Parents and Quality Education

Public school teachers have been blamed every time the achievement tests results are out. Teacher factor: education officials, media men, parents, community - they all throw the blame as if they are SOOOOOOO clean and perfect.
These pointing fingers can be dropped. We challenge the world to handle our class. Why do students continue to decline on their academic performance? Whose fault really is it? This question is a chicken-egg sort. We teachers blame it foremost on the population explosion. Why? Simple! Let's reminisce the past years during our grandparents' time. How many learners were there in one classroom? Twenty, thirty, forty. How did this contribute to the quality of education? Philipines topped the list on the most literate country. But now, we have more than sixty students, or more. It's very simple really to point to the culprit.
This is a wake-up call for those who are really deep asleep. But I don't believe that people are ignorant about the real cause of this deteriorating sector. Since the issue is population explosion, I point to the parents as the major contributor to the bad quality of education in the Philippines. Parents must control reproduction of siblings if they have no livelihood. They are the parents of our students in the public school system. Parents who don't pay any tax to give revenue to the government. Several parents are too lazy to go the public clinics for consultations on reproductive matters. A lot do not visit their child's school to monitor child's progress/status. Many parents do not bother to follow up the learnings because they have passed on solely the responsibility to the teachers. Come fourth quarter, teary-eyed mother comes to adviser teacher because the child will not be able to graduate.
Teachers need the trainings, professional meetings, demonstration teachings, table of specifications, item analysis, budget of work, learning competencies. These are all important in achieving quality education. Computers? LCD for power point presentation? These are necessary to enhance. enrich reinforce learning. But what happens when the learner has empty stomach? No matter how we inject IT gadgets in the classroom, these will all go down to the drain.

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