MANILA, 22 June 2003 — So what ails the Philippine education system that Filipino students’ command of the English language is deteriorating?
This question has come to the fore once again after an examination conducted in May by the Department of Education (DepEd) for public school teachers in Metro Manila showed that the most of the teachers themselves have difficulty in understanding the English language.
Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus said the result was discouraging and that additional training was badly needed.
The proficiency tests administered to 6,338 teachers showed their average score to be only 70.2 percent out of 100 percent.
The teachers obtained a low average of 63.67 percent in the “written expression tests” and 68.4 percent in reading comprehension tests. In sentence structure, the teachers scored an average of 81.2 percent.
Education officials blame overseas job luring teachers to leave their jobs at home but observers contend that that was not the reason to justify the deteriorating quality of education in the country.
Some educators blamed the introduction of bilingual teaching medium, which, they said, confuses the teachers and students as well. The test result also confirmed the complaint of American contractors in Iraq that Filipinos no longer possess the high quality of English communication skills.
