TAGUM CITY— Education officials are optimistic yet cramming for the Education For All (EFA) target by 2015.
Last week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued its report that the countries, including the Philippines, would not be able to achieve the target as 57 million children “are still failing to learn, simply because they are not in school.”
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova in the foreword of the recently released TEACHING AND LEARNING: Achieving quality for all, said: “With less than two years left before 2015, this Report makes it clear that we will not.”
But Department of Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo, in a phone interview, told Davao Today that “Deped is doubling its effort to meet the EFA target by 2015 particularly ensuring all five-year-old will have a mandatory kindergarten education.”
“We are targeting 1 million out-of-school youth aged 15 to 30 years. Although it is not an easy task and we may appear cramming but we remain positive towards achieving this goal,” said Mateo.
In Region XI alone, various DepEd Division offices took initiatives and undertakings in order to achieve the EFA goals.
For instance, DepEd Davao del Norte Division has intensified its Alternative Learning System and Distance Learning Program to reach and educate out-of-school-youth in the province.
Reached through text, Davao del Norte Schools Division Superintendent Josephine L. Fadul said that “these are our focus to achieve the EFA goals by 2015 anchoring on adult literacy so that we can achieve our targets slowly but surely.”
Fadul added that: “(W)e even implement strictly the no collection policy and optional uniform policy so that it would not be a burden to parents and students.”
In Tagum, similar policies have been implemented including the strengthening of the Accreditation and Equivalency Test (AET) and Philippines Educational Placement Test(PEPT) which was devised to check and improve the quality of instruction among the teachers and students.
Public school teachers, however, criticized DepEd for employing policies which they branded as “loopholes” in the educational system to achieve the EFA 2015 goals.
“We know that most of our learners nowadays are dropping into illiteracy because of the so-called mass promotion even though these learners shouldn’t be promoted because they have academic deficiencies. A poor teacher is always being blamed for the low performances of the students. Who’s to be blamed?” Public school teacher Acel Unas said.
Another public school teacher, Noemi Amasig Garcia asked: “How can we achieve quality education if we don’t have classroom yet, no books. We are still using tent, is that quality?”
For Rebecca Rubin said “Quality education sounds good but we can’t achieve quality if the salary of the teachers are very low. I hope all government officers in the higher position can help increase our salary. We worked so hard yet we are not compensated.”
Meanwhile, Fred Er Izza said “Deped must resolve first the perennial problems of classrooms, books and lack of teachers. How can we expect to have quality education if teacher to student ratio is obviously impractical to gauge learning?”
“The disadvantaged are most likely to suffer, because of insufficient numbers of trained teachers, overstretched infrastructure and inadequate supply of instructional materials,” Izzra said.
In the UNESCO report, Bokova pointed out that “Access is not the only crisis – poor quality is holding back learning even for those who make it to school. One third of primary school age children are not learning the basics, whether they have been to school or not.”
“Basic education is currently underfunded by US$26 billion a year, while aid is continuing to decline. At this stage, governments simply cannot afford to reduce investment in education – nor should donors step back from their funding promises,” Bokova said.
For the “early childhood care and education” target, the report showed that 68 countries are expected to have reached “pre-primary enrolment of 80% excluding the Philippines with far from achieving the target with 30-69%.”
For the “universal primary education”, the report said the Philippines “is one of 14 countries estimated to have more than one million out-of-school children and also one where there has been lack of progress towards Universal Primary Education (UPE).”
By 2015, the report said that “54 countries are not expected to have achieved universal primary enrolment including the Philippines with 80-94% which is far from reaching the target.”
The Philippines, according to the report, has a target reached close to 95% but emphasized “the crucial importance of foundation skills, including literacy and numeracy among the youth and adults should be met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes.”
The UNESCO report said the Philippines have “almost all young men and women from rich households with basic literacy skills” compared “86% of poor young women and 72% of poor young men.”
On “adult literacy”, the report projects that the country “will achieve 95% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.”
The report, likewise, showed the number of illiterate adults “remains stubbornly high at 774 million, a fall of 12% since 1990 but just 1% since 2000. It is projected only to fall to 743 million by 2015.”
For “gender parity and equality”, the report said that by 2015, “the Philippines has a target reached close to 95% eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education achieving gender equality in education with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.”
But the report also said that “gender disparity patterns vary between countries in different income groups.”
“Among low income countries, disparities are commonly at the expense of girls: 20% achieve gender parity in primary education, 10% in lower secondary education and 8% in upper secondary education,” the report said.
With the “quality of education” or the 6th Goal, the report shows that “70% of countries are expected to reach gender parity in primary enrolment including Philippines but it also noted that “the pupil/teacher ratio is one measure for assessing progress towards goal 6.”
Globally, “average pupil/teacher ratios have barely changed at the pre-primary, primary and secondary levels,” the report added. (davaotoday.com)
