The School of Athens, a fresco by the
Italian Renaissance Raphael, shows Western Philosophy’s iconic figures, namely
Plato and Aristotle. The two giants in the academy are surrounded by people who
are either engaging with each other through discussions or listening attentively
to the great two. Trivially, this painting can be seen in our ordinary
classrooms— a mere sight of disorder. But one must ask these questions: “Do our
schools have the same spirit?” “Do our
schools engender an environment for the growth of authentic discourse? How does
the school appear to the common students and their respective parents? It is
already embedded in society that school is a gateway to employment. Students
and parents alike see school as a ticket to a job; thus, a strong necessity to
finish even in the most complacent and mediocre path possible.
Industries have set standards that schools need to implement so that students will be employable. And it is undeniable that the market demands shape also the education lobby. There was a time in contemporary Philippines wherein nursing was popular because of the promise of employment abroad, and you can see that almost any HEI (Higher Education Institution) would offer a nursing program. Moreover, foreign health care services were developing, so they were looking for abled people for the job. But the tides have changed as these foreign corporations are either full or adopting a conservative stance with labor policies, making nursing lose its steam.
As technology improved at an unprecedented scale for over a decade, the demand for technology-related curriculum is increasing especially when tech-oriented jobs are at their all-time high for both pay and opportunities. Each school wants to offer at least an IT course while those who have a decent pool of capital can invest in hardcore computer programming and software engineering courses. Every school sees to it that they are on trend, and if they are not, they will be left out in the race.
However, the Philippines long opened itself to the market for cheap and exploitable human labor, and that is why the Philippines has a lot of domestic helpers abroad. The Philippine Statistics Authority records showed that there were 2.3 million OFWs as of April to September 2017, and this is a significant number with significant earnings given that a majority of these people have dependent family members. More so, even though people are employed, a decent minimum wage is still farfetched if one must work in the Philippines; thus, going abroad has always been the direction. It is no wonder that vocational schools are open especially for those who want to simply land on a job, even bagging a place to be the “dakilang maid” on a foreign soil.
The environment plays a large role in shaping people, even institutions. In the face of poverty, lack of equal opportunity, desperation, unfair competition, and changing policies, schools are part of the nexus that changes throughout time. The social conditions manifest also even inside the classrooms.
You have students from marginalized families who struggle to meet their daily needs. These students would rather be absent and help with their family’s arduous labor, and if they still have time to catch up with school, they are too tired to participate. Thus, the dire situation is compromising their will to learn, and if this kind of student comprises the bulk of the population of certain schools, then adopting to cater their needs will be necessary. In the meeting halls, a learner-centered environment sounds revolutionary; however, on the ground, there are students who are already lost and damaged at home making pedagogical changes even less of an appeal. Worse, standards are compromised just to keep up with the skewed implementation of the ideal of “no student left behind.” That is why a lot of students who managed to venture into college (which are predominantly privately owned) face a lot of setbacks such as failures and the lack of capability to meet the collegiate demands because they were often graced by leniency during their primary and secondary years. Leniency paired with complacency and pressured with passing all students has led to mediocrity. And students want to pass because of the prospect of future employment—a means for economic redemption. Whereas the teachers must simply pass their students to avoid questions and the hassles of systemic remediation.
What do classrooms appear like? Are they filled with enthusiastic learners and teachers given the fact that both are immersed in influential social conditions? Or is there a meeting of one simply trying to pass, and one simply trying to get the job done for pay? Let us focus on students who are already nearing the legal age which are still considered to belong to the secondary level due to the recent K12 program. By the looks of it, memorizing is still seen as a glorified skill. Rizal wrote about students simply reciting Latin prayers in Chapter 19 of Noli Me Tangere entitled “The Adventures of a Schoolmaster”, and the current counterpart is an English version that teachers see in the classroom which is mere rote learning like parrots. Mere identification is still at play even amidst the strong emphasis of the 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. You have disinterested students; and all the more, a pristine learning environment is still far from possible. And it is even too demanding to make the teacher conjure the magic of an ideal classroom.
Thus, we go back to the painting. What is a school? The philosophers and the intellectually thirsty consider it a haven for thought. However, does the painting serve as the right mold for our institutions? And if it is, where are we? And if it isn’t, what then is a school?
(For context, this was written during the summer of 2020. The year is crucial to get the context of some facts mentioned here as well as the setting the author assumed.)
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