Here’s A More Exciting Way To Reform Philippine Schools – Teach The Teachers How To Teach Each Child To Become A Genius!

My friend JAQ emailed me today, Wed, 10 Jan 2024, with a long collection of statements about the pursuit of reforming Philippine education. JAQ knows me as an alumnus of UP Los Baños, 1965, with a BSA major in Ag Edu. I passed the “Licensure Examination for Teachers” in 1964; my grade, 80.6% - not bad!

You know what? PH education is bad!

That is the judgment of experts via the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), PISA being a survey of 15-year-old students around the world in the core subjects of Reading, Math and Science. In the 2018 PISA Survey, Victor S Limlingan says (08 Jan 2024, “PISA 2018 And 2022,” BusinessWorld, bworldonline.com):

Philippines: dead last (rank 79) in Reading, second dead last in Math, and dead last in Science (rank 78).

Educators such as Brother Andrew Gonzalez, Dr Edilberto De Jesus, and Brother Armin Luistro who [each] served as DepEd [Secretary], sought to reform DepEd, a lumbering bureaucratic behemoth of a million employees from within – to no avail.

“Reform DepEd,” it says. Failed! Not for want of trying. Here is Brother Luistro, Secretary of Education, in 2012 speaking at the annual meeting of the Philippine Business for Education, where the theme was “The State of Basic Education: Gaining Ground.”

[Bro Luistro] articulated as his Vision for the Department of Education... that by 2030, the DepEd would be globally recognized for… developing functionally literate and God-loving Filipinos…

To achieve his vision and mission, he launched a reform program called, the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) with five Key Reform Thrusts (KRT), namely: School-Based Management (SBM), Teacher Education and Development; National Learning Strategies, Quality Assurance and Accountability; and lastly, Organizational Development.

BESRA is too complicated even for this teacher!

Oh, I must tell you, I have not stopped learning. And so, instead of BESRA, I would recommend a more exciting educational reform.

Background: On 15 April 2007, my daughter Graciela Antonia (Ela) Reynoso Hilario graduated from the Cahbriba Alternative School. Cahbriba was teaching high school students Harvard professor Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences” (MI).

2 years ago I blogged: “It’s Time To Teach Teachers & Parents High IQ Is Nothing – “Walang Bubo!” (22 Nov 2021, “Communication for Development of Vibrant Villages,” blogspot.com). MI is multiplying the intelligences of students – and teachers!

I quote myself from that 2021 essay:

Each of us has a different High IQ!

In 1983, Harvard psychology professor Howard Gardner presented his brainchild “Multiple Intelligences” (MI) in his book Frames Of Mind (Basic Books, 440 pages, Worldcat.org). Here is the MI list:

1. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)
2. Existential Intelligence (“Life Smart”)
3. Interpersonal Intelligence (“People Smart”)
4. Intrapersonal Intelligence (“Self Smart”)
5. Mathematical-Logical Intelligence (“Number/Reasoning Smart”)
6. Musical Intelligence (“Music Smart”)
7. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)
8. Spatial Intelligence (“Image Smart”)
9. Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence (“Word Smart”).

With multiple intelligences, suddenly everyone in school is excited discovering one’s genius. I must emphasize that, no, MI is not limited to Reading, Math and Science!@517