Father Bernas Takes a Stand on the Reproductive Health Bill

JOAQUIN BERNAS, SJ, weighs in on the highly controversial Reproductive Health Bill currently being debated in the Philippine Congress, in Mass Media and online in the social networks.

If and when this legislation is passed by Congress and signed by the President, the Catholic Church opposition and its staunchest allies will surely seek to have it annulled by the Supreme Court--in a case destined to be historic as far as religion, education and social policy making in the PH are concerend.

Thus the many salient points Joaquin Bernas makes in his Philippine Daily Inquirer column are likely to echo in the coming controversies and debates over the RH Bill. I hope to address them in a series of now-rare "long form" Philippine Commentaries and invite readers old and new to participate in the Comment Threads.

BERNAS No. 1

"First, let me start by saying that I adhere to the teaching of the Church on artificial contraception even if I am aware that the teaching on the subject is not considered infallible doctrine by those who know more theology than I do. Moreover, I am still considered a Catholic and Jesuit in good standing by my superiors, critics notwithstanding!"

Commentary on Bernas-1:

In the above, Fr. Bernas mentions a little-appreciated point about current Church Doctrine on "artificial contraception"-- that it is not one of the Churches officially designated INFALLIBLE TEACHINGS. Even though this opinion is held by  "theologians who know more than" he does, Fr. Bernas claims to nonetheless adhere to the Church's teaching on the matter.  As proof of this he notes that his religious superiors still consider him to be in good standing within the Catholic Church.  (((Whew, only a Jesuit could put it like that and thus smuggle in some Freedom of Speech wiggle room on the issue of contraception without being excommunicated or fall out of good standing!))) But I happen to agree with his assessment of the current state of the Church's teaching on contraception. Papal infallibility has not been proclaimed for its teachings on birth control -- which only means that it COULD CHANGE. In other words, the present Church teachings on artificial means of birth control are corrigible and reformable.   Upon close examination, this simple observation made in Bernas No. 2 has a severe rhetorical implication for diehard anti-RH Bill forces inside and outside the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.  They cannot claim that the Vatican won't ever change its position on artificial contraception. Indeed, the Pope could at any time allow certain forms of artificial contraception that the Church authorities could establish as definitively and technologically non-abortifacient. A hint of this possibility has already been given in Pope Benedict's recent statements condoms.

Bernas No. 2

Father Bernas was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission appointed by President Cory to draft the later ratified 1987 Constitution.  He addresses  certain essential operating principles Freedom of Religion at those who oppose the RH Bill's passage into law on religious grounds--that such a law would allow behavior contrary to Catholic doctrine and faith.

"Second (very important for me as a student of the Constitution and of church-state relations), I am very much aware of the fact that we live in a pluralist society where various religious groups have differing beliefs about the morality of artificial contraception. But freedom of religion means more than just the freedom to believe. It also means the freedom to act or not to act according to what one believes. Hence, the state should not prevent people from practicing responsible parenthood according to their religious belief nor may churchmen compel President Aquino, by whatever means, to prevent people from acting according to their religious belief. As the “Compendium on the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church” says, “Because of its historical and cultural ties to a nation, a religious community might be given special recognition on the part of the State. Such recognition must in no way create discrimination within the civil or social order for other religious groups” and “Those responsible for government are required to interpret the common good of their country not only according to the guidelines of the majority but also according to the effective good of all the members of the community, including the minority.” [italics and bolding by DJB]

DJB Commentary on Bernas No. 2

Having first expressed his adherence to Church teaching and continued "good standing" within it, Father Bernas here in Point No. 2 makes crystal clear, his take on Freedom of Religion and I congratulate him for the lucid expression of it above.  For it is a stunning statement if you look at it more closely and mine it for all its panoply of rhetorical and constitutional implications.

For example, Father Bernas is surely indirectly chastising public persons such as Rep. Manny "The Pacman" Pacquiao and Rep. Pablo Garcia who invoke their belief in God and the Church's teachings in  opposing the RH Bill.  As with the most conservative among the Catholic Bishops  they declare that their opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill is based on a strict interpretation of, and adherence to the Church's teachings and is essentially an exercise of their Freedom of Religion. But Father Bernas' point above challenges such Catholic  because their right to exercise Freedom of Religion depends on recognizing an equal right by others to practice their religion, and most importantly, "to act or not to act" according "to what one believes."  

Fr. Bernas is saying that even if Catholics believe (as some of them certainly do) that "human life begins at fertilization and not at implantation" they may not prevent others from believing that "conception" of human life begins at some other earlier or later stage of the reproductive process. Moreover such Catholics have no right to prevent others "to act or not act" upon such different belief. 

I agree with this characterization of Freedom of Religion. It presents the radical anti RH Bill wing of the Catholic Church with an ethical dilemma as follows. In the crafting of laws and public policies by Congresses of Catholic majority composition, how are conscientious officials what is the that some Catholics may deem as going against Catholic doctrinal teaching in one way or another. 

  

The 1987 Constitution contains the following provisions in  the Bill of Rights which many regard as a definition of the Freedom of Religion in the PH (with obvious Anglospheric roots): 

Section 5. [1] No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. 

[2] The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. 

[3] No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.

 Of these three I think the last contains a relevant and material point to the RH Bill as follows. While the No Religious Test provision is conventionally interpreted as covering only the idea that anyone otherwise qualified can run for political office regardless of his Religion, I think it can be given a much wider interpretation and applies to far many more situations involving questions of Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State.

For example,  who will deny that getting married and having children is both a CIVIL and HUMAN RIGHT protected by the Constitution and the Civil Code? We can surely assert that, "No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil and political rights," such as the right to get married to have children. Or NOT to have children at a particular time in a couple's life and relationship."

I don't see why "No religious test" should be restricted in interpretation to "a test of what is a person's religious affiliation." I think the provision actually means something much more. I think that "No Religious Test" means that the Congress may not pass laws or craft social policy based on some particular THEOLOGICAL consideration. The "public morality" enforced by the Laws, in my opinion, cannot be based on any theology at all for that would violate the absolute neutrality towards Establishments of Religion that Separation of Church and State demands.

Education's Big Budget and Even Bigger Agenda

For fiscal year 2011 the Dept. of Education gets a budget of over 207 billion pesos,  a substantial increase of 19% over 2010, and a signal that the Aquino administration intends to fulfill campaign promises to fix perennial problems in public education left unsolved by Gloria Arroyo.   These include the need for over 152,500 more classrooms and twice the current number of half a million teachers, in order to achieve more effective class sizes and student to teacher ratios of about 25:1.

But these logistical and human resource problems have plagued the public schools since before xPGMA's time.  That they have been treated merely as a resource allocation matter bespeaks of the overall lack of vision about the role of education in national development. What ails Philppine education is of a more systemic and structural nature where we are trying to cram 13 or 14 years worth of study in ten years.

Thus, there is the ambitious plan to expand the current ten year public education program to thirteen years by installing universal kindergarten for five year olds, prior to the current six year Elementary school program,  and a  two-year "Senior High School" at the end of the present 4 year Secondary school program.  Deped's K12 Discussion Paper contains the details of this proposed expansion of the public school system.  A successful implementation would bring the Philippines up to the present international standard of a 13-14 year public school system before College education.  PH would be the last to do so in the region.

Deped Secretary Armin Luistro laid out the overall Education Agenda in a First Hundred Days Message last month.

(1) the 12-year basic education cycle,   

(2) universal preschooling for all,

(3) Madaris Education,

(4) technical vocational education,

(5) “Every Child a Reader” by Grade 1,

(6) Science and Math proficiency,

(7) assistance to private schools as essential partners in basic education,

(8) rationalization of the medium of instruction,

(9) quality textbooks, and 

(10) partnering with Local Governments to build years more schools.

Each item above represents the material for an active public debate and discussion for years to come.

Universal Kindergarten or pre-school for five year olds is reportedly set for inauguration in the 2011-2012 school year.  The public should be interested and involved in the development of the academic and activity package of Kindergarten, since the critical nature of such early childhood education has become widely recognized.  In my opinion Universal Kindergarten can be the proper antidote to an early childhood education regime completely dominated by religious indoctrination of defenseless human minds.

On the Proposed K-12 Basic Education System

The Philippines currently offers a ten year public school system to provide basic education, namely six years of tuition-free grade school and four years of high school.  Since most children begin entering school at six years old however, those who do finish the entire program end up graduating from high school at around 16 years old.  Many critics and educators point out that at this age the high school graduate is not old enough to execute legal contracts  such as for employment or business so that those who want to work immediately after high school are hard pressed to find productive occupations.  Perhaps that is why even the best of them drift into ... politics! through the SK system (but that's another topic.) At the same time, even among those intending to go to college many are emotionally and academically unprepared at 16 to effectively undertake college level study. In part this is due to our short ten year elementary and secondary school curricula.

A major agenda item for the Dept of Education (DepEd) is the proposed K-12 Basic Education System (PDF) which would represent a major expansion of the present ten year public school program to thirteen years.  The PDF file above  discusses the rationale, design and implementation plan of DepEd.  In this post I consider some of the problems and challenges attendant upon the K-12 proposal.

Education's Agenda

SECRETARY ARMIN LUISTRO  has issued a Press Statement on his First One Hundred Days at the Dept. of Education.  From the looks of things he has a full plate as he lays out a 10-point Education Agenda for the next six years and beyond:

(1) the 12-year basic education cycle,   

(2) universal preschooling for all,

(3) Madaris Education,

(4) technical vocational education,

(5) “Every Child a Reader” by Grade 1,

(6) Science and Math proficiency,

(7) assistance to private schools as essential partners in basic education,

(8) rationalization of the medium of instruction,

(9) quality textbooks, and 

(10) partnering with Local Governments to build years more schools.

I shall have occasion in the coming weeks to look at each of these in some detail...

The Explainer Dialogue on Education

This was Monday night's telecast on ANC Cable TV of The Explainer with Manolo Quezon. We talked about Education, in particular Science education, teachers and the idea of privatizing Basic Education...Watch it all! The program's show page on the Archive The Explainer July 13 2009contains several downloadable and streamable file formats, including for use on Iphone/IpodTouch platforms.

[Courtesy of The Rizalist Press Multimedia! Join The Rizalist Press on Facebook!]

SOURCE: Philippine Commentary

On science in the early grades and in graduate school.

DJB is in a crusade to bring back science as a distinct subject in the early grades of the basic education curriculum (BEC). Since 2002, science has been integrated with Makabayan and English. For Makabayan there are these subject areas: Social Studies, Music and Arts, Technology and Livelihood, and Values Education.

DJB's current crusade should let us think about the problems of teaching science in basic education. Dina Ocampo et al's paper (2009) (also a UP Centennial lecture) on reforms that don't transform in the DepEd should be a requisite backgrounder on dealing with the problem of basic science education.

Despite the extensive discussion on the various surveys on Philippine educational reform and the vexed issue of language of instruction, one important point in this paper is that we haven't effected a shift from structure based to constructivist based approaches to education. Here lies the nuts and bolts of the post-modern debate on science education. What is better? Content based sci-ed (structure based) or inquiry based sci-ed (constructivist)? Recent pedagogical approaches in the US and Commonwealth countries point to a concept based approach that rapidly moves on to an experimental hands on based approach. This is supported by some research but remains controversial.

Obviously the latter choice will require extensive infrastructure in the provision of science labs in elementary and high schools. Even in the USA, there has been a trend to de-emphasize science in basic education by reducing the core subjects to earth/physical sciences, biology and chemistry. This is partially due to the expense of providing these programs. There is also a trend to integrate the sciences along a more humanistic and social studies theme. In the UK upper level basic education programmes may have 21st science as an option for their school leavers certificate.

I am quite aware of this first hand when I taught at Lousiana State University. Thus the concern that the United States is losing its competitive edge in science has some basis. In the USA, the integration of science along humanistic lines occurs in junior high. Physics has been the first casualty here and universities and colleges are quite worried that students get into science and engineering with not much physics to begin with!

I am no expert nor a practitioner in basic science education but we in higher education get the products of basic education. The leveling process in introductory college science courses includes removing out misconceptions due to previous thinking or views of the world. In my Philippine experience of college science teaching these misconceptions often have a religious and cultural/superstition basis. This BTW cuts across social classes. The rich have their own unscientific ideas and the poor theirs. The common between these are religious in origin and class based misconceptions persist especially on human biology and health. The recent study by Professor JR Torres of Rizal Technological University on astronomy concepts is proof that these misconceptions persist.

It is certain that inquiry based science should include factual knowledge since it is impossible to do experiments on all basic science concepts. A good grounding on both the experimental and factual bases of science is necessary in metacognition in which students begin to integrate and form their own scientfic theories. This starts in high school and further developed in college/university. In the MSc and PhD levels, this is further honed. However we notice that even at the MSc level, we have to teach science the undergrad way since students haven't developed the basic metacognition competencies!

In the US, UK, EU, Japan, and China, science is taught as a single subject from the early grades to at least in high school where the basic sciences are taught as separate subjects. The trend to teach science along humanistic and social studies lines risks it being tainted with ideological bias. This is something that isn't part of a scientific culture and will retard scientific development Teaching basic science in Makabayan risks this and may not develop thinking skills for a globalized technology driven environment.


SOURCE: Philippine Commentary

A few billions and the future of Philippine science

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will go down in history as the only Malacanang tenant to seriously consider the importance of investing in big scale science infrastructure. While previous presidents have paid lip service to the importance of science, their words did not match the budget appropriations, until Gloria came around.

Gloria has issued an executive order creating a national science complex at University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. While the idea of a science complex/campus had been floated as early as the 1970s it became a distinct possibility in 1983, when the UP's science college was established, But it was only during the latter half of the Aquino and Ramos presidency when buildings were constructed. However the complex was left unfinished as budget allocations were small. During the Erap presidency science took a backseat. In the Arroyo presidency, the complex was allocated 3 B PhP.

The money has been spent in completing the physics and math buildings, erect the chemistry, biology, molecular biology, environmental science and science administration buildings. The money also allowed for the completion of the road network to service these buildings. These buildings form the important core of basic science disciplines that hopefully can let the country play catch up with Asian countries with respect to science. The only thing missing in this complex is a medical sciences institute. Medicine if it ever can contribute to and benefit from Philippine science should be integrated with the NSC as the case in top universities overseas. Unfortunately the organizational structure of UP leaves the medical sciences in UP Manila.

However, once more former UP Visayas chancellor and Professor of Marine Sciences Flor Lacanilao sheds light on another problem that has hardly little to do with science infrastructure but more on science manpower. But before we go into the negatives, let us dwell on the positives first. UP and the top universities in the country has largely realized that real academic reform lies with promoting research and publication. The benefits of these will filter down to state of the art teaching thereby improving the main function of a university. But as Lacanilao writes, there are counter-productive processes in universities that may make the multi-billion peso investment in science infrastructure redundant. This I believe is largely cultural. For instance, the doctoral degree is still seen as the culmination of a research career whilst in reality, this is the basic qualification. Research performance is best measured in the number of papers published and citation indexes. But in many Philippine universities these measures are not often used.

Another problem that hampers science development in the Philippines is the lack of good research mentors. This has been often raised by UP science dean Prof. Caesar Saloma. The only cure for this problem is to promote and give incentive to research and research faculty members as based on merit and not on seniority.

However a science or in more general terms academic, meritocracy will require a paradigm shift Philippine universities. In the Philippines we hear of people WANTING to be chair, but in overseas universities, people AVOID the Chairmanship like the plague. Administrative duties take time from research and research is the way that promotions are measured. But unfortunately someone has to be the chair!

I hate the misuse of the term 'ecology" in deciding faculty appointments. The appointments in this system are designed not to disturb the "ecology" of positions in a department. In this culture, seniority is the main criterion in promotions and tenure. In a meritocracy, there are measurable indices for assessing academic performance.

Lacanilao suggests that UP focuses more on graduate training rather than undergraduate training. But this is not good politic and won't be bought by Congress (or the Parliament after 2010!). What UP can do is to develop certain campuses as graduate campuses (presumbably the NSC will become this) while other campuses can be developed as centers of undergraduate training. But it has to be considered that excellent graduate training is synergistic with excellent undergraduate training. It is obvious that good talent comes from the undergraduate sector. The promising talents need to be identified at the undergrad level and be encouraged to go into graduate school.

The idea that UP focuses on graduate teaching and research and let other universities focus on undergraduate teaching isn't new. In 1947, Professor Merill of Michigan gave a speech to convocation at UP precisely suggesting this path.

The Philippines still lacks scientists. While we have more PhDs now than 30 years ago, we still have not developed critical mass in many of the disciplines. This hinders development of more scientists. Most of the PhDs are lone experts.

Please Don't Tell Calipjo Go About The Red, White and Yellow Bougainvillas

Please don't tell Calipjo Go
about the red, white and yellow bougainvillas.
He will claim they are errors of fact or expression,
accuse you of being a poet of illusion,
or worse, a science teacher with no religion,
and immediately correct your English. Badly.
And madly sic! his newspaper friends on you.
But ask him about the catechism textbooks
at his Marian School of Apparition.
Ask the True Crusader against Error itself:
As strong as crooked timber.
With modus operandi most ingenious.
A torpedo against what is Wrong.
Like Torquemada for hire.

Please don't tell Calipjo Go
about the red, white and yellow bougainvillas!

Exposing the Half Truths Peddled About Mother Tongue Instruction

Blackshama's post on multilingualism started this topic off at FV, so my article today at Filipino Voices is on UNESCO and the "scientific research" it has conducted over the years on "mother tongue instruction" which is at the heart of a re-ignited controversy over "medium of instruction" in the public schools. In it I expose how ideologues posing as nationalists have presented a remarkably one-sided version of the Unesco findings, which are distinctively politicized to begin with, but which are still far more balanced about the use of mother tongues as media of instruction, noting huge practical, logistical and intellectual resource problems with mother tongue instruction on a large scale in a poor country. By ignoring or even covering up these well-documented problems and tall hurdles in establishing a givenmother tongue as fully functional medium of instruction, local advocates have thus manufactured a fake 'scientific controvery' against the use of English as a medium of instruction by citing "across the board studies" and "scientific evidence" for the singular benefits of using mother tongue instruction. They are careful never to cite the Unesco sources of their familiarity with these studies, because these studies also explicitly lay out the difficulties and pitfalls of using mother tongue instruction in public schools.

TOWER OF BABEL They are insisting on a multi-lingual education policy, similar to Senator Nene Pimentel's proposals for up to ten languages to be used as official media of instruction, thus requiring textbooks, teacher's guides and instruction materials in Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic --to be rendered in Iloko, Pangalatok, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Waray, Binisaya, Tausug, Maranon, as well as English and the mythical Pfilipino national language. One might think, naively, that it would be just a matter of translating say an existing English textbook into these dialects. Even if it were, and publishers and authors will tell you that it ain't, there are further difficulties involving qualified instructors, linguistic experts and reviewers in obscure or little used dialects, which however cannot be treated as second class baggage and be ignored or neglected.


What has emerged is this: fifty years of research shows that mother tongue instruction has its pluses and minuses, that children do learn faster, at least initially, in a language used at home, compared to some strange foreign tongue. But there is huge conceptual and logical leap from this commonsensical and plausible notion to the insinuation that ANY mother tongue is a suitable and wise choice for use as medium of instruction for 25 million public school students studying 5 different subjects (Math, Science, Makabayan, English and Pilipino) at ten different levels (Grades 1-6 and High School I-IV) spread out over 40,000 barangays in an archipelago with 170 ethnologically recognized living languages spoken by what will soon be 100 million human beings.

The House is about to pass overwhelmingly HB 5619 -- An Act Strengthening and Enhancing the Use of English as Medium of Instruction -- authored by Cebu Rep. Ed Gullas. But the bill is being opposed by ideological heavyweights in media and academe. Lately it has become the mantra of a certain genre of propaganda that using English is a form of colonial mentality and that we ought to use our various "mother tongues" instead as medium of instruction. For example, in its editorial, King's English, PDI says

To be sure, the state should be in the business of looking for the best way to effectively transmit knowledge in its education system. But studies across the board show that the mother tongue is the best conveyor of instruction.

To some extent, the Gullas bill recognizes the above. It gives schools the option to use English, Filipino or the regional language as the teaching language from pre-school up to Grade 3. But from the intermediate grades up to high school, English will be the teaching language, except in Filipino as a course.

Just the same, the bill’s “English myopia” is hegemonic, and overlooks scientific evidence showing the mother tongue to be the best medium of instruction."

Now, it has always puzzled me that those who have been making these claims never cite the original sources of this "scientific evidence" or the "across the board studies" that established the Mother Tongue Hypothesis. Now I know why--because I believe I have discovered the Mother Lode of that "evidence" for the benefits of Mother Tongue instruction in this position paper (PDF) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). Published in 2003, it reprises fifty years of Unesco research into mother tongue instruction and related language issues in education worldwide.

And indeed, we find in the Unesco documents substantial confirmation of the claims being made by PDI and the supporters of mother tongue instruction here in the Philippines. And more...much more! Because in this very same paper, in the very same section that praises the benefits of mother tongue instruction we also find,-- lo and behold! -- substantial objections and caveats to mother tongue instruction that are not mentioned by the PDI editorial. Here is an extended excerpt from the Unesco PDF which gives a far more balanced view of the use of first language or mother tongue instruction:

UNESCO DEFINITION AND SUPPORT FOR MOTHER TONGUE INSTRUCTION:

Mother tongue instruction generally refers to the use of the learners’ mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Additionally, it can refer to the mother tongue as a subject of instruction. It is considered to be an important component of quality education, particularly in the early years. The expert view is that mother tongue instruction should cover both the teaching of and the teaching through this language.

The term ‘mother tongue’, though widely used, may refer to several different situations. Definitions often include the following elements: the language(s)that one has learnt first; the language(s) one identifies with or is identified as a native speaker of by others; the language(s) one knows best and the language(s) one uses most. ‘Mother tongue’ may also be referred to as ‘primary’ or ‘first language’. The term ‘mother tongue’ is commonly used in policy statements and in the general discourse on educational issues. It is retained in this document for that reason, although it is to be noted that the use of the term ‘mother tongue’ often fails to discriminate between all the variants of a language used by a native speaker, ranging from hinterland varieties to urban-based standard languages used as school mother tongue. A child’s earliest first-hand experiences in native speech do not necessarily correspond to the formal school version of the so-called mother tongue.

It is an obvious yet not generally recognized truism that learning in a language which is not one’s own provides a double set of challenges, not only is there the challenge of learning a new language but also that of learning new knowledge contained in that language. These challenges may be further exacerbated in the case of certain groups are already in situations of educational risk or stress such as illiterates, minorities and refugees. Gender considerations cross cut these situations of educational risk, for girls and women may be ina particularly disadvantaged position. In most traditional societies, it is the girls and women who tend to be monolingual, being less exposed either through schooling, salaried labour, or migration to the national language, than their sons, brothers or husbands. Studies have shown that, in many cases, instruction in the mother tongue is beneficial to language competencies in the first language, achievement in other subject areas, and second language learning.

UNESCO CAVEATS TO MOTHER TONGUE INSTRUCTION:

The application of the principle of mother tongue instruction nevertheless is far from being the rule. Some of the difficulties encountered by the use of mother tongues as languages of instruction may include the following:

_sometimes the mother tongue may be an unwritten language;
_sometimes the language may not even be generally recognized
as constituting a legitimate language;
_the appropriate terminology for education purposes may still have
to be developed;
_there may be a shortage of educational materials in the language;
_the multiplicity of languages may exacerbate the difficulty
of providing schooling in each mother tongue;
_there may be a lack of appropriately trained teachers;
_there may be resistance to schooling in the mother tongue by the students, parents and teachers.

ETHNOLOGUE claims that there are 1 71 living and 4 extinct languages in the Philippine Archipelago, and lists each one along with the estimated number of active speakers. These are the MOTHER TONGUES of the various tribes of the Filipinos, some with millions like Cebuano and Tagalog, others with just a few hundred, like Agta-Aeta, or a few hundred thousand like the Spanish-based pidgin, Chavacano. Please peruse the list...it's fascinating!

In the Comment Thread to our colleague Blackshama's post on this topic, I already mentioned my own independently conceived objections to the Mother Tongue Hypothesis, including that the medium of instruction ought to be a written language and that the Philippines lacks the resources, both material and human, to support a plethora of mother tongues being used as media of instruction.

So I am gratified to now be able to say, just like PDI, that there is scientific evidence to support my objections to their position. In fact that scientific evidence is the same source of their scientific evidence in support of the mother tongue instruction.

Except I am presenting ALL of Unesco's scientific evidence!

While the Door of Observation Swings Open...

Is there anything journalistically wrong with this headline on the front page of our favorite newspaper this morning?

English-only bill faces tough fight?

Nothing, unless of course it is NOT true!

The bill states that:

* English, Filipino or the regional/native language may be used as the teaching language in all subjects from pre-school to Grade 3;

* English shall be the teaching language in all academic subjects from Grades 4 to 6, and in all levels of high school;

* English and Filipino shall be taught as separate subjects in all levels of elementary and high school;

* The current language policy prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education shall be maintained in college; and

* English shall be promoted as the language of interaction in schools.

It is important for certain people, you see, to deny that English is perhaps our most precious intellectual and cultural heritage. They cannot reconcile themselves with history as it has truly and really been lived by the Filipino people during the last one hundred years or more. They would deny that we are now part of the Western world and the Anglosphere, and irrevocably so. They would cast the nation down to the Babel of a language and ethnic apartheid composed of over 160 separate languages and barely limnable tribal affiliations. They believe in a silly set of ideas, falling under a mistaken appreciation of the "Mother Language hypothesis" that serves only one master: political correctness. At the practical level, they steadfastly refuse to see to the real needs of our global, mobile work force: the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose singular edge of acceptability and assimilability has been the English language. Likewise, they would shut our doors, xenophobically, to the vast opportunities in call centers, back office operations, software development, technical support, medical and legal transcription services, etc. in order to maintain the current education system's strange arrangement, in which more than half the teaching time is done in the vernacular instead of the global lingua anglica.

The Whistleblower Still Is Heard

IT WAS A REAL HONOR AND PRIVILEGE being on tonight's edition of ALAN PAGUIA's new television talk show on the Global News Network (Destiny Cable) because his main guest was General Francisco Gudani, the Marine General commanding the First Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Marines in Lanao province back in 2004 and one of the most credible whistleblowers from the Hello Garci Tape scandal). He is a true officer and a gentleman who has served his country with bravery and integrity fighting both terrorist insurgents and the equally terrible perpetrators of electoral fraud in the 2004 elections. People will recall that it was in the attempt to silence his testimony before the Senate National Defense investigating committees that the infamous Executive Order No. 464 Gag Order was promulgated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Now retired, Gen. Gudani spends much of his time promoting Christian fellowship among the soldiers and officers of the Philippine Military. On the show I made the point oft-repeated on this blog that the Hello Garci wiretapping scandal is as much about electoral fraud as it is about the despicable and dishonorable practice of prostituting the Armed Forces of the Philippines to partisan political purposes. As such, the illegal Isafp wiretapping that was revealed during that scandal represents violations against National Security that seriously damages the integrity, moral standing and fighting capabilities of the Armed Forces.

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ANOTHER KIDNAPPING ALREADY! Oh by the way, it looks like the Abu Sayyaf didn't get enough from the kidnapping of Ces Drilon (though they got the usual major propaganda payoff from the Philippine Daily Innuendo and Khaddafy Janjalani's ole squeeze Arlyn de la Cruz). So they just kidnapped five employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative yesterday. One of the five hostages was released late yesterday, just like they did with Ces Drilon's Angelo Valderama (probably to deliver the ransom demand while showing off their "humanitarian" streak). But I'm afraid these poor guys could get the axe if their relatives (or Ronnie Puno and the DILG) don't come up with millions in ransom!

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Meanwhile the CPP NPA NDF cell and the leftist ideologues inside the biggest tabloid in the country are working overtime to complain about "US military presence" in the form of the USS Ronald Reagan, which is assisting in rescue and recovery operations at the capsized MV Princess of the Stars. In this connection, there is also the utter gracelessness of the blogger at Uniffors.

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Today's Updates...

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THE MYANMAR SYNDROME: Lots of the same people who marveled at the utter stupidity of the military junta in Myanmar for rejecting foreign aid after a major natural disaster are today doing a Burmese hat dance over the generous aid being offered by the United States of America in sending the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to help in the aftermath of Typhoon Frank. Men in skirts and Funny Hats and voodoo incantations are apparently preferred over helicopters and search aircraft. To hell (or heaven) with the victims and their grieving relatives. Let them have a holy biscuit and magic wine...

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MISPERCENTING THE DATA: GMA TV News just posted a Praise Release from the Dept. of Education (PDF) which reports increases in the National Achievement Test scores of public school students.

Some 1.64 million students from 30,396 public schools took the NAT last March.

In the key subjects tested, students showed the biggest improvement in Science with a percentage increase of 12.26 percent, from an MPS of 51.58 percent in 2007 to 57.90 percent in 2008. It was followed by big strides in Filipino and HEKASI which posted an improvement of 10.84 percent and 10.47 percent, respectively.

Overall, the average increment in MPS in Math, Science and English among Grade 6 students was 6.24 percent, from last year's MPS of 44.29 percent to 47.67 percent this year.

No, gentle Reader, you are not having a delusional fit of arithmetic innumeracy, because 57.90% minus 51.58% happens to be equal to 12.26% of 51.58%, and 47.67% minus 44.29% is 6.24% of 44.29%! So it's true, the PERCENT change in the percent score was 12.26% percent per percent! It's a sneaky way of turning single digit gains into A MIRAGE of double digit increases.

There is no known name for this form of self-serving statistical fudging, where it is the percent change in the percent statistic that is percented, err, presented, so I shall invent a neologism for it: Philippinnumeracy!

The Old Idolatry and the Assault on Science and Reason by Goddess Worshippers

Check out the front page feature article in the Philippine Daily Innuendo earlier this week on the "textbook crusader" Antonio Calipjo-Go:

MANILA, Philippines—A life-size image of the Virgin Mary stands on the small campus of Marian School of Quezon City run by Antonio Calipjo Go, its academic supervisor.

Inside a combined bookstore and library, where Go holds office, the walls are adorned with framed newspaper articles and full-page advertisements under a sign proclaiming them as specimens of “textbook boo-boos.”

Hahaha! I guess the sheer irony of this juxtaposition escapes these purveyors and abettors of extortion and blackmail. But then again this is a country where GODDESS WORSHIP is the dirty lil secret of the most powerful people around, even among the pseudo intellectual icons of mass media and politics. (I wonder if the anecdote is true that the Editor in Chief and the owners of the paper start their work day by kissing the feet of a graven stone idol of their favorite goddess.)

Point of Inquiry Podcasts has a fascinating interview with science investigator Joe Nickell talking about weeping, bleeding, walking, heart-beating, or crying statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary.



As an example of how IDOLATRY is alive and well in the Philppines and blinds even the normally sensible people to the real causes of our grief and grievances, take this story also in PDI, hand-wringing about the 10 year public school cycle, and how it really lacks 2 to 3 years more of education.

It's pretty obvious to any dispassionate observer that wtih 2 million babies born a year, 20 million already in the public schools, corrupt government, that OVERPOPULATION is main reason we can't afford to go to the global standard K-12 system.

The only thing saving us from having the Blessed Virgin Mary foisted on us as a GODDESS in the Catholic pantheon is of course the steadfastly patriarchal nature of the Catholic Church hierarchy, which is why her elevation to divine status has been consistently slapped down.

Education's Dilemma

The periodic international survey Trends in Math and Science Study (TIMSS) measures the math and science proficiency of grade school and high school students from all around the world in a series of standardized tests whose data are analysed and used to improve national and local school systems, curricula, and performance outcomes over time. A paper by K. Nabeshima (PDF) shows the Philippines consistently near the bottom in both Math and Science among Asia Pacific Rim countries.

COUNTRY	SCIENCE-SCORE	RANKING (1 -38)
Taiwan	569	1
Singapore	568	2
Japan	550	4
Korea	549	5
Hong_Kong	530	15
United_States	515	18
Int'l_Average	488	--
Malaysia	492	22
Thailand	482	24
Indonesia	435	32
Philippines	345	36 (out of 38)

COUNTRY	SCIENCE-SCORE	RANKING (1 - 38)
Taiwan	569	1
Singapore	568	2
Japan	550	4
Korea	549	5
Hong_Kong	530	15
United_States	515	18
Int'l_Average	488	--
Malaysia	492	22
Thailand	482	24
Indonesia	435	32
Philippines	345	36 (out of 38)

The Philippines repeated this dismal performance in both math and science in 1995, 1998 and 2003, being consistently dead last among the Asia Pacific Rim countries and always third from the last in the world. (Thank God for Haiti and Somalia!)

The major causes for low academic performance in math and science were identified by the survey sponsors after analyzing the data and working with the participants:

(1) Congested curricula have to be streamlined to focus on the the essentials so human and material resources can be devoted to key subject areas instead of a whole potpourri of curricular and extacurricular subjects and activities.

(2) Teacher training and instructional materials like textbooks and computers are needed to teach key subject areas like Language, Math and Science.

As full and active participant in the TIMSS process, the Philippines was well-informed of these findings, and they certainly applied. But as usual the Nationalists and Anti-imperialists in the Media and Gov't went to work soon after the 1998 Timss results were announced (which confirmed the 1995 findings) -- to suggest that the tests were flawed or biased (despite the fact that they were each conducted in the Philippines by Philippine authorities on 6,000 private and public school students).

jThe findings should've been a wake-up call to the Philippine Education establishment. Instead how did they respond to the international evaluation of our curriculum and teaching systems?

When Raul Roco took over at DepEd as Secretary of Education in 2001 in the aftermath of Edsa Dos, he brought with him a powerful cabal of Roman Catholic Church academicians and consultants, mainly from the University of Asia and Pacific and Jaime Cardinal Sin's version of the Roman Curia. They were determined to "fix" the Public School curriculum, which had been dangerously veering off into things like --gasp!--Sex Education in high school (where a lot of sex starts to happen). They were determined to "integrate" something called VALUES EDUCATION into ALL the subjects being taught at public school.

Together they came up with and implemented the 2002 Revised Basic Education Curriculum which covers the TEN-YEAR public school system (6 in Grade School, 4 in High School) and consists of FIVE SUBJECTS (Pilipino, Makabayan, English, Math and Science), under the 2002 Revised Basic Education Curriculum:

LEVEL/SUBJECT	PILIPINO	MAKABAYAN*	ENGLISH	MATHEMATICS	SCIENCE**
Grade 1	20%	30%	25%	25%	NONE
Grade 2	20%	30%	25%	25%	NONE
Grade 3	20%	30%	20%	20%	10%
Grade 4	20%	30%	20%	20%	10%
Grade 5	20%	30%	20%	15%	15%
Grade 6	20%	30%	20%	15%	15%
First	15%	35%	10%	20%	20%
Second	15%	35%	10%	20%	20%
Third	15%	35%	10%	20%	20%
Fourth	15%	35%	10%	20%	20%

*Makabayan is actually a "super subject" consisting of Social Studies, Home Economics, Information Technology, Physical Education, Arts, Music, etc. and other curricular and extracurricular stubjects, which were "stuffed into it" in order to "decongest" the curriculum!

**The Science Subject was abolished at the Grades One and Two Levels in the 2002 Revised Basic Education Curriculum which was approved by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo while DepEd was under Sec. Raul Roco and the heavy political influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

In retrospect, the abolition of the Science subject at Grades One and two was a disastrous and destructive change. Not only did it represent a real reduction of 20% in the overall coverage of Science in the public school system, it also knocked the foundations out from under the whole structure because, as bitter experience is now demonstrating, graduates from the public Grade Schools are coming into high school with 33% less Science subject exposure!

How then can the High School system manage to teach a relatively rigorous course involving Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics when the graduates being produced by the Grade Schools only started learning Science in Third Grade?

It was literally impossible for the system to adjust to what might have seemed in the dim light of 2002 to be a small, minor change in the removal of the Grades One and Two science subject.

The disdainful thing about it is the sneaking suspicion that is daily confirmed by 20/20 hindsight that the Science subject was abolished for no other reason than to make room for the thing called Makabayan, which I must stress is not a single pure subject, but a hodge podge of many subjects.

So what was the Philippines' basic response to the TIMSS recommendations to decongest its curriculum and improve teacher training and textbook availability?

Well, the curriculum now in place has just as many subjects as before (except half of them are hidden away in "Makabayan"), and they abolished the Science Subject at the Root, thus killing the whole organism!

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The Philippine Public School System is an altruistic and ambitious construct left over from Colonial Days. It pledges to give ten years of quality education, tuition-free, to every Filipino citizen born, of which two million a year are arriving every year in this epoch of 2% population growth rates and 30 year doubling times. In 2008 the Dept. of Education budget was 144 billion pesos, while State-run Universities and Colleges were allocated 19.4 billion pesos through the Commission on Higher Education (Ched). With Tesda's share, the Education sector got over 180 billion pesos out of the 1,227 billion peso 2008 national govt budget. Most of these allocations (85% or more) go to "personal services" that is, salaries.


EVERYONE knows the 10 year Public School System is woefully inadequate for maintaining the overall competitive stance of the Philippines in global employment and investment markets. A K-12 system such as in the more advanced countries, or as many privileged, private school kids enjoy even in the Philippines, would be a lasting social investment in the language, technical and scientific literacy of the Filipino work force -- as everyone agrees -- but the daunting challenge is pressure on scarce resources since the system must conceivably absorb up to two million new enrollees annually.

The US Census Bureau maintains a a very useful International Data Base on world population which reveals that the Philippines is currently the 12th largest country in the world by population. The website also contains animated population pyramids for the Philippines showing a ballooning structure in the age distribution diagram -- a veritable Baby Boom and Youth Bulge during the next few decades. Any plan to upgrade the quality of Philippine public schools, by going from a ten year to a twelve year long program or by increasing classroom instruction time must deal with sheer rising numbers that must be served.

The Philippines implements a 10-year public school system with 6 years in Grade School, 4 years in High School. Educators say that we really need a 12 year public school system in order to maintain a competitive, well-educated work force. Now if former Sen. Tessie Aquino Oreta ever becomes Secretary of Education, look for pre-school or kindergarten to be included in the mix of a dream system, K-12, just like in the US.

But with over 20 million school age citizens presently enrolled in the public school system, and 2 million being added to the population annually, it's hard to imagine how a 20% expansion in the system could be accommodated.

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The dilemma that faces Education is that the people within it have always known what the right thing to do has been, but forces other than they control the system and powerfully distort what ought to be our greatest social investment in the Future--the education of the next generation!

What Good Is The Catholic Church in Economics, Politics, Education, Religion and Morals?

From the point of view of the Democracy and the Constitution, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) as an institution is what we call a Non-government Organization (NGO). Just like the Communist Party of the Philippines, or Greenpeace, or an ideologically driven newspaper like the Philippine Daily Innuendo (all of whom support and find common cause with it), the RCC has taken very definite positions on the fulcrum issues of Philippine society, and just like them deserves to be scrutinized for the validity, reasonability and consequences of its policies and actions. In the next few weeks I propose to do just that in several key areas:

(1) I've already begun with its position on Population policy, which I think bears important significance on the long-term economic prospects of the country See my recent posts under the label of population. Here I've been developing the idea that while the RCC's birth control policies are not per se the CAUSE of hunger, poverty and economic underdevelopment, (which is the disdainfully weak rhetorical position of its defenders), their undeniable consequence in the form of overpopulation, strictly limits the efficacy of any solutions to the problems that face Philippine society and vastly diminishes any gains that are achieved. Overpopulation has a structural, multiplier effect that exacerbates those problems, places pressure on natural resources such as water, land and the ability of society to feed, clothe, shelter and educate the people. As such, I've come to the conclusion that the RCC's position on birth control is essentially an issue of social justice and moral compass.

(2) In the economic realm, the Church has adopted entirely regressive policies on such key issues as mining, genetically modified organisms, nuclear power and globalization, which deserve to be examined and understood in the light of its apparent adoption of radical, fear-mongering environmentalism as a secular component of its religious tenets.

(3) In politics, it has aligned itself with the liberal fascist policies of the Arroyo administration and holds captive a large part of the electorate by acting as a de facto political party, uber alles, of which all the other parties are mere factions (think about it!). This is a situation that suits its theocratic inclinations just fine, because while it wields political power indirectly, yet effectively, it has complete deniability of responsibility in the results of the fractious multiparty system and inutile governance!

(4) In education, the Catholic Church completely dominates the private school sectors, powerfully influences the public school system (since it trains virtually all the teachers and functionaries that run it!) and sabotages science education along the lines that conform to its reactionary world view and sentimentally looks back upon Spanish Taliban times as its halcyon days of complete domination in this field.

(5) In religion and morals, the RCC is an almost complete failure, both in its teaching magisterium and in the example set by its hierarchy. It does not teach Christianity at the level of Biblical study, but rather concentrates on liturgical extravaganzas that have weekly, monthly, seasonal and holiday components, and as in the days of yore, utilizes sacraments and ceremonies as cultural artifacts that circumscribe Filipino social life. Its dominance on the educational system is founded on its captivity of the market among middle and upper classes and the inability of the public school system to deliver quality education to the masses. (Why? because every year 2 million new births long ago swamped the ability of society to provide "free universal education"--the biggest joke of all).

(6) On social issues, the Church sets the worst example on the matter of GAMBLING, where its corrupt relationship with the PAGCOR represents an entirely unhealthy and demoralizing factor for which its leaders ought to be pilloried and put to shame. (Meanwhile, a guy like Archbishop Oscar Cruz has been ordered arrested for libel while his confreres at the CBCP inaugurate and sanctify massive new enterprises for gambling and vice.)

I encourage Philippine Commentary readers to join me in a thorough re-examination of the Roman Catholic Church's role in society. In my humble opinion, they are presently an integral and essential part of the problem, when they could and should be part of the solution instead.

I speak both as a loyal citizen of the Republic as well as a member of the Catholic Church, both which I simply refuse to surrender to Men in Skirts and Funny Hats whose conceptions and positions are mostly bankrupt and backward from a moral and intellectual standpoint.

Pimentel Proposes Not Just One or Two, But Ten Media of Instruction!

The Office of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) has distributed a Press Release ETHNIC LANGUAGES SHOULD BE USED IN SCHOOLS TO SAVE THEM FROM EXTINCTION.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today called on the government to save the ethnic languages of the Filipino nation from the danger of extinction by allowing them to be used as a medium of instruction in elementary schools in the respective regions where they are widely spoken.

Pimentel expressed alarm that the ethnic languages are dying except Tagalog which has been mandated by law and by the Constitution as the basis of the country's national language.

"Many of us who were not born in Tagalog-speaking areas believe that unless we take pains to protect our own indigenous languages, they would eventually disappear completely from our consciousness and from use in our verbal and written communications," the senator from Misamis Oriental said in a privilege speech at the Senate.

CAVEAT: Ironically, Senator Pimentel's privilege speech was written and delivered in the English language, not in Tagalog, Pampango, Cebuano, Ilokano, Agta-Aeta or any of the other 171 living and 4 extinct recognized languages in the Philippine Archipelago, just like the Press Release proclaiming the pious desire prevent the extinction of these tongues by having the Dept. of Education use those languages as media of instruction! So it seems to be okay for the Senate to use English for its "verbal and written communications," but now we should pass laws and make Deped teach its curriculum of Math, Science, English, Filipino and Makabayan in "our own indigenous languages." Hmmm...Maybe Nene should talk the talk.

He made it clear that he is in favor of having a national language because Filipinos need it so that they do not speak the language of foreigners (English) to communicate with one another.

CAVEAT: Well, who are those bad, bad Filipinos who insist on speaking the language of foreigners (English)? I guess Nene is referring to the darn Supreme Court, which for a century has issued virtually every decision, resolution and ruling in a foreign language (0.001% Spanish and 99.999% English); and to the treasonous Congress which has done the same and still does, including Senators: write, debate and promulgate laws, resolutions, orders in English; and of course every single Constitution after Malolos was written in English, so the Founding Fathers are also evidently responsible for the extinction from non-use of "our own indigenous languages."

However, he held the view that forcing the language of one ethnic group upon other ethnic groups is "divisive and disruptive of the national fabric.".... The minority leader mentioned several major languages of the Filipino people that should be preserved:

1. Iloko in the Ilocos and in adjoining provinces, 2. Pangalatok in Pangasinan, 3. Kapampangan in Pampanga, 4. Tagalog in Manila and in Southern Luzon provinces, 5. Bikolano in Bicol region, 6. Hiligaynon in Panay and Negros islands, 7. Binisaya in Cebu, Bohol and many parts of Mindanao, 8. Waray in Samar and Leyte, 9. and the languages of the Maranaos in the Lanao provinces, the Maguindanao in Cotabato and adjoining provinces and Tausug in Sulu and nearby areas.

CAVEAT: Ah, but didn't Nene just say it would be "divisive and disruptive of the national fabric" forcing one ethnic group's language on another? Well what makes him think that forcing eight languages out of extinction by forcing the Deped to use them in books, tests and classroom teaching of the curricular subjects would be any less divisive and disruptive? For one thing there are many more than nine languages in use in the country, in fact 175 that are enumerated here, the overwhelming majority of which are not on his "endangered languages" list for saving. As for the Deped itself, they will only chuckle at the Tower of Babel Nene Pimentel is here, insanely, urging, as follows...

He proposed two courses of action to arrest the deterioration of the vernacular languages - 1. a change in the school curriculum to allow the use of dominant languages in various regions as medium of instruction from grades 1 to 6; and 2. the adoption of a federal system in which 10 federal states will be created based mainly on linguistic preferences of the citizens.

Pimentel said the first proposal makes sense because concepts would be more easily understandable to grade schoolers if states in the language of their homes.

He said he is not aware that this change in the medium of instruction needs legislation to implement it.

"All it probably needs is a policy adopted by the Department of Education that may immediately be implemented for the entire six grades or staggered over a few years as may be necessary in accordance with the decision of our education officials in the DepEd," he said.

But if a law is necessary, Pimentel said he believes that enough support from the lawmakers can be easily mobilized to implement the proposal.

"Now is the time to make the first move to revise the curriculum of our educational system so that we can allow the use of the local languages as the medium of instruction in our grade schools. Our other major languages are dying. We have to save them now."

CAVEAT: Senator Pimentel thinks that the medium of instruction is just the language the teacher uses to communicate with students. He doesn't realize that much more is involved than that. A medium of instruction must be not only universally comprehensible or at least accessible to the students, it must also be a WRITTEN language so that textbooks, tests, homework and other educational activities other than listening and having knowledge poured into your ears can be undertaken. That means we need experts and authorities to tell us whether the material taught is correctly rendered and does not miseducate the students, these experts having to be adept in the medium of instruction AND the material content of the curricular subjects. The Minority Leader does not understand that the Medium of Instruction is much more than the sounds emitted by the spoken tongue, but the sense of things they must convey. The Medium must be able to deliver the Message which are reading writing and 'rithmetic, and the Deped has to be able to deliver an integrated 10 year package of such knowledge.

It is utterly naive to think that just because a young student understands his home language better than any other, that therefore that language should be the Medium of Instruction from Grades One to Six. I might agree for the first six days of school, but after that, we must choose the best medium of instruction we can find. The criteria are simple:

(1) widely comprehensible by the students; (2) comprehensive written and spoken forms; (3) widely supported by existing linguistic and content experts; (4) consistent with the social, economic and political realities for which the students are being prepared.

There are many linguistic, legal, practical and pedagogical reasons why most of the 160 languages we are talking about do not qualify. In most cases it is because there are no written forms of these languages that are not inventions of one or two experts, and no authorities to decide what is right or wrong, because these languages have never been applied to so weighty a task as public education. They are boutique subjects for language doctoral ethnic studies courses.

The choice has always boiled down to English or Tagalog...and I think both Nene and I express our strongest preference by example.

One thing for sure though you cannot use the Medium of Instruction for the purpose Nene piously proposes--no matter how eloquent and perfervid is his English.

RELATED POSTS:

President Quezon and King Canute's Lesson

What Some People Don't Know About Galileo's MAGNIFYING TELESCOPE

HAR! HAR! HAR! HAR! HAR! (Just have to get that out of the way so I can write this post.)

ANTONIO CALLIPJE GO, Crusader - Against - Textbook - Errors, has recently appointed a new Board of Censors, who, being only human, are so flattered they have replied with an Editorial ("Shame!") that virtually elevates the Crusader into an English Knight of Correct Knowledge. Citing the latter's full-page newspaper ads exposing many funny typos and true errors in published textbooks for the public and private schools, PDI bemoans Go's failure to bring Correct Knowledge to the Masses thru the Socialist Dept. of Education...

All to no avail. Six years later, Filipino schoolchildren still read such enlightening stuff as: “Many Filipino men and women have brains” or “Galileo invented a magnifying telescope to study the moon.” And their vocabulary is enriched by learning that the male organ is called “titi” while a pimp is known as “titatita.”

What Antonio Go finds "incorrect" and the PDI projects as "funny" is the use of the term "magnifying telescope" in a Public School Science textbook whose context we do not know, but out of context certainly is "funny" because the expected and more common term is "magnifying glass". But it seems self-evident that both Mr. Go and the editorialist have only ever encountered the term "magnifying glass" and therefore find the term "magnifying telescope" strange...just like most illiterates are befuddled by letters, words and figures, and will laugh at them because of their strangeness!

It is actually funny only to folks who never made it past Science 101 cause they were scared of it, and to the now famous "Academic Director" of the Marian School in Quezon City. Because in the world outside our tidy lil fishbowl, "magnifying telescopes" play a major scientific and technological role...

Here astrophysicists and astronomers are using the world's largest MAGNIFYING TELESCOPE to study the remnants of the supernova seen by Chinese astroners 1000 years ago: the beautiful Crab nebula.

Here is a great article from Orgone Laboratory on the role that a magnifying telescope played in the famous Michaelson-Morley Experiment (known to all college physics students), which proved that Albert Einstein was right: the speed of light is a constant no matter how fast you are moving when you make the measurement!

In case you think it's an old term from Einstein's heyday, just search G o o g l e for MAGNIFYING TELESCOPE and what are a few modern uses of Galileo's marvelous invention?

The very first hit is a Patent Disclosure for an Extended Source Laser Illuminator: "The apparatus comprises a laser to emit a light beam, and a magnifying telescope, including a negative lens to expand the light beam and a positive lens to collimate the expanded light beam."

Here is a magnifying telescope used for colposcopy--the examination of the human cervix (not the brain?). All of LAPAROSCOPY uses magnifying telescopes (sometimes called telemicrosopes).

But let's not leave the little boys out, because there is the Go Scope Magnifying Telescope Boys N Their Toys.

Here is a Magnifying Telescope used in a Collinearly Phase Matched Parametric Generator Amplifier.

And from the THINK QUEST LIBRARY we have this: "In 1609, Galileo became the first man to use a telescope for astronomy. His telescope was simple and gave him blurry images, but he used it to look at the moon and stars. It was a ten times magnifying telescope, but he was able to see more than anyone else at the time. Galileo made drawings of what he saw. Galileo also studied planets. He was able to see Jupiter and four of its largest moons."

Here astrophysicists and astronomers are using the world's largest MAGNIFYING TELESCOPE to study the remnants of the supernova seen by Chinese astroners 1000 years ago: the beautiful Crab nebula.

Oh God, this hurts...HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!

Well, so much for the subject of Science Education from Antonio Callipje Go and the Philippine Daily Innuendo, who both apparently don't like the words TITI and TITA-TITA appearing in a dictionary for Public School students. Speaking of the contents of the Basic Education Curriculum, what do we find about these other subjects in the newspaper?

Here is today's Pilipino (cum French swardspeak) language lesson from the Inquirer:

"It was again time for me to go spotting, and spotting moi did, palanggas. Moi told her once, “Don’t stretch your luck, dahling.”"

Here is a Lesson in both Nutrition and Values Ed on Breastfeeding:

"I'm a true believer in this natural act and gift. As a mother, I was delighted to be named the first "Idol ng Breastfeeding 2007." Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my breasts would ever take center stage. But for this humane advocacy, I am more than happy to display my breasts. Well, at least in pictures where my baby A----- is attached... I've found breastfed children to be more social and more fashionable. My little A is like a mini-me. At the anniversary party of Rajito, the ready-to-wear kids apparel of the House of ..."

Of course there is plenty more of Inquirer science education:

Clairvoyance can also mean “the faculty of seeing with the inner eye or spiritual sight.” Documented clairvoyant abilities are numerous.

The well-known Israeli psychic Uri Geller demonstrated his uncanny ability to germinate within minutes radish seeds on his palm simply by mentally commanding them to grow.

I witnessed this remarkable demonstration of Geller’s psychic power during an international convention in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1994. About a thousand other people in the audience also witnessed the event.

When I went to this huge factory, I brought a clairvoyant and a Chinese feng shui expert. We all felt the presence of many highly negative and angry spirits, both human and elemental.

Here is an interesting combination of Religion, Arithmetic and uhmm, Inorganic Biology:

The Miraculous Medal Apostolate (MMA) turns 50 on Aug. 15, feast of Our Lady of the Assumption....The Medal of the Immaculate Conception (the Miraculous Medal) was designed by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself.

(I'm just picking these at random from today's Inquirer GLASS HOUSE Website!)

Perhaps what the editorialists are ignoring in supporting Mr. Go uncritically is that just like the newspaper publishing industry and the rest of Media, the academic publishing industry also partakes of academic freedom and freedom of speech to produce goods and services that are ideally judged by the market. Fortunately that is true for all private textbook publishers and non-government owned newspapers and other media. If you don't like the content, style or format of a newspaper or textbook, you don't have to buy it. (And God knows, the media cannot be "holier-than-thou" on the matter of bloopers and tall tales in their own daily productions.)

Where Antonio Callipje Go has however struck justifiably are various anomalies attendant upon the PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, which does not operate under market forces at all, unless of course Mr. Go himself is for sale as the PDI itself wonders....Hmmm..

Why Is There A Classroom Shortage?

The Dept. of Education's 2007 Fact Sheet provides a nice set of statistics on the basic education sector in the Philippines, composed of the public and private schools at the elementary and secondary school levels. The Fact Sheet shows that there are about 11.9 million students in 37,161 public elementary schools and just under 1 million in 4,788 private schools. In secondary school there are 4.9 million enrolled at 4915 public high schools and about 1.3 million in 3,372 private high schools. School started for the public schools Monday this week with the same or worse classroom shortage as last year, estimated to be between 6,000 and 25,000.

Even though the Public Schools are tuition-free, almost every family that can afford it will send the children to private schools usually run by religious congregations dedicated to high quality academic and moral education. At the elementary level the ratio of enrollment is 12 to 1 in favor of the government-run schools. But in high school that same ratio is down to 5 to 1. And the overwhelming majority of college students graduate from private colleges and universities.

No one denies the fact that public schools in the Philippines at the grade school and high school levels offer a generally low quality of education, typified by 99% failure rates in national elementary and secondary achievement tests, and cellar-dweller status in international tests like Timss (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study), which show academic achievement levels similar to those of Botswana and Somalia and way behind its Asian neighbors.

Some people attribute the sorry state of the public schools to a perpetual lack of government funding. Even though education gets the biggest single chunk of the 2007 budget at 162 billion pesos, for example it is claimed that the National Government is violating a Constitutional mandate to give education the highest budgetary priority. (How can the government possibly spend more on education? Why, stop paying the national debt, some demand. But I doubt that such Balashubasism would offer any permanent relief.

WHY IS THERE A CLASSROOM SHORTAGE? There IS a classroom shortage in the public schools. It is so severe a shortage that the Education department (DepEd) has adopted a double and even triple shift system at many schools, where classes are held in hallways and comfort rooms or outdoors under the mango trees. The Mass Media usually has a field day with true horror stories about the sorry state of public education in the Philippines during Back to School Season, which started yesterday, in case you didn't notice.

But WHY is there a classroom shortage at all? I am amazed few people ever make the following simple observation. In 2007, the DepEd Budget totals 134.8 billion pesos, broken down as follows:

Salaries (109.8 billion)
Operating Expenses (17.4 billion)
Capital Expenses (3.4 billion)
GASTPE (2.4 billion)
School Building Program (1.8 billion)

There is a classroom shortage NOT because we don't have the money but because we are spending it on something else -- paying the teachers to teach the material in the Basic Education Curriculum. What most people do not realize is that there are billions upon billions of pesos allocated to non-essential subjects in the BEC.

Most people are not aware of this connection between the classroom shortage and the basic education curriculum until they realize the Curriculum is a Spending Program, a shopping list of educational subjects with a definite allocation of classroom time, and therefore budgetary resources.

My basic assertion here is that if we wanted to double, triple or even quintuple that measly School Building Program, the money is there in just a few minutes of some non-essential subject in the curriculum probably in the badly congested Makabayan super subject.

In yesterday's front page headline article, Education Crisis Deepens the Philippine Daily Innuendo mournfully gives the impression that the public schools have removed Music and Physical Education subjects:

Music is gone

Concert pianist Reynaldo Reyes, 73, grieves that music has been effectively scrapped from the school curriculum. He is critical of how music had been taught, which essentially was about organizing rondallas. But, he says, “at least, it was there.”

The little time allowed for Physical Education has deprived the nation of a pool of athletes to choose from in fielding representatives to the Asian Games and the Olympics.

For a nation that has been left behind by its neighbors in manufacturing and agriculture, its services sector should be strengthened, experts say. But when call centers can only accept 10 applicants out of 100, there is something terribly wrong somewhere.

But take a look at the Basic Education Curriculum:

2007 BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM	1	2	3	4	5	6	I	II	III	IV	Medium of Instruction
ENGLISH	500	500	500	400	400	400	300	300	300	300	English
FILIPINO	400	400	400	300	300	300	200	200	200	200	Filipino
MATHEMATICS	400	400	400	300	300	300	300	300	300	300	English
SCIENCE	0**	0**	200	300	300	300	400	400	400	400	English
MAKABAYAN Sibika at Kultura (1-2) Heograpiya, Kasaysayan (3-6) Araling Panlipunan (I-IV)	300	300	300	150	150	150	240	240	240	240	Filipino
MAKABAYAN Musika, Sining, PE, Health (Mapeh)	--	--	--	100	100	100	240	240	240	240	Filipino
MAKABAYAN Teknolohiya, Pangkabuhayan at Ekonomiya (TLE)	--	--	--	150	150	150	240	240	240	240	Filipino
MAKABAYAN Edukasyon sa Kagandahang Asal at Wastong Pag-uugali (EKAWP)	--	--	--	100	100	120	120	120	180	180	Filipino
TOTAL MINUTES PER WEEK	1500	1500	1700	1800	1800	1800	2100	2100	2100	2100	134.71 Billion Pesos

Pop Quiz: How many billions of pesos are allocated in the budget for the" curricular subjects" of Music and PE ins 2007?

The PDI article neglects to mention that the REASON call centers and other BPO industry players can't hire enough graduates of Philippine public schools is their utter lack of English language proficiency, once a strength now apparently a deficiency of the Filipino work force. Well no wonder, when you have Pundit-Professors and National Artists, (many of whom make a living using English), excoriating and opposing the plans of the Deped to increase English language teaching!

Last year, I also posted this analysis of the Values Education (EKAWP) portion of this Basic Education Curriculum as a Flagrant Violation of the Non-Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

Here is the history of the BEC according to PDI:

n 2002, the late Education Secretary Raul Roco implemented a new basic curriculum. A product of years of study, it whittled down 10 subjects taught in the public schools to five -- English, Science, Mathematics, Social Studies and Filipino.

Art, Music, History, Physical Education and Culture were crammed under Social Studies.

CRAMMED is right!

The DepEd has never carried out the firm recommendations of the Timss study group to DECONGEST national education curricula and concentrate limited resources on the teaching of the basics in math, science and language. That means hiring not only the best human resources at competitive salaries, but providing a roof over the children and teacher's heads, give them desks and computers and textbooks. Instead we are allocating almost 90% of the budget to salaries and benefits for the largest labor union cum centralized bureaucracy in the Government, who, surprise surprise! also run the national and local elections as Boards of Election Inspectors!

That there IS a classroom shortage is therefore APPALLING but NOT BAFFLING!