12 years for Basic Education in the Philippines (mycebu)
Philippine Education Secretary Florencio Abad has been reported to be 'seriously considering' extending the country’s 10-year elementary and high school "basic education cycle" to 12 or more years despite "stiff resistance" from parents.
At a press conference over the weekend, Abad said that "at 10 years - six years in elementary and four years in high school, we have the shortest education cycle in the Asia-Pacific."
He said the average basic education cycle in the Asia-Pacific region is 12 years, adding that the cycle in Japan and South Korea is 13 years. "Some (other countries) are even contemplating 14 years," he added.
"We have to realize that the competition out there is very intense - so if our children are not equipped with the necessary competency then we will lose out," Abad said. "We are seriously looking at - and this has to be an act of Congress - extending, for example, our high school so we can have junior high school," he said.
I totally agree. We used to follow the American system of education, and I think sometime back, some smart politician came up with a great idea that why don't we just cut the education requirements from 12 years to 10 years so that we can 'unburden' the parents earlier. Then we can have the children come out of school earlier, and they can start earning for their family earlier. The problem is that they will earn earlier, but they will not have a chance of ever earning good.
It is almost like the restaurant who after looking at the huge gas bill, decided that it would be better if instead of totally cooking the food, they would save a lot of money if they serve it all medium well, that is 80% cooked only. We are unfortunately getting a bad reputation of serving 'uncooked' food, and the Philippines is largely known as a site for semi-skilled manpower, or trainable manpower ( meaning the company might still have to invest in training programs before the person can be productive) , instead of skilled and ready-to-use manpower.
Abad said such plans will be put through consultation with local officials and parents. "We are encountering resistance, especially from parents, because they want their children to finish studying fast, regardless of the quality of education that they get," he said.
I think herein lies the problem - the culture that prizes the diploma irregardless of the quality of education. We need to work harder to convince parents that merely getting a diploma is not enough - the quality of the education, and what actually the child learns in school is also important.
"We understand that, because many of our parents who are poor see the graduation of their children as their liberation from poverty," Abad said.
However, "we have to realize that if we do not produce quality graduates, we can not have the quality employment and we will end up with a kind of employment to which many of our people can qualify, such as the OFW (overseas Filipino workers) kind of employment," he added. Many OFW’s are employed as domestic helpers.
He warned that unless changes in the education cycle are made, the Philippines "will not be able to produce enough graduates to take on the high-paying jobs."
In today's high tech economy, the quality of education is key, and that has been, for me, the sole factor that India is now earning over $15 billion dollars in outsourcing services. There is a lot of complaints you can say about India - the weather is hot, there is corruption, there is no water or electricity, the infrastructure is bad, the internet is expensive, the bureacracy is crippling, and many others, but one thing that cannot be denied is they are turning out quality graduates that can cut the needs of the information and communications technology economy, and every company is beating a path to its door and allowing them to use that opportunity to turn itself out of poverty.
Abad said the Philippine education system is in a serious crisis, citing that the national achievement test showed an average score of 46.80 percent for fourth year high school students and 58.73 percent for grade six pupils.
"We are facing problems in poor quality of education especially in math, science and English," he added.
Adding to the years in schooling is undoubtedly an unpopular move, and while it has been debated for over 15 years now, nobody has had the willpower to push it through. I think we need to seriously look at this more carefully, and popular or not, we have to do what is right for our future generations in order for them to be competitive, and stand shoulder to shoulder in competence with the people in all parts of the world.
Source: Ding Cervantes article in Philippine Star, July 5, 2005.
3:47:06 PM 
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