Raising Children And Education

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RobertM
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Hello,been awhile since i have been to the forum and all looks different. Anyhow some advice from those who may have walked this path before.My wife and I are planning to return to Cebu to live permanently in around 18 months or so,we have a daughter who is 12months old,anyhow my concern is for my daughters education when shes at school age.Will she have the same opportunity in life after finishing school and university with a Philippines education. We intend to send her to a private school so my thoughts are that she should be on par with a US education but as a father I worry that it might set her back later in life.Any other expat members have school age children in the Philippines that can give their insight on my worries.Robert M

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Jake
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Hello,been awhile since i have been to the forum and all looks different. Anyhow some advice from those who may have walked this path before.My wife and I are planning to return to Cebu to live permanently in around 18 months or so,we have a daughter who is 12months old,anyhow my concern is for my daughters education when shes at school age.Will she have the same opportunity in life after finishing school and university with a Philippines education. We intend to send her to a private school so my thoughts are that she should be on par with a US education but as a father I worry that it might set her back later in life.Any other expat members have school age children in the Philippines that can give their insight on my worries. Robert M
Welcome back RobertM, "Will she have the same opportunity in life after finishing school and university with a Philippines education" Your question above is a major concern for those expats living in the Philippines and having children to continue their education there. If you go to the section of this forum about "Schools and Colleges", you will find a few expats that have contributed their comments about your question. For example: Jamesmusslewhite has provided this link -- http://en.wikipedia....ce_High_School. Other members like Daisy and Tropicalwaste also provided some information. I have invited Gold Heart who recently returned back to the States to respond to your question. I believe he has a teenage son that was educated in a Philippine private school. I personally know a few Filipinos that have BS degrees from prestigious colleges and universities but was unable to find a job here in the States that would match their educational background. It could be a language barrier, shyness or simply giving up their dreams and accepted a lesser position. It really depends on the individual. The medical field, especially nursing seems to be the most positive return in educational investment. We wish you and your family the very best -- Jake
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ekimswish
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I'm in the same situation, moving to the Phils with a 1 and 3 year old next month. I've also got 12 and 10 year old step-children there. My take on it is, from a learning perspective, you'll get out of it what you put in. From elementary through to high school there's not much to learn anyways, unless you want to. Most of the smart kids are probably learning on their own because they're interested in the subjects. Then, in the West, university is a giant scam nowadays, just to grab as much money from as many worthless degrees as possible. Why waste the money on their schools, when you can waste far less in the Philippines? Our kids will probably change majors 3 times before they graduate. Might as well take the cheap road in the Philippines, let them "find themselves" (or give-in to the system), and then let them go back to the West for graduate studies when they're older, more focused, and can support themselves with loans and part time jobs. In today's world, a Bachelor's is like a HS diploma used to be, and a Master's has taken the place of a Bachelor's. You need a Bachelor's to prove you're not entirely stupid, and a Master's to say you might be a little smart. Just make sure the Philippine school they attend can transfer credits to an American school later on. Otherwise, it's a waste.

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Gold Heart
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Hello,been awhile since i have been to the forum and all looks different. Anyhow some advice from those who may have walked this path before.My wife and I are planning to return to Cebu to live permanently in around 18 months or so,we have a daughter who is 12months old,anyhow my concern is for my daughters education when shes at school age.Will she have the same opportunity in life after finishing school and university with a Philippines education. We intend to send her to a private school so my thoughts are that she should be on par with a US education but as a father I worry that it might set her back later in life.Any other expat members have school age children in the Philippines that can give their insight on my worries.Robert M
Hi, Welcome back! I've also been away for a short while. I can share my experience with Philippines education as I had this deep concern. I wanted my son to have the same flexibility to go to schools in the US or Philippines and did not want him to fall behind. You must understand that in many categories of education, the US has fallen as low as number 25 in the world. I clearly would not trust the Philippines public school system which has children going to school without resources for 2 less years.We enrolled our son in the Cebu International School (CIS) and I can just say that our experience was outstanding. Not only was he ahead of the US but his education was far more rounded. The exposure to a broad range of extracuricular activities along with the multi-cultural activities was beyond what we expected. We recently returned to the US and he is far ahead of others in his same grade. CIS students attend major universities around the world upon graduation with high success. Unfortunately the school is relatively expensivie but it was important to us to ensure we provided the best education and flexibility. I heard there were other more affordable options with equal quality.
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Jake
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http://newsinfo.inqu...ter-Aquino-termThe link above is a proposal to increase the total school years from 10 to 12 years. The reason behind that is to decrease the study load being crammed within 10 years and also to enhance the last two extra years into skills related education. Thereby, increasing the chances of getting a good job and also elevate the average skill and knowledge level of graduating HS students to the rest of the world.The downside has always been the lack of budget to build more class rooms and hire more teachers. Like everything else, the budget can be balanced if graft and corruption was kept in check. Oh well, this proposal will not happen within our lifetime.Respectfully -- Jake
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ekimswish
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http://newsinfo.inqu...ter-Aquino-termThe link above is a proposal to increase the total school years from 10 to 12 years. The reason behind that is to decrease the study load being crammed within 10 years and also to enhance the last two extra years into skills related education. Thereby, increasing the chances of getting a good job and also elevate the average skill and knowledge level of graduating HS students to the rest of the world.The downside has always been the lack of budget to build more class rooms and hire more teachers. Like everything else, the budget can be balanced if graft and corruption was kept in check. Oh well, this proposal will not happen within our lifetime.Respectfully -- Jake
I hope they tag on two extra years of schooling. That was a big point of confusion for me until a month ago. My wife's story of when she went to college and how old she was when she got knocked up by her ex and so forth never made complete sense to me. The timing didn't seem to line up, so I was constantly asking her more questions to try and clarify it. Then I'd give up and just pretend to understand, wondering if I was getting the whole story. A month ago, discussing my step-daughter and high school, I was finally told they graduate at grade 10 and go to college from there. Maybe she assumed I knew that already. Now, her story of her own life made perfect sense, timing wise. Anyways, only having schooling until grade 10 and then expecting them to excel in university is tough. They need more time to grow up and mature. Do you guys know if the international schools have 12 grades? A 16 year old Filipino would have a tough time getting into a western university, I imagine. They'd probably have to go west, and study in a western high school the last few years, and then go to uni. Edited by ekimswish
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RobertM
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HelloLooks like my fears are not warranted as long as I pay for a good private school,thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

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tropicalwaste
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Education is my biggest issue at the moment as I find it just doesn't cut the mustard unless you throw money at it and even then the follow ons arent good. Ever wonder why they have revision? Because they could fit a 3 year course into 1-2 its just about the money.. a lot of the time they are wasting our money and defintely our childrens education. A mariner student here was actually told to study the movie Tekken by his lecturer now you can't tell me that is anything else than a lazy teacher!I think the best alternative is actually combining home study with the local education system as it seems the only real way to do it properly. Much of the education is internal here ever wonder why you ask nearly anyone where other countries are on a map they wouldn't know?Now I can say the same about the U.S. and UK as someone stated above "you get out what you put in" and there couldn't be a more true statement. Cheating and skimming through school here is huge and the only way to combat it is spending time with your kids to make sure they really are studying instead of copying etc. Its part of the big problem in the provinces lots of school graduates who learned nothing in the time at school!

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Old55
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RobertM your question is more or less the deal breaker for some of us. It brings home the question is living in Cebu worthwhile with children? Frankly my wife and I have some doubts.There is a Cebu City Jesuit School grade 1-10 that is every bit as good as CIS and costs about 100,000 a year. My wife is looking for the school name we will post it here when she finds it.Gold Heart I’m curious to know more about your Cebu International School experiences. If you would PM me I would appreciate it very much. I know some things to do with that school both good and bad and yes it is expensive.

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Old55
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Southcrest School Banilad Cebu Philippines, better than most public schools in the US.http://www.parefsouthcrest.edu.ph/arch.php?show_announce=&show_news=&page=announce&id=42

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