Learning in times of crisis Butch Hernandez Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 17, 2009
MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero never said anything about a “calamity diploma” when he suggested that students at all levels be given a passing grade for the current semester or grading period in areas badly hit by “Pepeng” and “Ondoy.”
“Let me be very clear on this: I never said students in the calamity areas be accelerated or promoted to the next grade or year. What I favor is granting credits for this quarter or semester so students can help their families and communities recover from these disasters,” he said.
The controversial remark actually came from Education Secretary Jesli Lapus when he politely turned down Senator Escudero’s suggestion by saying that “Maybe he was misconstrued? We compound our losses of lives and property further with a costly penalty to the education of our children. The students might pray for supertyphoons every year, and we might end up with calamity diplomas.”
Unfortunately, Secretary Lapus’ remark must have hit a nerve, because the young senator immediately returned serve with: “The trauma inflicted on our children can very well be immeasurable. To say then that our students will now pray for supertyphoons every year so they can pass school without studying is very lamentable and uncalled for.”
Meanwhile, Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador—ever the voice of reason—assured a perplexed public that “we can’t afford to lose further by giving up the needed learning of our youth” and that the Department of Education was “looking for ways to make up for the missed class days [so that] required minimum number of class days can be met.”
DepEd’s National Capital Region director Teresita Domalanta said this was exactly what they were trying to do for the cities that were hardest hit by Ondoy. “Our teachers always try their best to give those students in danger of failure [every chance to pass], like remedial classes and other enrichment studies. Our teachers even visit them at home. So now, although many of our teachers are also victims of the [storms], they will do what they can to help students pass. We’ve already thought about this. Our teachers will walk the extra mile to visit them,” Domalanta said. She also added that “after all, under normal circumstances at most only one or two students fail in an average class of 50 students.”
That would make Senator Escudero’s suggestion and Secretary Lapus’ rejection thereof seem rather pointless really, at least as far as public schools in the NCR are concerned.
Not a few cynics would dismiss all this brouhaha as nothing but collateral damage that happens when political ambitions collide. However, let’s look at the issue again because it draws attention to a basic question that has bedeviled education reform advocates for decades: “What exactly is the passing grade in our public schools?”
The quick answer is, of course, 75 percent, which is derisively called “pasang-awa” by incensed parents of underachieving students. During his stint as education secretary, Dr. Edilberto de Jesus learned about—and immediately forbade—the use of the infamous transmutation tables. These were essentially arbitrary conversion factors that teachers and principals applied on the student’s raw test scores, presumably to arrive at more “favorable” results in a manner of speaking. Perhaps the added merit points were based on well-meant intentions. For example, the teacher might want to give a student extra credit for a very good school project or maybe give some recognition for a demonstrated willingness to learn. Thankfully, De Jesus disallowed this practice because it threw a monkey wrench into two things that would really help any teacher teach better: standardized testing and accurate measurement of the learner’s progress.
So, is 75 percent the passing grade? Let’s see.
The DepEd’s Basic Education Fact Sheet for School Year 2007-2008 shows that the mean percentage score in the National Achievement Tests for Grade 6 is 64.81 percent—up from the 59.94 percent of the previous school year.
Lately, education reform advocates have been turning to the National Achievement Test as a starting point for their interventions and programmed assistance. Most notably, the 5775 Education Reform Alliance (ERA) uses NAT scores as symbolic rallying points for education stakeholders in the local communities. The 5775 ERA’s founding members are the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF), Synergeia Foundation, the Ateneo Center for Education Development (ACEd), the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSB), Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) and the Foundation for Worldwide People Power (FWWPP). Each of these organizations has its own core education improvement initiatives that it implements in its project area. The LCF, PBSB and PBEd figure prominently in Corporate Social Responsibility programs, while ACEd, Synergeia and the FWWPP have been implementing community and school-level interventions.
Mario Deriquito, chair of the 5775 Task Force and director of the Ayala Foundation’s Center for Social Development, stresses that 5775 is by no means a simple race to bring up NAT scores to 75 because the NAT results are not what appear on the student’s report card. Otherwise, Director Domalanta’s estimate that only one or two fail in an average class of 50 students would be clearly impossible.
Butch Hernandez (butchhernandez@gmail.com) is the executive director of the Foundation for Worldwide People Power.
