PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. virtually brought the house down when he declared in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday that he was banning the widely opposed Chinese-dominated Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) \"effective today\" and then instructed Pagcor \"to wind down and 'cease' the operations of POGOs by the end of the year.\"<\/p>\r\r
The entire Congress gave him a prolonged standing ovation.<\/p>\r\r
Yet his SONA did little to meet higher public expectations. The speech began by talking of the price of rice, the nation's staple that has gone beyond the reach of the hungry common man, and tried to cover as much ground as possible, but it failed to carry an overarching central message on where the nation stood today and where it was going. It contained a minimalist reference to \"international relations\" but did not mention the South China Sea or the Philippines' West Philippine Sea by name and gave no assurance that the government has a plan for peace or for war as a solution to this problem.<\/p>\r\r
I was hoping the President would be a bit more expansive in discussing the subject of education, especially since Sen. Juan Edgardo \"Sonny\" Angara, who had just taken over as the new Secretary of Education, was in the audience. This was one of the President's most important Cabinet appointments. Not only is Angara properly educated and highly qualified for the job, I suspect he might have nourished a personal passion for it ever since his father, the late former Senate president Edgardo J. Angara, held the same portfolio before he entered the Senate.<\/p>\r\r
While acknowledging that more than half of our Grade 6, 10 and 12 students have failed to reach ideal proficiency levels, faring low in information literacy, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, the President was pleased to announce that 87 of our higher educational institutions (HEIs), 51 of them public universities and colleges, are now of world university rankings; that 63 HEIs have made it into the WURI Top 300 innovative universities; and that things were doing well in higher education and at the technical-vocational and training (TVET) sector.<\/p>\r\r
He said the government was working to equip all students with computers, smart TVs, essential programs, digital books, and access to reliable power and the internet. He said digitalization and solar-powered electricity must now be standard features in our schools and classrooms. But the problems of education are much bigger and more urgent than normally acknowledged; they need to be given the highest priority by government.<\/p>\r\r
The Department of Education is the biggest government department and accounts for the biggest budget in the Cabinet. But one of its primary problems is its lack of resources. The department employs over 900,000 personnel, at least 800,000 of them teachers, not including the 300,000 private school teachers and personnel. It serves a school population of over 21 million students enrolled as of this school year 2023-2024. But it is facing severe challenges at this point.<\/p>\r\r
According to the 2022 results of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Philippines obtained an average score of 356, third from the bottom in science; 355, sixth from the bottom in mathematics; and 347, sixth from the bottom in reading. The best PISA results were obtained by Singapore, with a score of 575; Macau, 572; Chinese Taipei, 547; Hong Kong, 540; and Japan, 536.<\/p>\r\r
PISA assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in math, reading and science, particularly how well they can solve complex problems, think critically and communicate effectively. Seventy-eight percent (78 percent) of the students failed to reach the minimum levels of efficiency in each of the three PISA subjects; only 19 percent obtained proficiency in reading, math and science, according to reports.<\/p>\r\r
At the same time, the Philippines ranked 111 as the smartest country with an IQ of 81.64 in a survey of 199 countries, according to the World Population Review of the Smartest Country. This ranking is considered average. The smartest countries, according to this survey, as indicated by their IQ, are Japan (106.48); Taiwan, 106.47; Singapore, 105.89; Hong Kong, 105.39; China, 104.10; South Korea, 102.35; Belarus, 101.60; Finland, 101.20; Liechtenstein, 101.07; Germany, 100.74.<\/p>\r\r
The race to the top is a race for excellence, and we must do everything to catch up with those listed above. In this highly competitive world, only the best will survive; we must develop not only an educational system that will allow our young to ride the winds of technological change but also a lifelong educational program for all that will educate even the elderly and technologically unschooled to interact with everybody else in the world. It should be the State's obligation and objective to make sure that no age group is ever left behind and excluded from the conversation just because artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitical tension, or technological disruption has brought mankind into a new and different world.<\/p>\r\r
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[email protected]<\/em><\/p>","article_custom_fields":"{\"\":[\"\"],\"seo_meta_description\":[\"\"],\"drupal_json\":[\"{\\\"type\\\":null,\\\"properties\\\":{\\\"PUBLISHED\\\":0,\\\"PROMOTED\\\":0,\\\"STICKY\\\":0},\\\"fields\\\":[]}\"],\"wp_custom_json\":[\"{\\\"type\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"fields\\\":[]}\"],\"Redirect_URL\":[\"\"],\"Registration_required\":[\"off\"],\"article_tags\":[\"\"],\"show_image\":[\"off\"],\"Disable_Ad\":[\"off\"],\"disable_player\":[\"off\"],\"premium\":[\"off\"],\"delu\":[\"\"],\"delt\":[\"Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.\"],\"offer_flag\":[\"off\"],\"background_image\":[\"off\"],\"kicker\":[\"\"],\"page_number\":\"0\",\"initial_publication\":\"\",\"date_created\":\"2024-07-23 22:14:41\",\"date_modified\":\"2024-07-23 23:23:16\",\"last_modified_user\":\"Sherwin Arnaiz\",\"section_color\":\"\",\"target_page\":\"0\",\"cxense_metatags\":null}","cms_type":"live","author_id":33,"section_id":13,"seo_meta_keywords":"Educating,even,the,unschooled","seo_meta_description":"","seo_meta_title":"Educating even the unschooled","publish_time":"2024-07-24 00:07:00","related_articles_ids":"","article_tags":"","sub_section_id":6,"visit_count":210,"sponsored_flag":0,"offer_flag":0,"featured_article_flag":0,"media_gallery_flag":0,"video_gallery_flag":0,"highlight_flag":0,"top_story_flag":0,"is_updated":0,"is_old_article":0,"old_article_id":0,"article_byline":"Francisco S. Tatad","ts":"2024-07-31 18:34:54","last_edited":"2024-07-23 23:23:16","alt_publish_time":"2024-07-23 22:18:12","image_path":"{\\\"image_path\\\":\\\"manilatimes\\\\\/uploads\\\\\/images\\\\\/2024\\\\\/07\\\\\/23\\\\\/378653.jpg\\\",\\\"cms_type\\\":\\\"live\\\",\\\"small_image\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"is_updated\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"image_cropping\\\":\\\"{\\\\\\\"original_image\\\\\\\":{\\\\\\\"image_original_width\\\\\\\":1920,\\\\\\\"image_original_height\\\\\\\":1008,\\\\\\\"icd_image_type\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"original_image\\\\\\\"},\\\\\\\"main_image\\\\\\\":{\\\\\\\"image_main_width\\\\\\\":1200,\\\\\\\"image_main_height\\\\\\\":629,\\\\\\\"icd_image_type\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"main_image\\\\\\\"}}\\\",\\\"is_copied\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"media_type\\\":\\\"0\\\",\\\"image_caption\\\":\\\"Francisco Tatad\\\",\\\"image_alt_text\\\":\\\"\\\",\\\"image_count\\\":1}","author_name":"Francisco S. Tatad","section_name":"Opinion","sub_section_name":"Columns","slide_show":0,"breaking_news":0,"visit_count_update_date":"2024-07-31 18:34:54","old_cms_article_id":null,"permalink":"2024\/07\/24\/opinion\/columns\/educating-even-the-unschooled\/1959387","show_image_in_thumb":0,"api_status":2,"a_custom_data":"{\"exclude_from_gallery\":null,\"lead_image_id\":null}","publication_id":2,"max_publish_time":"2024-07-24 00:07:00","page_number":"","homepage_article_flag":0,"article_shortlink":null,"cropped_image":0};
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. virtually brought the house down when he declared in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday that he was banning the widely opposed Chinese-dominated Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) "effective today" and then instructed Pagcor "to wind down and 'cease' the operations of POGOs by the end of the year."
The entire Congress gave him a prolonged standing ovation.
