My Reaction top Prof. Renato Constantino's Book

Reaction to:

From Prof. Renato Constantino’s Book, The Continuing Miseducation of the Filipinos

I totally agree with this. “Education must both be seen not as an acquisition of information but as the making of man so that he may function most effectively and usefully within his own society.”

I also agree with Prof. Constantino’s position that “Education should not be mere memorization of information just to pass tests.” It is good to note, though, that Philippines is not the only country doing this. Japan’s education system is also geared towards passing examinations so that students can go to prestigious schools, colleges and universities.

The next statement, “education must be relevant to the Filipino and to his country. Education must empower him and teach him to discover what he can do for his own progress and the progress of his countrymen” is absolutely right in the context of what should really happen in the country’s education system. I think that the new government is trying to correct some problems of our educational system. Philippines is one of the few countries that are not adopting the K-12 education system. Personally, I was shocked when I first taught outside the country. Our countrymen should make some rightful sacrifices to correct the system. We need to catch up with international standards.

The next statement of Prof. Constantino reads and I quote, “Experience has shown that children who are taught in their native tongue learn more easily and better than those taught in English.” This is correct when we look at our regional and national situation. Our educational administrators and policy makers should make our education in the lower years easy to understand while building our capacity as a nation to meet the demands of globalization. There is also a need to emphasize the study, use and mastery of the English language.

I agree that we need to use our native language to understand things better and faster. But we should also put more emphasis on our capacity to excel in the lingua franca of the world in this age of globalization. The world is becoming one in terms of its capacity to communicate to each other due to the advancement of technology.

Let us not diminish our natural ability to speak and write English fluently by over-emphasizing Tagalog as our national language. Any Filipino who speaks a different dialect than Tagalog can argue this easily. Those of us who have lived overseas easily understand how important is English in our life outside the Philippines. We are hired and we are able to teach outside the Philippines not just because of our good work ethic but also because of our English-speaking ability.

If Prof. Constantino believes that learning is easier and better when one’s native language is used, I would say why not use Cebuano to teach Cebuano speaking people? Tagalog is my national language. Tagalog is not my native language, it is Cebuano. This reasoning can be applied to all the other non-native Tagalog speakers in the country. Teach core subjects in one’s native language (Bicolano, Ilocano, etc.) and we will see what happen. . .

I just hope that this PNoy Administration will correct some of our decades- old problems in our educational system.

Just an observation.