Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today lambasted the Department of Education's move to reduce the number of class hours in some public elementary schools, saying that the smaller learning load will only worsen the already sorry state of education in the country.
“Last we checked, students are punished if they cut classes. This time, the DepEd itself is driving students out of their classrooms. The DepEd deserves 'detention time' and should be reprimanded for this proposal," Palatino said.
The young solon said “While it is true that students are squatting on dirty floors in makeshift classrooms, this sorry state should not prompt our education officials to cut down the number of class hours. This will have an adverse impact on the quality of public education, especially since students taking national assessment tests have obtained failing marks during the past few years.”
Palatino also slammed the “integration” of subjects as it will only “confuse learners.”
“Remember that it is basic education we are talking about. Before we learn the connection between subjects, we should learn the basics, the fundamentals. Kung pagsasamahin ang mga subjects, hindi na malalaman ng bata kung ano ang pinagkaiba ng Hekasi sa MAPE,” he said.
Instead of reducing the number of class hours, Palatino said the government should prioritize and focus on building more classrooms and improving school facilities to make learning conducive to students. He said that shortages and the deterioration in the quality of education can be mainly be attributed to the "the government's continuous neglect of the education sector coupled with the numerous unresolved corruption cases within the DepEd that cut off a huge chunk of its already insufficient budget."
“The proposed 2010 budget for education hardly grew from the current budget. The government has been religiously implementing the 'limited or zero growth' in government spending recommended by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to tame the government deficit and ensure debt payments,” Palatino said.
Palatino cited a study conducted by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) that class size in Philippine elementary schools stood at 1:43.9 while in Malaysia the figure is at 1:31.7, Thailand, 1:22.9, Japan, 1:28.6, and India 1:40.
The Unesco data also show that teacher-pupil ratio for the primary level in the Philippines (1:35) far exceeds that of Thailand (1:18), Malaysia (1:17), Indonesia (1:20), Japan (1:19), and China (1:18). ###
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