The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-year-old pupils’ scholastic performance on reading, mathematics, and science.
The top 10 performers in reading, mathematics, and science in the most recent study are as follows: 1) Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang (China); 2) Singapore; 3) Macao (China); 4) Hongkong (China); 5) Estonia; 6) Canada; 7) Finland; 8) Ireland; 9) South Korea; 10) Poland.
Out of the 79 countries surveyed, the Philippines ranked 79th in reading comprehension, and 78th in math and science.
PISA’s average score in reading is 487 and 489 in math and science; the Philippine pupils’ average score in reading was 340; 353 in math, and 357 in science.
All distressingly below the average scores.
This means that we practically have functional illiterates loitering the campuses of our colleges and universities.
Can you imagine teaching college students with primary level reading comprehension, writing skills, and mathematical skills?
In fact, a business/professional assessment for the business process outsourcing industry in Asia showed that on average, Filipino college students graduate with the equivalence of a secondary level reading comprehension, writing, and mathematical skills. Third-year high school level to be exact. Vietnam even surpassed us. Theirs is 4th year high school level.
I am so deflated that I’m still trying to figure out how we can get out of this condition. I know it’s a tall order. Still, I dream of leapfrogging technologically as a country.
How did we fare dead last?
Our educational problem, just like our political and economic problems, is so deep-seated that it’s almost impossible to be optimistic.
Or how can I be optimistic when we are still operating more or less based on the 1940 educational model?
How can I be optimistic when colleges and universities are more concerned of their external affairs rather than the actual quality of their students and their proper education?
There’s a lot of blame to go around. I know some politicians have reacted to PISA’s result, and blamed poverty, poor nutrition, far-flung schools, et cetera.
And yet, many countries that performed better are even poorer than us. Need we engage in this thoughtless blame game?
In thinking about our condition, I was instead inspired by Voltaire’s admonition in his operetta Candide: “Cultivate your own garden.”
This sounds elitist and inward-looking, but we cannot pose to figure out the severe educational burden of the country. We can only take care of our own.
This means that private universities with Commission on Higher Education- sanctioned semi-autonomous status must reinvent themselves via student financial assistance, curricular changes, right-sizing, and infrastructural platforms adaptable to the new technological landscape.
Some of my insights:
Build a creative, long-term, and sustainable scholarship fund-raising, and fund to support partially or in full every student accepted by the private university. Based on meritocracy (i.e., poor but deserving students, high school valedictorians and salutatorians, et cetera), acceptance to a private university is a privilege, not a right. Thus, with guaranteed financial support, the university can demand excellence from its students.
Create a mandatory pass-or-fail remedial classes in reading comprehension, writing, and math to assist unprepared students transition to the demands of college life.
Require a mandatory Writing Skills Test (WST) for all graduating seniors. At California State University-East Bay where I teach, no one is allowed to graduate without passing the WST.
Like the foundation from which one builds a house, innovate the general education curriculum with introductory courses in critical thinking (a duo of reading and writing, using classical and contemporary national and global issues), math (a trio of algebra, statistics, and calculus), science (a trio of biology, chemistry, and physics), and technology (a duo of algorithm and computer science).
Stop using Filipino as the medium of instruction.
Invest and build the university’s digital infrastructure in virtual learning environment and learning management system.
For example, the university must invest in a web-based server software which features course management, customizable open architecture, and scalable design that allows integration with student information systems and authentication protocols such as Blackboard Learn, Lore, Pearson eCollege, Instructure Canvas, et cetera. At my University, we use Backboard Learn.
Invest and upgrade the technological and online skills of faculty members.
Create and raise a sustainable and competitive market-based salary scale for faculty members.
Regularize a predictable schedule of international professorial visits and exchanges to augment teaching and research capabilities.
I have more insights to share but I’d like to end this piece with a note that while private colleges and universities have multiple priorities to pursue and spend, it is important to focus on what really matters for college students right now.
That is, prioritizing the allocation of resources and funds for the improvement of their reading, writing, science, and math skills to a globally-competitive standard.
Efren N. Padilla, Ph.D.
[email protected]
