We began Thursday with a seminar on the Philippine education system. Norberto went in to a lot of detail and tied it in http the history with the impact of the Spanish, Americans and Japanese. Prior to the Spanish leaving, there was no formal education system. In the last 100 years or so it has developed and flourished but is in significant changes right now. Over the next few years, the country is instituting a k-12 system, in effect, adding two more years of high school that currently don't exist. A main reason for this is to bring the Philippines more in line with other east Asian countries and it will make it easier for the Filipinos to study in other countries more equitably.
All schools fall under the auspices of the National Department of Education although private schools have more discretionary powers. At the national level, policies are set, standards and learning outcomes and developed as well as else research programs undertaken. The decision to add two more years to the Education system is significant and has has huge ramifications, including changes in the structure of college education, the need for increased facilities as school populations increase and changes to the curriculum at the high school level, with trickle down effects. In addition, instead of teaching specific math and science subject at grades 7 and 8, changes are being introduced where all sciences are taught at each of these levels, so it is no longer just life science for example at 7th grade, but a multitude of topics to reflect the overlap in the sciences.
As we learned more about the school system it was interesting to watch and listen to to our reactions....class sizes of 40-60, teachers having to furnish their own computers, two computer labs for a school of 4,000, the use of scripted modules for teaching....so very different to our experiences.