SARA DUTERTE: THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (5)
We’ve chances to cope with the issues, if only the Deped chief knows and understands them. But Sara Duterte does not. She is detached and is focusing on issues other than Deped’s. Lately, she has been parroting some lines opposing the arrival of 60,000 Afghan refugees, who would have to stay a while in the Philippines on their way to relocation in the U.S.
Demonstrating a disturbed mind mainly shaped by local politics, Sara hardly touches on the many issues confronting Deped. Her advocacies are way out of line or even irrelevant to the multifarious education issues. Sara does not have an iota of idea why they are irrelevant. For instance, she has been calling for the restoration of the largely unproductive ROTC without showing any program to make it relevant to the modern times. She has advocating for a “toothbrush drill,” a program which is best left to parents of preschoolers and elementary pupils.
The Philippines has the highest literacy rate in South East Asia, at 99.25% as of 2021. But education data are mostly appalling for Sara’s information. Comparative achievement tests among students of the East Asian countries showed that among 79 participating countries and economies, the Philippines scored the lowest in reading comprehension in 2018.
Achievement tests, as of 2018, also showed that only about a quarter of Filipino high school graduates had proficiency (or fluency) in spoken English and much less in written English. The following are disappointing: 48.17% lack pronunciation skills; and 58.27% lack comprehension skills. A lot of things have to be done to raise their level and competence and make them competitive in the labor market.
The dropout rates among elementary and high school students are equally appalling. Of the 1,000 pupils, who enter elementary schools (public and private), a little over 30% drops out before completing Grade 6. A high rate reaching a little over 40% drops out among the students, who enter private and public junior high schools. There’s no available data for drop rates for those who enter senior high school.
There are solutions to these issues. The full enforcement of the drop reduction program (DORP) is one. But the problem is not its pursuit, but a Deped leadership, which is unfocused and disturbed. The program is there. Its components, including the various intervention programs, including economic, to help parents of needy students have been put in place by previous leaderships. But where is Sara.
The unhinged Sara is nowhere to be found. She is busy redtagging people and groups that do not conform to her antiquated views and disturbed mind. Deped needs an overhaul, including a change in leadership. It needs leaders, who are driven and possess a sense of vision to drive Philippine education to greater heights.
SARA DUTERTE: THE UNHINGED POLITICIAN (6)
There are strong doubts if Sara Duterte knows and understand the magnitude and extent of the serious dislocation caused by cruel lockdown imposed by the madman to control the alleged spread of the Covid-19 virus. If she does not know and understand them, the likelihood is that she could not properly address them.
This could be the reason why she is not addressing the education issues confronting the country. Instead of saying something on them, she has chosen subject matters that are totally alien to her education portfolio. She has shown some skills to redtag people, branding them as communists even without solid proofs, or call for the restoration of the totally irrelevant ROTC and the weird “toothbrush drill” for grade schoolers, a job best left to their parents.
Aside from the fear and anxiety of contracting the virus, the pandemic and its harsh lockdown has led to the suspension of physical classes, the disruption of regular daily routines, and the decrease of social support from school peers collectively add burden to the mental well-being of children. It has led to a new model in education, which is the adoption of online classes in lieu of the face-to- face socratic traditions of teaching and learning.
The adoption of online class has led to another problem due mainly to the lack of mobile gadgets to use for online classes. This situation has hampered the students' education. It has given rise to further problems which include time management. There is an expectation for students to juggle studies and help in daily household chores.
The lockdown has created issues in distance learning since students struggle with discipline. Not being in a classroom in front of a teacher and having to make their own schedules and stick with them was challenging to most students. They were affected psychologically by school closures, lack of equipment to participate in course exercises, or being unable to access online materials from home and being unable to leave home for a long time
For a while, Sara appeared coherent to show some semblance of knowledge for her job as Deped secretary. Shortly after she assumed the office, she said: “The lack of school infrastructure and resources to support the ideal teaching process is the most pressing issue pounding the Philippine basic education,” she said. She presented the latest government inventory which shows that out of 327,851 school buildings in the country, only 104,536 are in good condition.”
But what followed next has been deplorable. Sara continues to spew inane statements that hardly have bearing to her job as the secretary of the biggest bureaucracy in the government. It shows one thing: She is not serious in her job at Deped. She does not know and understand education. She is a miserable and misinformed local politician in national politics.
It best that somebody takes over Deped. An educator with an excellent track record in education should be named. A program to uplift the education sector has to be developed. Sara is a misfit in education.
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