Volume 17, Issue 6
| Practical Information
Education in the Philippines
By Nick Clark, Assistant Editor WENR
The development of the Philippine education system has been heavily influenced by its colonial history, which has included periods of Spanish, American and Japanese colonization and occupation. During the period of American colonization, beginning in 1898, English was instituted as the language of Instruction and a public school system was established, administered by a Department of Instruction, and modeled on the US system. A number of colleges and universities were established primarily to train teachers, although in 1908 the University of the Philippines was chartered as the nation’s first comprehensive public university. Primary education through grade seven was funded by the government and free to all. Private universities and colleges were also established during this period.
The United States has left the largest imprint on the education system which can be discerned in a number of ways. One is the extensive, relatively non-elitist system of higher education, to which access is widely available (comparative to other South East Asian nations). The United States continues to influence the system indirectly through the large number of academic staff who have earned graduate degrees from U.S. universities.
The Philippines has long been a leader in the region with respect to achievements in education. By 1970, the Philippines had achieved universal primary enrollment. These successes, however, mask a long-term deterioration in quality, and the national figures obscure wide regional differences. In Manila, close to 100 percent of students finish primary school, whereas in Mindanao and Eastern Visayas less than 30 percent of students finish. A recent study showed that scores of Filipino children between 9 and 14 in mathematics, science and reading were two standard deviations below the international mean. Not surprisingly, urban/rural differences were especially pronounced (World Bank, 1999).
Education is offered through formal and non-formal systems. The number of years of formal schooling in the Philippines is one of the shortest in the world. The educational ladder has a 6+4+4 structure, (i.e., six years of elementary education, four years of secondary education, and typically four years to gain a bachelor’s degree).
The academic school year in the Philippines starts in June and ends in March, covering a period of 40 weeks. Institutions of higher education operate on a semester system with an optional summer semester. Education is compulsory from age seven to twelve, covering the first six grades of education.
English was the official language of instruction from 1935 to 1987. The new constitution of 1987 prescribed that both Filipino and English be the official languages of communication and instruction. English continues to be widely used from the higher primary level onwards, owing to a dearth of materials and resources in Filipino, as well as Filipino-speaking teachers. This is especially true in vocational and technical fields.
The administration and supervision of the school system is the responsibility of the Department of Education, which has an office in each of the 13 regions of the country.
Historically, the Government has been unable to fund the whole education system and has concentrated resources on the primary sector. Consequently, over 90 percent of enrollments at the primary level are in public schools; whereas, at secondary schools that number is less than 70 percent and at the tertiary level over 88 percent of institutions are private, representing 73 percent of enrollments (Department of Education, 2003), where the quality of programs ranges from high to marginal quality. A discussion of the accreditation process in the Philippines can be found in the ‘Higher Education’ section of this profile.
Primary education is compulsory and is six years in duration divided into a four-year primary cycle and a two-year intermediate cycle. Children generally begin first grade at seven years of age; howe