting additional ' courses that they might consider val uable. To raise standards of uni versity education, the com mittee suggests that for an institution to be recognized as a university, it must have post graduate courses in na tural science, social science, and the humanities; and that it should have at least two thirds of the members of its faculty serving as full-time professors exclusively for the university. Dr. James B. Conant, for mer President of Harvard University, not very long ago declared that educational practices are not exportable commodities. Hence, every country should adopt its sys tem and its methods of edu cation that are best suited to its social conditions, its his torical traditions, and its va ried needs. The validity of these ideas is beyond doubt. But we have, unfortunately in our country, ignored them by adopting a system of edu cation which is a mere imi tation or image of the Am erican educational system. That system has its good points but it must have some very poor points otherwise, October 1961 15 the American leaders, as I stated previously, would not have been so apprehensive about improving them. It is high time that we should es tablish a system of educa tion suitable to us as a dis tinct people, with limited financial resources, with problems peculiar to our own conditions. We should not forget, however, that in many * * ways education is universal in character. Therefore, we need to discover and to learn whatever is good in the edu cational ideas of other coun tries; then we should import them, if necessary, not, how ever, through a system of adoption but through a pro cess of adaptation. Thus we may be able to enrich and develop our own. * NEW BLOOD TEST FOR BODY DISEASES A simple blood test for diseases of the heart, liver and other body organs based on the iden tification of enzyme “fingerprints” was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical So ciety. The test depends on LDH (lactic dehydro genase), an enzyme that regulates several im portant chemical processes in the body, accord ing to medical authorities. LDH occurs in five distinct forms caled isoenzymes, which appear in different proportions in different organs. Clinical tests indicate that when an organ is damaged it releases enzymes into the blood stream. “impress ing its LDH isoenzyme pattern on the blood, like an identifiable fingerprint,” the authorities ex plained. Blood tests can. therefore, serve to identify an injured organ, and they are especially suitable for the detection of heart and liver damaae be cause these LDH patterns differ markedly in their resistance to heat. A larae amount of LDH destroyed by heatinq a sample of the blood se rum at a relatively low temperature indicates li ver disease while a large proportion of lactic de hydrogenase stable at a relatively high tempera ture indicates heart damage. 16 Panorama
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