Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EN10E26
Filipino students, as soon as they finish getting a college degree, clamor for a
job abroad. Whether the job offered is far from the degree they got in college, they’d
still want to get the job. Take for example the early 2000’s Nursing Hype. It forced
different Filipinos to take Nursing as a college degree in order to work abroad. Many
Filipino doctors even took a course in nursing just to work outside the country.
Other Filipinos of different professions also took a course in caregiving just to work
abroad. Which brings up the question on the Philippine Educational System. Is the
The question on Philippine Education has been raised by a lot of people over
the decade. Different reforms on the system have been implemented with the hope
to produce a better batch of students. Classes start as early as 7:30 am and end
mostly at 5:00 pm. Students take seven to eight classes a day with only a 15-‐minute
recess and hour’s worth of lunch. There are science high schools whose students
are taught and trained to become the country’s next scientists. There are various
there are different other education programs implemented by the government that
aimed to develop the country’s student body. Yet, despite all these, the structure of
the Philippine Educational System is unable to produce nationalistic students. This
school system. Though it was one of their most significant contributions, it was the
Americans who designed the system. The Americans, being colonizers, designed the
Filipinos physically yet Americans psychologically.1 English was imposed and the
Americans for Americans, and students were made to memorize literary pieces from
notable Americans like the Gettysburg Address by Lincoln.2 This resulted into
having students admire American works and achievements. With this type of
Panlipunan (Social Studies) and Filipino. The use of vernacular is highly discouraged
in elementary schools and the appreciation of the English language is taught in two
children, the encouragement of the use of the Filipino language seems oblivious.
Despite being used as a medium of instruction, English, in the elementary, is taught
in two subjects, namely, English and Reading. The English subject is used to teach
pronunciation and essay writing. While the Reading subject is used to teach children
about English literary works. Children are tasked to memorize English poems such
as
The
Three
Little
Kittens
and
Invictus.
Whereas
for
the
Filipino
language,
it
is
only
taught
in
one
subject
and
only
used
as
a
medium
of
instruction
in
Araling
Panlipunan and Filipino. Unlike English and Reading, which have specific skills to
teach students, Filipino is used both for teaching grammar and literature. At the
same time, Araling Panlipunan is the only other subject that uses Filipino as a
seven and eight years old are tasked to memorize their rights and privileges.
Students are also required to memorize the different regions of the Philippines and
their respective provinces, regional capitals, festivals, landmarks, and products and
goods. This gives the children and students the impression that Filipino is hard to
learn. Many consider it “jologs” or inferior, and children think that if you speak more
Filipino compared to English, you’ll end up unsuccessful and poor. This leads into
conclusion that the country’s pro-‐English education has resulted into the Filipino’s
high disregard for the Filipino language, culture and heritage, and the Philippines
itself. This, once more, resulted to another deplorable truth – our country’s
backwardness.
achieve economic prosperity. With its significantly high statistics on Brain Drain, it
citizens and that it is a country pinned to economic stagnation and backwardness. If
advancement
utilized
their
knowledge
and
skills
within
the
country,
the
Philippines
would
have
been
enjoying
an
economically
prosperous
state
with
an
established
The Philippines national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, was famous for the quote “Ang
kabataan ang pag-‐asa ng bayan,” which means that the hope of the country rests
upon the youth. It is the youth’s minds that have been brain washed by the non-‐
Filipino ideals of the Philippine Educational System. It is the youth that is said to be
the country’s hope. It is the youth that’s supposed to make the change. But with the
situation. The only means of escaping from this predicament is for the country to fix
Sources:
1. Capili, Macario. Why Filipinos are not Patriotic People. Blogspot.com, 7 Mar. 2007.
2. Isidro, Antonio Ph.D. The Philippine Nationalism and the Schools. Manila: