-=+cZaRiNa+=-
Feb 18, 2007, 01:19 PM
Nabasa ko sa PDI February 5, 2007 issue. May nakita akong internet version:
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AS I SEE IT
Public schools used to be better than private schools
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer
Last updated 09:39pm (Mla time) 02/04/2007
MANILA, Philippines--THE CURRENT habit of comparing the performances of public school students with those attending private schools, and the two-part series by Queena N. Lee-Chua expressing surprise that a couple of outstanding students at the Ateneo de Manila University came from public schools and not from private schools, made me look back to my primary and elementary school days.
The present situation, where private school students usually perform better, has not always been like that. In the old days, it was the other way around: public school students were better.
I studied in public schools in Malabon during my primary, elementary and early high school. There were several private schools in Malabon at that time but we laughed at those who went there. We considered them "bobo": they were in private schools only because they were not admitted to public schools "for not making the grade." All the bright students went to public schools. Why a private school when the public school was free and had a better reputation? Those in private schools went there by force of circumstance.
The reason public schools were better then was the teachers. They were more dedicated and hard working. For the first four grade levels, I went to the Tonsuya Barrio School, a five-room wooden schoolhouse (the fifth room was the principal's office). The teachers in the first two grades were only Grade 6 graduates who were taught how to teach. And how they learned. They were very good. They motivated their pupils to excel. For example, when a Grade 1 pupil was able to answer correctly a particularly hard question, the teacher would pick him up and parade him around the room and tell the other pupils to clap their hands. That really motivated the pupils (me, for example) to study, hoping to be paraded around next time.
Then there were the prizes frequently awarded to those who performed well in tests and recitations. The gifts were not expensive, just cheap medals or religious pins, or framed religious pictures. But how proud we were to bring those prizes home and how proud our parents were to show them to neighbors. Parents were invited to the school for a talk with the teachers when their children were performing poorly or well.
When I graduated from the primary school, I transferred to the Malabon Elementary School in Hulo, which is across the river on the other side of town. To get there, we either had to take a karetela or walk. We walked to save our transportation allowance for lunch. It was a long walk, five kilometers each way, but it wasn't tiring because there were plenty of us children walking. Children from our barrio had to walk a longer way because we first had to walk a kilometer or so to the bridge which we had to cross to reach the main road leading to the school.
But there was a shorter way--across the river, by banca. We would walk across fishpond dikes in our barrio to reach the river where there usually was a banca ferrying passengers, back and forth, for a few centavos. On the other side, we walked across more fishpond dikes, through some backyards, and then to the main street only a short distance from the school.
On the way to school, we would pass two private schools. The public school students were so arrogant at that time that we would jeer at the private school students whom we knew. The latter developed a kind of inferiority complex, such that they couldn't look at us straight in the face. We would ask some of our playmates why they were studying in a private school, and they would shamefacedly answer, "Hindi ako matanggap sa public school, eh (I can't admitted to a public school)."
That changed during the war and after Liberation. Many students didn't go to school during the three-year Japanese occupation. They didn't want to study Nippongo and many believed that the schooling during the Japanese occupation wouldn't be recognized by the Americans when they returned.
After the Liberation, most of the public schools were destroyed. Those that were not had no desks. They were either commandeered or used for firewood.
I went to Caloocan High School (the former Cecilio Apostol Elementary School) beside the runway of the Feati airline, and each of us students had to bring our own chair or stool.
The students from the city were a tough bunch. They banded together and made a game of bullying students from the provinces. I fell in with a tough gang, two members of whom even brought pistols to school. There were frequent fights, outside and inside classrooms, and the stools became handy for bashing heads.
The next year, we were told to leave the Cecilio Apostol building and transfer to the Philippine National Railroad cottages in a compound beside the railroad tracks. Again, we had to bring our own chairs and stools there. I think this was the time when public schools began to lose their quality and the private schools started to catch up.
I was becoming a hooligan at Caloocan High, so my father transferred me to St. James Academy in Malabon, a Catholic school run by the Maryknoll sisters. At first, I didn't want to go to a private school, remembering how we made fun of students going to private schools. But St. James was a very good school and I was fortunate to have excellent Maryknoll sisters as teachers. They really motivated their students to perform well.
And the public vs. private school situation has been that way ever since.
---
AS I SEE IT
Public schools used to be better than private schools
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer
Last updated 09:39pm (Mla time) 02/04/2007
MANILA, Philippines--THE CURRENT habit of comparing the performances of public school students with those attending private schools, and the two-part series by Queena N. Lee-Chua expressing surprise that a couple of outstanding students at the Ateneo de Manila University came from public schools and not from private schools, made me look back to my primary and elementary school days.
The present situation, where private school students usually perform better, has not always been like that. In the old days, it was the other way around: public school students were better.
I studied in public schools in Malabon during my primary, elementary and early high school. There were several private schools in Malabon at that time but we laughed at those who went there. We considered them "bobo": they were in private schools only because they were not admitted to public schools "for not making the grade." All the bright students went to public schools. Why a private school when the public school was free and had a better reputation? Those in private schools went there by force of circumstance.
The reason public schools were better then was the teachers. They were more dedicated and hard working. For the first four grade levels, I went to the Tonsuya Barrio School, a five-room wooden schoolhouse (the fifth room was the principal's office). The teachers in the first two grades were only Grade 6 graduates who were taught how to teach. And how they learned. They were very good. They motivated their pupils to excel. For example, when a Grade 1 pupil was able to answer correctly a particularly hard question, the teacher would pick him up and parade him around the room and tell the other pupils to clap their hands. That really motivated the pupils (me, for example) to study, hoping to be paraded around next time.
Then there were the prizes frequently awarded to those who performed well in tests and recitations. The gifts were not expensive, just cheap medals or religious pins, or framed religious pictures. But how proud we were to bring those prizes home and how proud our parents were to show them to neighbors. Parents were invited to the school for a talk with the teachers when their children were performing poorly or well.
When I graduated from the primary school, I transferred to the Malabon Elementary School in Hulo, which is across the river on the other side of town. To get there, we either had to take a karetela or walk. We walked to save our transportation allowance for lunch. It was a long walk, five kilometers each way, but it wasn't tiring because there were plenty of us children walking. Children from our barrio had to walk a longer way because we first had to walk a kilometer or so to the bridge which we had to cross to reach the main road leading to the school.
But there was a shorter way--across the river, by banca. We would walk across fishpond dikes in our barrio to reach the river where there usually was a banca ferrying passengers, back and forth, for a few centavos. On the other side, we walked across more fishpond dikes, through some backyards, and then to the main street only a short distance from the school.
On the way to school, we would pass two private schools. The public school students were so arrogant at that time that we would jeer at the private school students whom we knew. The latter developed a kind of inferiority complex, such that they couldn't look at us straight in the face. We would ask some of our playmates why they were studying in a private school, and they would shamefacedly answer, "Hindi ako matanggap sa public school, eh (I can't admitted to a public school)."
That changed during the war and after Liberation. Many students didn't go to school during the three-year Japanese occupation. They didn't want to study Nippongo and many believed that the schooling during the Japanese occupation wouldn't be recognized by the Americans when they returned.
After the Liberation, most of the public schools were destroyed. Those that were not had no desks. They were either commandeered or used for firewood.
I went to Caloocan High School (the former Cecilio Apostol Elementary School) beside the runway of the Feati airline, and each of us students had to bring our own chair or stool.
The students from the city were a tough bunch. They banded together and made a game of bullying students from the provinces. I fell in with a tough gang, two members of whom even brought pistols to school. There were frequent fights, outside and inside classrooms, and the stools became handy for bashing heads.
The next year, we were told to leave the Cecilio Apostol building and transfer to the Philippine National Railroad cottages in a compound beside the railroad tracks. Again, we had to bring our own chairs and stools there. I think this was the time when public schools began to lose their quality and the private schools started to catch up.
I was becoming a hooligan at Caloocan High, so my father transferred me to St. James Academy in Malabon, a Catholic school run by the Maryknoll sisters. At first, I didn't want to go to a private school, remembering how we made fun of students going to private schools. But St. James was a very good school and I was fortunate to have excellent Maryknoll sisters as teachers. They really motivated their students to perform well.
And the public vs. private school situation has been that way ever since.