I WAS one of the room examiners for the National Achievement Test Yesterday and I was assigned at Kawas National High School and there was something about my experience that made me feel sad. It automatically sent me into contemplative mood.

I attended a seminar in Davao City last week. We where we had a speaker from Singapore, who introduced an educational resource employed in his country. It incorporates ICT in education in a deeper level. Looks like they are preparing their students for the world as early as elementary.

I envied it, knowing that such technologies will greatly help the teachers provide the students with more interactive activities.

However, yesterday, as I distributed the answer sheets to the NAT examinees in Kawas, I realized something. A lot of work needs to be done before we can get to the level of ICT integration Singapore is implementing and by the time we get to where they are now, they would have advanced further, leaving us behind with a greater gap.

I thought of that because of the simple fact that many of our students in the public school have not even mastered the basic communication skills. Filling out of the answer sheets took more than 15 minutes. It was supposed to be completed in five minutes.

It took them too long because many of them cannot write well, though most of them are within the age range of 16-18 already. It made me wonder how they passed elementary school. Some of them could not even spell the name of their school or their place correctly. Aside from that, they write very slowly and in mixed up capitalization. How could we expect them to be able to effectively use ICT in their learning, when they haven’t even mastered the basics of communication?

I believe that this is not limited to the school I visited yesterday. It might even be worse in other schools. I could not help but ask what is wrong with our educational system? We have been tackling problems like these and yet the problems seem unbeatable.

I appreciate the solutions being implemented by DepEd. These include the establishment of Regional Science High Schools (RSHSs)–like our school–and Technical-Vocational High Schools (Tech-Voc). These schools address the needs of students with different inclinations. With these programs, those who are inclined to science education can get quality training from RSHSs, while those who are not-so-into academic learning can have their specialized courses in Tech-Voc high schools, and they will not have to go through academic subjects, which can’t appreciate. These schools are given higher allocation by the government to ensure that they deliver quality education.

The problem with these solutions, however, is that these schools cater only to a fraction of the Filipino youth. How about the rest? In addition to that, the very basic problems still exist like low participation rate and sub-standard school facilities. There are still broken chairs and windows.

I have faith in the Department of Education, but everyone has yet get a share in helping our kids obtain quality education. After all, the welfare of your people is a shared responsibility.