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Where
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Education in the Philippines25th October 2005 The Education Sector in The Philippine is seriously under funded. A teacher earns around 250 pesos a day ($NZ 6.25) and has not received a pay rise for 10 years. The school buildings are in bad shape and some of them are downright dangerous. Linda, another volunteer with a civil engineering degree, is compiling a report about the state of the school buildings. This report will hopefully be used by future volunteers to direct their maintenance efforts. The focus of the volunteers here is on maintenance and not construction. The building industry here is one of the most corrupt industries in The Philippines. If we were to construct a budget and tender out the contract, it is more than likely we would get fewer builders, poorer materials and sub-standard quality than what was promised. The money "saved" by these shortcuts feeds the already bloated and corrupt officials. Eighty students per teacher is not uncommon in the larger cities. The classrooms are just physically too small to accommodate the students. It is not uncommon to see students peering into the classroom through windows and doors. Student discipline can be a problem with classes this size. Toilets, or Comfort Rooms (CRs) as they are known in The Philippines, are also a big problem. The best CRs are merely unhygienic. Often there is only one CR per school and each Grade gets access to the CR for a particular time of the day. Grade One can use the CR between 9 and 10, Grade Two between 10 and 11, and so on. Some schools are so desperate for space that they have converted CRs into rooms. Students have to go home if they want to use the CR. The school grounds are uneven and covered with rocks. Pulao Elementary, the school where I teach, had a Scout day while I was there. A sack race was organised for the scouts. Half the challenge was keeping your balance, and the other half was not stubbing your toe on the rocks. Textbooks are in short supply. At best, one textbook in shared between two students. I have the only copy of the Grade 5 reading textbook... The teachers have to purchase their own supplies, such as chalk and paper. Ordering through government agencies is more trouble than it is worth. |
