MikeLigalig.com

By JES TIROL
Columnist
The Bohol Chronicle

Part 3. It takes too long to study too little. (Last of series)

Proem

More than 30 years ago I studied Master in Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand. It is an international school of graduate engineering attended by different nationalities. It was, and is an accepted fact that the Filipino students there are ill prepared compared to other nationalities despite the fact that Filipinos take a 5-year engineering curriculum compared to the 4-year curriculum of other countries.

We were always teased, “What took you too long to study too little?” It is because of the 5-year engineering curriculum, subjects equivalent to 2 years, are studied that are not related to engineering at all. In effect Filipinos studied only 3 years of engineering subjects compared to the 4 years from other countries that are all engineering subjects.

Shallow content

If you will study the subjects offered in Elementary, High School, and even in College, you will notice that there are too many per year level and most of them will be repeated in the higher level of school.

The course content becomes very shallow because of the many subjects to be studied. In the fact the Makabayan course of Secretary of Education Raul Roco lumped together the subjects of science, mathematics, history, etc. and taught using the bastardized English known as Filipino.

For example, the subject Filipino is studied every grade level from Grade I to college. After finishing college you still do not know Filipino because in the first place, nobody knows the grammar and vocabulary of the Filipino language. You can just see the waste of time and effort.

The Philippine Constitution is also studied from elementary school to college only to find out that the Constitution is already changed. Add to this the many erroneous textbooks used in elementary and high school and you can just imagine the quality of our high school graduates.

Wrong content

The most common complaint of parents of high school students is that their children are learning things that are not useful in the community. When the children graduates in high school, they could not work because they do not know any skill and their academic knowledge is not yet employable. As a result, those who could not proceed to college will deteriorate to non-functional literacy. They could not also work in the farm or sea because they did not obtain the skills due to their attendance in school. They become idle and prone to commit mischiefs.

Present trend of gangsterism

In Bohol and throughout the country today, there is an emerging trend of high school students indulging in gangsterism. This is a sure sign that there is something wrong in the psychological make up of high school students. Gangsterism is a sign of frustration, which in the 1950s was called “a rebel without a cause.”

When a young man or woman could not see something good to come out of what he is doing now, he will surely become frustrated.

Comment

There is no doubt that the educational system in Bohol and in the Philippines has deteriorated. It is imparting knowledge that is below par and of the meager knowledge imparted, most of it is not useful to the community.

I have been teaching in college for 46 years and I noticed that in the last 10 years the quality of high school graduates has turned from bad to worse.

They do not have a good command of any language. Their knowledge is shallow. They have no desire to study. And worse, they expect to pass even if they do not meet the standard.

Do you think you can now answer the question, “What take you too long to study to little?”

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