ENGLCOM WC Alcantara, Ma. Romelie F.

. 11341092 C42 Claim-Counterclaim Essay Poor Quality Education in the Philippines Every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality education (Frist, n.d.). However, one of the most pressing issues that the Philippines is facing right now is the low quality of education, particularly in public elementary and secondary schools. UNICEF (2000) stated in their paper that quality education includes processes through which trained teachers use child centered teaching approaches in well-managed classrooms and schools and skillful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce disparities (p. 4). Yet, the government is not giving enough funds to address the major problems of education to achieve high quality education. According to Cerda (2013), the Aquino administration only spent about 2.2 percent of GNP to education, which is quite far from the desirable 6 percent of our GNP. In order to improve the quality of education, the government should allocate more funds to education to construct more classrooms, to hire and train competent teachers, and to provide quality and updated textbooks. It is alarming that the number of enrolling students continuously increases every year, but the government does not build enough classrooms to accommodate them. According to the statement of Constantino which was published on Sun.Star (2012), the country is short by 48,802 classrooms. I believe that government should allocate funds on building of more classrooms to enrich the education of the students. If there are sufficient classroom, the students will not be jammed and packed together. Thus, the learning of the students will be enhanced because of favorable and conducive learning environment. Also, if they are fewer children in one classroom, the teaching will be much easier. However, some people argue and say that schools can also hold classes even with

large number of students in a single classroom. In fact, according to Bradley and Green (2011), large class size can also present opportunities for instructors to improve their teaching skills (para. 3). But then again, holding large classes will result to a high tendency that teachers cannot give enough attention to each student. Thus, students will have difficulty on understanding and learning their lessons. In addition, Bradley and Green (2011) pointed out in their article that large classes are frequently perceived as one of the main barriers to quality learning, and there are many studies that point to the challenges of teaching large classes (para. 1).

Another reason why the government should allocate more funds to education is to hire and train competent teachers because according to the statement of Constantino which was published on Sun.Star TDC records (2012), the country is short by 132, 564 teachers. If there are enough and competent teachers, it is much easier for a teacher to manage and teach a small number of children. Thus, students will learn more because the teacher can concentrate more in educating the students individually. Yet, some people believe that decreasing the teachers salaries is another solution to cover all the salaries expenses of teachers. However, decreasing the salaries of teachers will result to brain-drain, where teachers leave the country to find better work abroad which has higher salary. According to Punay (2011), The single biggest reason why Filipinos are willing to go abroad for work is the generally low salary offered by employers in the Philippines (para. 4). This will result again to shortage of teachers. One more reason why the government should allocate more funds to education is to provide quality and updated textbooks because according to DepEd from the article of Tubeza (2011), the country is short by 34.7 million textbooks and according to TDC from the article of HernandoMalipot (2013), the government-issued books are outdated. If there are enough textbooks, each one

can have a copy of his own. Thus, the learning of each student would be maximized. Likewise, quality textbooks can enhance the knowledge and learning of the students because of the right and updated information they would be acquired from it. However, government focuses on buying the cheapest textbooks to maximize the quantity of it. According to Malaya from the article of Tubeza (2010), DepEd now relied on the bidding process and trying to get the lowest price. This will result to a greater problem. Choosing textbooks with cheapest prices will result to poor quality of textbooks because the publishers will cut their costs. Thus, this will end up to not so good and full of errors textbooks.

If the government should really want to improve the quality of education in our country, it should address the major problems of education as soon as possible. This means that the government should allocate more funds to education to provide enough classrooms, teachers and textbooks to students. By doing so, the students will surely maximize and enhance their knowledge that will make them at par with those from other countries in terms of learned information because of conducive learning environment, good and enough teachers and textbooks. As Warner (n.d.) once said, investing in high-quality early childhood education has extraordinary returns, not only for the children, but also for our workforce and economy. The best investments are made in communitygrown programs that truly meet local needs.