Miyerkules, Agosto 19, 2015

“PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III’s

2015 STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS”

To lead a group of people is not easy, what more if you become the president and lead the country. Based from the SONA of President Aquino III, there is really a big change that took place in our country and in the lives of many Filipinos. In my own opinion, I can say that President Benigno became one of the most responsible leader and President in our country because he have done a lot of things for our country. He became an instrument in bringing and creating a change in our country. As for what I understand with the programs and activities of President Aquino, I can see that he is really doing his best to change the situation of our country today and lead us to progress and success.

There are others who say that our beloved president did not able to do his responsibility being a president. Some people are against with him, but did we ever ask ourselves if is these problems we are facing now is just because of our President? How about our government?, the other politicians?, and how about us?. Aren’t we part of this? We want to create changes but how can we achieve this if there is no unity within the people. The people itself are not supportive with our own president. We chose to elect President Benigno Aquino III to become the leader of this country but what happened to us?, we are the one pulling our own president down, and we are the one starting chaos in our motherland.

Nobody’s perfect, we are just human being, sometimes we commit mistakes, and sometimes we do things that are not likable by everyone, but how can we create peace and unity if we cannot learn to forgive, accept, and understand one another. There are reasons behind our actions, and before we make judgment let us try to seek reasons first and evaluate those things. What I am trying to say here is that every action as long as it is good and for the better of the other, it deserves to be respected and appreciated.

Now let us try to gather some things that brought changes on our country. Some of those changes that attracts me most is the continuous increase of our global competitive rankings wherein our country as of the present was called Asia’s Rising Tiger, Asia’s Rising Star, and Asia’s Bright Spot. See, even for that title or simple change of our country I can somehow say that at least our President had able to increase the competitiveness of our country. Poor people now, and those business men were given opportunity to lend money with just low interest, and also they are given enough time for them to pay their debt. In this way we can able to widen the business of our country and give more opportunities for others to be employed. For the last past years that we encountered and experienced with other presidents our country is not like this. Our country before was poorer if we compare it with our economy today.

Now a days a lot of jobless individuals were being employed, according to the survey 71.9% of new graduates already find a job compared before which is only 28.5%. These are only some of the good things that our president had done for our country. Now let us try to talk about some things that our president failed to do, as what I have heard and as far as I know, some of these are: not being able to reach out for other poor people in far-flung areas, not being able to supply the needs of other Filipino citizens, not being able to focus some of the major issues and problems of our country and many more.

Stating the negatives of our president and the government, I think it is no longer necessary for they themselves know their own mistakes. And as a Filipino, as part of this ever-growing society, I can say that the progress of our country now is somewhat enough for us to continue our life in a more productive and progressive way. Let us try to put ourselves in the shoes of our president now, maybe that’s the only way we can understand him. Our president had done his responsibilities, now let us try to ask ourselves, have we done ours? Instead of thinking for negative things, let’s just hope for good and for the better of our country and for our next president. As what President Benigno Aquino III said, ‘the fate of our country lies in our hands’.

'Education for All' global movement ending; Philippines fails to meet targets

By: Yvonne T. Chua, Vera Files
April 11, 2015 3:25 AM

The 15-year global Education for All (EFA) movement is drawing to a close this year, and the verdict is out.

Only a third of the 164 governments that pledged to achieve universal primary education and five other goals by 2015 have done so, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the report Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challengesreleased this week.

By its own admission, the Philippines isn't among those that have made the mark.

In a report it submitted to UNESCO in time for the World Education Forum scheduled in Incheon, South Korea next month, the Philippine government acknowledged that the strides it has made in achieving in several EFA goals have "been too slow to make it to target by 2015."

The Philippine Education for All (EFA) 2015 Review report identified gaps in:

Grade 1 entrants with some form of early childhood care and development experience: 18 percentage points
Kindergarten net enrolment rate: 23 points
Elementary net enrolment rate: 5 points
High school net enrolment rate: 35 points
Completion rate to finish basic education: 25 points
Eradication of basic illiteracy: 4 points
Eradication of functional illiteracy: 14 points

The Philippine report also expressed concern over boys being at a disadvantage, from getting into school, and staying there, and recording lower literacy and academic achievement rates than girls.

Despite the problems, UNESCO still considers the Philippines among the countries still likely to achieve some of the EFA goals in the coming years if it keeps up its efforts.

One such goal, UNESCO said in this year's report, is achieving the 80 percent gross enrolment ratio where the Philippines is among the governments that have made "strong progress" and are "moving forward."

Gross enrolment ratio is the total enrolment in a given level of education as a percentage of the population that should be enrolled at this level. Net enrolment ratio is the ratio of the enrolment for the age group corresponding to the official school age in the school to the population of the same age group in a given year.

The six EFA goals, adopted in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, are early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children; universal primary education, or access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality for all children; equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs for youth and adults; a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015; gender equality; and improved quality education.

"There has been tremendous progress across the world since 2000—but we are not there yet,” UNESCO director general Irina Bokova said in the foreword of UNESCO’s latest report of EFA “Despite all efforts by governments, civil society and the international community, the world has not achieved Education for All."

As a result, she called EFA 2015 a "qualified success."

UNESCO said only half of all countries have achieved universal primary enrolment, with still 58 million children out of school and around 100 million failing to complete primary education.

The poorest children are "four times more likely to be out of school and five times more likely not to complete primary education than the richest," Bokova said.

The Philippines is among the countries where the UNESCO report said inequality in education persists.

UNESCO cited inequality in the transition from elementary to high school in the Philippines where only 69 percent of grade school graduates from the poorest families continued into high school, compared with 94 percent of those from the richest households.

The situation has hardly changed since 2003, it said.

UNESCO said immunizing children against common and preventable illnesses is important not only to their overall health, but also to their readiness to learn and subsequent schooling.

But it noted the gaps between the richest and poorest households in immunization coverage, and identified the Philippines as among the countries that have seen little improvement in the total percentage of children fully immunized.

And while the Philippine government has recognized that the problem of more boys than girls not getting into school or are leaving school, UNESCO said its "gender equality mechanisms and policies focus largely on women and girls."

UNESCO has conducted site visits to the Philippines and other countries to find out if schools are child-friendly. It identified poor school infrastructure and lack of maintenance as major problems. Only one in three schools in the Philippines were declared to be in good physical condition - without broken windows or peeling paint.

The UNESCO also found that the official intended instructional time is not the same as actual learning time in some countries. For example, one-third of pupils in the Philippines, as well as Argentina and Paraguay reported problems with teachers' late arrival, absenteeism and skipping class, it said.

The Philippines also counts among the countries where computer resources are greatly overstretched, especially in primary schools, in the process hindering the use of information and communication technology to improve learning.

Over 100 learners share a single computer at the primary level in the Philippines, the report said, citing data from UNESCO's database.

The Philippines also hasn't fully decentralized governance of basic education, according to UNESCO. The national government still sets the curriculum content, instructional time and teacher salaries, and allocates resources to schools, although it leaves the choice of teaching methods and support activities for students to schools, it noted.

Programs such as the cash transfer, school feeding, compulsory kindergarten education, the multisector approach to early childhood services and textbook monitoring that have contributed to improving access to and quality of Philippine education were, however, held up as good examples in the UNESCO report.

Because of the setbacks, the UNESCO report urged all government to complete the EFA agenda by pursuing a "Post-2015" agenda, which sets 2030 as the target date of completion.

The Philippine EFA 2015 Review report said it is addressing "emerging and persistent" issues that threaten the achievement of universal education such as poverty, climate change, devastating disasters, armed conflict and threats to the safety and security of schoolchildren.

It unveiled the Philippine EFA 2015 Acceleration Plan that will pursue strategies to attain education of all in the coming years.

The report also said the government has identified long‐term targets to guide education development beyond 2015.

Alternative learning system will be enhanced, the standards of Early Childhood Care and Development programs raised, the quality of the K-12 basic education program improved, teaching and learning methods enhanced, ICT adopted for education, and education organizations and institutions strengthened, according to the report.

Early Childhood

Image ©Shutterstock / Stephane Bidouze

Long-term impact: Early childhood

education in the Philippines

13 August 2015

A three-year longitudinal study in the Philippines

is investigating how children’s participation in early

childhood education contributes to their development

of social, emotional, and cognitive skills, as the

Project Director, Rachel Parker explains.

The Philippines Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Longitudinal Study

is annually assessing a cohort of children across the first three years of their schooling

to measure their social and emotional skills such as sociability, cooperation, resilience

and empathy, as well as their literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills.

Funded by UNICEF, the study is being undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational

Research (ACER) in partnership with the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation

through its Regional Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH)

and the Assessment, Curriculum and Technology Research Centre (ACTRC) of the University

of Melbourne and University of the Philippines.

The cohort of 4500 students, selected from a range of contexts and backgrounds across the

three main island groups of the Philippines, comprises children of different language backgrounds

and geographic locations, and includes children residing in conflict and disaster-affected areas.

Most significantly, data from the study will enable the ACER and SEAMEO INNOTECH researchers

to compare the skills development of children who have participated in pre-school education and

those who have not, and monitor their respective growth and development over time. A select

number of case studies will be developed to provide in-depth descriptions of the context for the

results, through interviews with school leaders, teachers and parents.

The ECCD Longitudinal Study represents a major research investment by UNICEF into the effects

of early childhood education in the Philippines, where the education system has undergone extensive

and ambitious reforms in recent years, extending from a 10-year system to a 13-year Foundation

to Year 12 system.

By adding a compulsory Foundation year under the Enhanced Basic Education Act 2013, the

Government of the Philippines acknowledges the critical importance of early years education;

however, limitations on the supply of teachers and resources alongside increased demand as

a result of the legislation are likely to mean that the universal participation of children will be difficult

to achieve.

The ECCD Longitudinal Study embodies aid effectiveness principles by sharing approaches and

resources with development partners. It builds on work currently undertaken by ACTRC to assess

student learning outcomes in the southern islands of Mindanao.

The study will use cognitive assessment instruments developed by ACRTC and extend their use

across the Philippines. ACTRC is also supporting the study by training staff and advising on the

issues and challenges it has faced through implementing a longitudinal study on student learning

outcomes in the Philippines.

It is anticipated that results from the ECCD Longitudinal Study will inform policy as the relationship

between early years education and school performance is better understood. Case studies will inform

understanding about transitions between grades and how school and family factors relate to cognitive,

social and emotional development in the first years at school.

ACER has designed the research methodology, developed survey and test instruments, and will

analyse, interpret and workshop the results with UNICEF and the Department of Education in the

Philippines. A series of policy papers will be produced before the project concludes in 2018. ■

Rachel Parker is a Research Fellow in ACER’s Education and Development research program.

More [rd] articles by Rachel Parker

International

16 March 2015

A comprehensive new study reveals that teacher absenteeism in Indonesia is declining, and provides evidence for policy makers focused on improving teaching and learning, as Phil McKenzie explains.

Evaluation, Quality & Standards, Survey, School,International, Featured international

School

Educational neuroscience and the role of feedback: What’s in a word? | RD

14 August 2015

Research discoveries in educational neuroscience can help teachers in the classroom, Dr Sacha DeVelle told a recent learning conference in Spain.

Evaluation, Student Engagement, School

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10 August 2015

Significant progress in improving the quality and equity of Australian schooling depends on tackling our deepest and most stubborn educational challenges.

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10 ways to get your graduation noticed

By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent

This is the graduation season, with universities awash with gowns, photographers and ceremonial handshakes. But how are you going to get noticed in the sea of catering tents and pompous speeches?

1) It's all about the hat: What is it about hats and graduations? Years of studying and you get to throw an impractical hat in the air. But the hat is the graduation scene stealer - either with a look-at-me message written on top or with rows of hats creating that symmetrical overhead photo opportunity.

Graduation hat — If you want to get ahead get a hat: A graduate in New York sends a mortar board message

Even when there's a ban on throwing hats, that becomes the story. The attention-grabbing graduation ceremony needs a hat with a message and ideally someone slipping over when they're wearing it.

Hebei Academy in China has a campus where Harry Potter might feel at home

2) Make your campus look like Hogwarts: Graduation is a curious mixture of ceremony, ritual, pseudo-religious imagery and young people feeling like they've achieved something against the odds. Which means there's a lot in common with a Harry Potter adventure. Hebei Academy in China has brought this full circle. Last month's graduation drew the world's photographers because it actually looks like it's been staged on a back-lot in Hogwarts.

3) Bring a dog: Among the most photographed graduates this year must have been Fudge the cocker spaniel, pictured in his canine-size robes at his owner's graduation at Edinburgh Napier University. "I know it seems eccentric, but Fudge has been part of my journey through uni since day one," said owner, Jack Proctor. Fudge was unavailable for comment, but he is believed to be considering postgraduate studies if he can manage the fees.

4) Old people with a poignant tale: George and Miko Kaihara, now aged 90, were part of the Japanese community in the United States interned during the Second World War. It meant that they never got to graduate. But that was put right last month, when these two veterans of the Class of 1943 finally got to pick up their diplomas. This is a much more uplifting way of getting people to see your graduation than funny pictures on YouTube of graduates in high heels falling over.

5) Keep them guessing: Particularly tough nuns about to take out the geography department? A remake of Sister Act with a special forces theme? These were Iranian female police cadets showing their skills at a graduation ceremony a few years ago. It's a little different from the "motivational" speech from the bloke from Norwich who sponsored the new sports hall.

Gown rock: Jon Bon Jovi shared some big ideas with students

6) Deploy an old rocker: "Our future starts in our past - but it doesn't end there". "Choose a direction and if the road turns - turn! If there is a fork in the road - take it! It's ok to map out your future - but do it in pencil." Wise, wise words from Jon Bon Jovi at Rutgers University last month. These philosophical insights were light work for a man who brought the world a breakthrough album called Slippery When Wet.

Obama at coastguard graduation — President Obama has a look of weary resignation for this James Bond-themed graduation picture

7) Famous face, awkward photo: You've got the US president at your graduation. Time for a serious face, full of respectful gravitas? Nope, an opportunity to pretend to be James Bond. President Obama went along with this Bond gag at a coastguard graduation ceremony. But that expression? Parent who wanted to be taken seriously forced to join in with the novelty dance at a teenage disco. Nice.

Emily Bruell in Colorado tells the world she is gay

8) That big personal statement. Who can resist the perfect platform for a big statement? Friends and family are gathered, it's a symbolic time of change, it's a moment made for a big reveal. And so this year saw the coming out coming into the graduation hall.

9) Exit through the gift shop: Graduations have become merchandising opportunities. Part of the impact is now being felt, not just with a lump in the throat but with a substantial hit on the parental wallet. On top of the commemorative photos, outfit hire, food and souvenir mugs and T-shirts, there are now more upmarket souvenirs, such as graduation rings and jewellery. None of this fundraising feels as strange as some US colleges which offer university-themed coffins.

10) Toe-curlingly embarrassing dance routine: When they say something is going viral, it's sometimes because it's like a virus that makes you feel rather nauseous. Here's the entirely spontaneous moment when students in Portsmouth, New Hampshire began to dance along to a Taylor Swift song. There's something about organised fun that feels like you've been trapped in a terrible recurring nightmare.