Can Your Children Get An Adequate Education In Cebu?

[relcarve25]

Hi! - Several people suggested that they would like to get someone else's opinion about the standard of schools and education in Cebu. I'm sticking my head on the block because we put our son Sean in Bright Academy, Banilad for 4 years until the end of Grade 4. At that point, 2009, he was 11 and we decided to return to the UK for the sake of his education. Clearly we were dissatisfied. Because I have been a teacher all my working life and have taught in a number of countries I hope that anything I say may have some validity.I have also worked for UK GCE/GCSE Examination Boards

   Please!...I am NOT an education expert ... any views I express are my own observations based on visiting schools in Cebu and doing a bit of Science training with the science staff at Bright Academy. I have also interviewed the Headteacher at CIS.

   Reading some of the posts here I see that a number of people have already commented on this issue, but it is one that won't go away. The future of our children is very important.

   I would also state that we may have issues with education in Cebu but there are many aspects of life in the Philippines that we love and Filipino people have always been nothing but friendly and helpful towards me. Maybe I will end my days there- who knows.

   God! all that introduction and I haven't got to the point yet. Just like a 'blooming teacher.' Can't shut up and has to try to explain everything. Sorry about that.

   Where to start? I really hope anyone interested will feel absolutely free to disagree with me and criticise as much as they want.

    When we came to live in Cebu in 2005 we had to find a school for Sean as soon as reasonably possible. I didn't want a Denomination school as I didn't  want Sean to be influenced by one religion or another- and believe me that's what religious schools here do. I had already talked to CIS but just couldn't afford their fees. They are high by ordinary standards. One thing I would say at the risk of sounding 'snobby' or pompous is that I think that, as a teacher, I have an advantage over most parents in accessing the quality of a school- it's like an accountant knows what to look for in a business's books- where the bad things will be hidden. Simply because of long experience. We went to quite a number of schools, some of which advertised themselves as 'International Schools.' Watch out for that. All schools in Cebu want to get foreign students, both for the money and for the assumed 'prestige' value. If they have one foreign student they will call themselves international. A true International School has an entirely different curriculum and will enter their students for internationally recognised examinations like the Baccalaureate favoured in the USA and France, or the British Cambridge Overseas Examinations. This is vitally important as I'm sure that a lot of you will want your child to emerge with a qualification which is valued in other countries. In 2009 there were only a handful of true international schools in the whole of the Philippines- and only one in Cebu- CIS. At this point I should say that I'm assuming that you don't want to send your child to a State school. I didn't want to send my son through private education but to me there was no choice. Unfortunately, as others have rightly pointed out in previous posts, the Philippine education system is the worst in Asia, except for Cambodia. The system, like all others here, is corrupt from top to bottom. The 2013 Education Budget allocation is 32 Billion pesos, quite an increase from the previous few years but still woefully inadequate for the children of this country. This budget is only about one third of what the UN says is necessary for an adequate education system. And it doesn't stop there of course. Of that 32 billion a large chunk will be siphoned off into corrupt pockets- billions at the top and getting smaller all the way down to the bottom. State schools have inadequate buildings, sanitation, resources, textbooks and numbers of teachers.......

   Now, you can see the way I'm going here. I'm sorry but I find it hard to be very brief about a subject which is dear to me. I don't want to waste your time, or mine, if I'm going to write about things you're not really interested in. I cannot do the topic justice without quite a lengthy treatment and I very much want to hear what other people can contribute to the subject. I want to go on to talk about what to look out for in Cebu schools and discuss lots of examples of good and bad areas within the school that my son went to. ..and also tell you how my son's education ranked in the UK when we returned- whether he had been held back or not. Please... someone give me some indication if they would like me to continue- I really won't be offended one way or another- my shoulders are pretty broad.  Thanks for reading.  Chris McG.. .

[i am bob]

I'm not sure about the others and I do not have children but I am very interested in learning all I can about the education system available in the Philippines.  My Special Someone is in university at the moment working on becoming a SpEd (Special Education) teacher and knowing what she will have to face will be very helpful to me.  Even what you wrote above has been very informative and I hope you continue on!

 

:AddEmoticons04230:

[relcarve25]

Sorry! - I gave the wrong figure for the 2013 Philippine Education Budget. It should be 292 billion pesos. Shows you should read things more carefully before posting. The thrust is still OK though. This is still about only one third of the UN recommended level. Chris McG.

[MikeB]

According to their site, the current total tuition at Cebu Intl School starts at over p500k per school year for the lower grades and goes to almost 700k for high school. That's way out of my league. I also have concerns about parochial schools; I attended one myself as a child and it was a very bad experience, my parents finally pulled all of us out and sent us to public school where the education was actually better and they didn't beat us. But that was in the US and things have changed in that regard. They would never get away with it now. 

 

Are you familiar with Sacred Heart School, I have heard that is one of the better ones. We have time, our child is an infant, but this is obviously a big issue. I fear the schools outside the cities are at an even lower level and I can't see moving back to Cebu City, I hated it when I lived there. Thanks for sharing your experience. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

Question,

 

I have a potential plan to enroll my Filipino/Canadian child in correspondence classes from Canada at the same time as he attends regular school in a Philippine province.  It occurred to me that he would have the cultural experience and school qualifications of his filipino country mates while also obtaining an eventual high school diploma from Canada.  Would this work to avoid the poor quality of education available in the classrooms here?

[JJReyes]

Did you consider correspondence or home schooling?

 

Years ago, our older son was attending International School in Manila. We left the Philippines for a round-the-world trip lasting one year before resettling in the United States. Uncertain on how to continue providing a structured education, my wife enrolled him in a correspondence course. The correspondence exchanges with the teacher were c/o American Express offices. Seven months were spent traveling throughout Europe on an RV. We were following a route so it was possible to calculate when we could check for mail in a particular city. Our younger son was still small at the time, so we did "read aloud" every evening with him.

 

If you and your wife are busy, hire a school teacher. Make sure she familiar and able to teach using the "inquiry" method rather than "knowledge" or memorization, which is more popular in the Philippines. Top local teachers will jump at the opportunity of make extra money. Also ask around for a returning Overseas Filipino Worker who is a teacher. Find out if there is someone who was employed by an International School or DODEA (Department of Defense Education Administration). These are the 222 schools located in US military bases. The reputation of DODEA schools is excellent. While preference is given to American teachers, they can't hire enough Americans for overseas assignment.

 

David Houndriver also made an excellent suggestion of offering regular schooling supplemented by a correspondence course.

 

Funny kindergarten story. The class was asked, "What is the smallest number?" Our granddaughter was the only one with the correct answer, "Negative infinity." Our son must have been beaming when he told us about it over the phone. My reaction, "Negative infinity? During my kindergarten year, the teacher was trying to teach me how to count using my fingers!"

Edited February 11, 2013 by JJReyes

[SubicSteve]

I'm curious as to why you didn't enroll your kid in the public school and then as a teacher, also home school him with your own curriculum?

[JJReyes]

I'm curious as to why you didn't enroll your kid in the public school and then as a teacher, also home school him with your own curriculum?

 

Some of the public schools are so dilapidated, the termites are holding hands to keep the roof from collapsing. Overcrowding is another issue. I have seen classrooms where students seated in the front had their knees touching the wall. The toilets stank to high heavens. The ones I visited had a book ratio of one to seven. That's one textbook for every seven students. The principal told me their school was lucky because the more remote public schools had a book ratio of one for every twelve students.

 

My wife and I visited a public high school in Cebu City. They proudly showed up their computer room, which had nearly fifty old desktops. While I was engaged in conversation with the computer teacher, my wife noticed that the six students in the room were congregating around one computer. It turned out it was the only working computer. The high school charges students P50 per semester to pay for the electricity. Most students cannot afford the extra P50. Out of some eight hundred students, less than 40 could afford the extra P50.

 

Now comes the sad part. We were involved at the time with the University of Hawaii, College of Education, Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG). Our two sons attended the University of Hawaii Laboratory School where cutting edge curriculum is developed and tested by CRDG before use by US public schools. They were emptying the warehouse of older textbooks. There was enough to fill two 40 foot containers. We were trying to donate the textbooks to the Department of Education (DeptEd). It couldn't be done because the CRDG textbooks needed approval by DeptEd's curriculum department. The process would take one year and we would have to pay for the testing.

 

CRDG gets their grant money from the US Department of Education (public schools), US Department of State (International Schools), US Department of Defense (222 military schools) and the National Science Foundation. Their CRDG principal investigators are some of the best in the world. We were not trying to sell textbooks. These were donations! The textbooks ended up in a landfill.   

[Call me bubba]

The process would take one year and we would have to pay for the testing.

why was the reason they wanted them to be "TESTED"? and what would have been the cost to the testing?

 

These were donations! The textbooks ended up in a landfill.

 

could they have been sent via "THE BOX" to the school and then let them determine what to do?

at least it would not be trashed..

 last, not to be rude,, is this typical.??

that you have something GOOD to help, and either some "rule" prevents it or they just give some excuse of why they cant accept it.

 what can be done to change this crap so it doesnt  happen in the future,

[MikeB]

If you and your wife are busy, hire a school teacher. Make sure she familiar and able to teach using the "inquiry" method rather than "knowledge" or memorization, which is more popular in the Philippines. Top local teachers will jump at the opportunity of make extra money. Also ask around for a returning Overseas Filipino Worker who is a teacher. Find out if there is someone who was employed by an International School or DODEA (Department of Defense Education Administration). These are the 222 schools located in US military bases. The reputation of DODEA schools is excellent. While preference is given to American teachers, they can't hire enough Americans for overseas assignment.

That might work in places like Manila but where I live you would not find anyone like that. It's theoretically possible, not likely.