A Comprehensive Statement on the Current Education System

The very first thing that we encounter at the very early age. Education. What a marvelous activity mankind performs. Its denotative meaning: “Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.” (Wikipedia), is basically what you all need to understand in order to even get a glimpse of what it intended to do for people. However, in our society, education is more than that. A connotative definition from people who achieved education and those who undergo this so called process can be obtained according to their profound knowledge and experience. Opinions and self-definitions vary among many different people about education. A lot of factors shape their perspective of education on many different conditions.

Let us narrow our scope only within the Philippines; the education this country provided by different schools, colleges, universities, institutions, etc. as we all have our own ideas and opinions about this broad subject matter.

When we say “education” we often think of the system which involves a teacher and a student. The “teacher”, through various different teaching methods and techniques, will try to “teach” or “educate” his or her student on a subject matter. The student’s job is to acquire the knowledge the teacher has given to him or her. As simple as that statement could be, this is a very broad and complex topic. But why do people educate themselves? Other people?

In the Philippines, education is in the Filipino’s culture. The tradition of parents sending their offspring to an institution which provides “education” to their son(s) and/or daughter(s). This provides growth and development for the person as he/she spends his/her time in “school” (or any educational institution at any age).

WHAT IS IT FOR?

As the right time arrives, the person who spent their time in these institutions will be able to have the ability to work on a “job”. The knowledge and experience he/she obtains after being educated will grant the person not only the ability to work on a given field of work but also his/her legality to work.

However, there are also factors that could dictate the quality of education an institution provides, the ability of the student to learn, and the capability of the student to learn. Such factors affect the overall knowledge and experience of the student.

As I’ve said before, in these modern times here in the Philippines, a teacher “educates” his/her students through different methods and teaching techniques with respect to the subject matter or field he/she is teaching. But a teacher hired by an educational institution also has the job of determining whether his/her student have learned or have been “educated”. This is where school works, projects, performance tasks, quizzes, recitations, exams, etc. come in which gives a numerical way of determining the knowledge the student has learned.

NUISANCE

The only purpose of school works, projects, etc. of students is to be the medium for teachers in determining the academic performance of the students. School works and projects shape the student’s academic profile which in turn, becomes a priority for the students to focus upon as it may affect their future. It may also provide a reason for the students be academically active which gives them the proper traits and characteristics of a responsible person of a society. This then accumulates to growth and development of a person throughout his educational experiences. However, too much school works and projects given to students may provide adverse effects as students who do not have the ability to handle them may not only bring negative effects to the student’s mental health, physical health, social status, and financial aspects, but also affect the other school works and projects assigned by the same teacher or other teacher(s). This would result to inaccurate determination of the teacher towards the student’s academic abilities and IQ. Pressure and the work given to a student would not only determine whether the student has the traits, characteristics, and/or belongings that able them to work and finish the school works and projects within their respective time frames but also improve them. A teacher that does not assign any school works and projects to students would provide no medium for determining how responsible or smart the student is, contradicting the purpose of the universities to provide even an academic profile of a student.

Let me remind you that the educational profile given to a graduate (of education provided by the educational institution) by the educational institution is a primary factor that dictates whether you are suited for a specific job. This, in turn, gives the probability of whether the person would be able to reach his/her life goals. With that said, education is extremely important.

Within the process of education, the student shall encounter numerous hardships and challenges. It is no doubt that education here in the Philippines is frowned upon by many people. A student facing difficulties would bring a negative opinion on the thing that’s making him/her life difficult; an example of why some people hate the educational system here in the Philippines and blame it for problems obtained by him/her.

Surely, you can find students complaining about school not only when you are having a conversation with them but also on social medias. They often complain about the responsibilities given to them by teachers and most often state negativity and hate. This signifies that students put importance on their academic performance. This is where students complain most about. “The educational system emphasizes more on the academic profile of the student rather than the growth and development of the student themselves.” as they always say. Obedient and hardworking students tend to have a higher grade than students who spend their time on other matters as they focus more upon their school responsibilities. More time spent on school works provides a decent academic profile of a student but it also limits the time spent on other matters such as recreation, time with the family, solving family problems, solving other forms of problems (financially, socially, etc.), and many more aspects of a person’s life. That is why students adapt to the given situations and mitigate in order to conform. This is now what we may call the simplest form of “development” a student acquires from education.

COMPETITION

Sometimes, students, especially in elementary and high school, become academically competitive. We encounter classmates who are extremely decorated in academics. They most often appear to be hardworking and obedient. Many of them would genuinely do anything for a grade which satisfy them; commonly an academic grade higher than other student’s. Some would say that competition among the students when it comes to academics would be beneficial as it would push them towards academic excellence; earning respect or trust from other students as it would prove that they must be a responsible person, making other people proud such as the family, gaining good reputation, and many others.

DISCRIMINATION AND SELFISHNESS

But of course, not everything is positive. Everything “too much” is bad, even for morals. Too much academic competitiveness would not only hurt thyself but also others. Most commonly in elementary and high school, discrimination exists among the students who perform academically well and those students who perform poorly in academics. Students would always look up to competitive students while a different attitude and behavior are expressed by students towards other students who perform poorly in academics; perhaps signifying that they are dumb, irresponsible or incapable of work. This leads to the further worsening of the arrogance of a student. He/she who brags more of his/her academics leads to arrogance and he/she may not even be aware of it.

As I’ve said before, “everything too much is bad”. There are also cases of students who do everything in their power in order to achieve a desirable academic profile; even if it means creating problems for others. This is how other students negatively affect his/her classmates; resulting to improper academic profiling of a student.

EVERYTHING TOO MUCH IS BAD

The innumerable amount of work we students have to focus upon (especially in senior high school and college) leads to risks of what we famously so called “anxiety and depression”. This topic has been all over the internet especially by students who “suffer” from this. A lot of talk has been held as we cannot accurately tell whether a person really is suffering from anxiety and/or depression as in 2004, “emo” culture has risen and affected most of teenagers; bragging he/she is in the state of depression or anxiety. Of course, the internet is not a lovely colorful rainbow kingdom that we spend so much time on, we could encounter internet “trolls” and bullies who deliberately mock and make fun of such people, with an utter disregard for whom who suffers from anxiety and/or depression. To narrow the topic, these students, especially teenagers, can no doubt be attacked from these people. So with respect to those people who really suffer from such matters, I would like to state to anyone who reads this article to please prevent such actions in order to prevent further mental complications for our dear fellow humans.

Back to the topic, in our educational system, we need to put focus upon our academics and handling it may not be that easy. Some would not perform their very best at some of their subjects which leads to self-guilt; slowly sliding to anxiety and depression.

Mental health is a serious aspect of one’s overall health. It is a must protect especially for mentally vulnerable people. Once this aspect gives in, further complications like schizophrenia may occur, or even worse, the act of suicide (due to too much pressure). This is one of the things schools always takes care of for their students. An extremely controversial topic of our society is this and needs to be looked upon more seriously by people.

Competitiveness could relate to this as a competitive student with high academic standards are extremely vulnerable to mental deterioration if they, for some reason, achieve an undesirable academic grade (for them). On contrast, students who are on the edge of failing, desperate just to pass, would create a risk of further deteriorating his/her mental health if they do fail. Worse, perform suicide.

CONCLUSION

Education aims to provide a person the knowledge, experiences, and development in order live in this world. Without it, learning would be a lot difficult for humans. Human evolution, technology, culture, and societies would never have improved without education.

The educational system the students like me experience is part of our social construct, common to other people like me, acquire in order to achieve a specific desired goal in our life. It is no doubt to be a critical chapter of our lives; being the stepping stones for our future.

But not all forms of education provided by people or institutions are perfect. Yet, they should continue to aspire and provide better teaching for our future generations, for our future civilization.

All of these roots to who the student is and how he/she responds to his/her surroundings. It is within the human mind of how he/she obtains new knowledge and experiences effectively; prompting to physical, mental, and social growth and development.

As students, we have the responsibility to take care of ourselves and our growth and development. Education is just one aspect of our life. We may need to focus upon it but there are also many things in our life we need to notice.

But let us not forgot its very purpose; to provide knowledge that already exists in order to continue the continuous progress and development of the human civilization for our next generation.

You? How did you handle your academics? May God have mercy upon your soul for whatever you have done.