Sacramento Unified Goes to the Philippines for Its Teachers

“Raise your hand if you think that the United States can match the performance of the countries with the world’s highest student performance by outsourcing its teaching to lower wage countries. If your hand is still down, then raise it if you think that the United States can even maintain its mediocre position in the world’s league table of student academic performance if it were to hire more and more of its teachers from the Philippines or countries like it. Your hand is still down? If it is, then we need to have an honest conversation about what it would take to develop and hire teachers with skills comparable to those found everywhere in the top-performing countries. We need to have a conversation about how we develop and retain those teachers instead of contracting that effort out to the lowest international bidder.”  These are the questions from the article of Marc Tucker last July27, 2017 entitled:  Migrant Labor: Sacramento Unified Goes to the Philippines for Its Teachers,

In a globalizing world, outsourcing is inevitable.  Just take a look at your stuff at home, and they are not all made in the US.  Call a hotline or book a flight, and a representative from the Philippines, India or other countries will answer your call.  It’s not just about importation, but exportation and immigrant workers made the US economically stable.   With the exponential growth and advancement of technology, we can no longer control getting diversified.  We have no choice but to accept the changes, adapt and survive to the fast changing world.

The US has been outsourcing teachers from the Philippines since 2004.   Despite the challenges that the Filipinos encountered in the US, they are patient, determined and have proven their professionalism and their quality of work. They just need to be properly deployed in a safe and healthy environment and they’ll be great assets.  That’s why Sacramento Unified will  continue to outsource in the Philippines.  That’s why a lot of employers hire them.  That’s why Filipino dedicated workers deserve equal rights and respect.

The education system in the US is the same as the Philippines because of the Thomasites.  Just check out the books of the major subjects in the Philippines and they are all in English to the point that some students could hardly translate it in their native tongue.  The difference is just the culture, accent and idioms, but with English refresher courses, Filipinos can easily adapt to the language and culture.

In the US, Filipinos are not just professional teachers, they are professional nurses, caregivers, nannies, housekeepers, doctors, lawyers, engineers,  corporate executives, entrepreneurs and artists.   The influx of Filipinos  in the US is inevitable, same as the influx of British, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Armenians and other nationalities trying to live and survive in the new world  that made America a great nation known to mankind.

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Is the K12 program worth the Php150 billion investment?

A compilation of 7 short video clips on The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2011 for the Implementation of the K12 Program, and previous researches and articles on school bureaucracy.  The videos were made for the  Public Administration class.

The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2011 Part 1/7

Task Force for the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2011 Part 2/7

Why is there so much school bureaucracy? Part3/7

Brief History on Public Education in the Philippines Part 4/7

Is Philippine education being governed properly? Part 5/7

Why does Philippine Education Perform Poorly? Part 6/7

Finale & Reflection on the K12 Program Part 7/7

Can the K12 program lead to global competitiveness or will it just add burden to the parents and students?  Is the K12 program worth the P150 billion investment or will it be better to use it to solve the current problems in public schools and feed the people below poverty line?  What’s the use of the highly paid consultants and expensive infrastructure if students are malnourished and stressed due to work?

The problem in the country is poverty, especially in rural and depressed areas, even if the country is newly industrialized as of 2011.   People in poverty would prefer to feed their stomach first than their brain.   Schooling is just an option because they have to work at an early age to help the family.  They prefer to survive and live before they would get the luxury of going to school, because these people consider education as luxury than a necessity.  Not unless the government will provide training to the parents, and sponsorship to the children.

I think it would be better to simply retain the same number of years, redesign the curriculum and continuously train the teachers so that all the essential facts would be covered, necessary skills would be developed and healthy environment would be attained.

 

REFERENCES:

1. “Why is there so much school bureaucracy and what can we do about it?”.  New Talk.   November 2008. 6 March 2012. <http://newtalk.org/2008/11/why-is-there-so-much-school-bu.php&gt;.
2. Chua, Yvonne T.  “Robbed: An Investigation of Corruption in the Philippine Education.” 1999. 6 March 2012. <http://pcij.org/bookshop/robbed.html&gt;.
3. Department of Education. (2010, October 5). Discussion Paper on the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education Program. DepEd discussion paper.
4. Luz, Juan Miguel.  “THE CHALLENGE OF GOVERNANCE IN A LARGE BUREAUCRACY (DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION): Linking governance to performance in an under -performing sector”.  PHDR ISSUE: 2008/2009 NO. 1.
5. Pressman, J. & Wildavsky, A.  “Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington are Dashed in Oakland.”  University of California Press. 1984.
6. Tabora, Fr. Joel S.J.  “Proposed Bill Implementing K+12 as approved by key COCOPEA Committees.”  18 January 2011.  6 March 2012.  <http://taborasj.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/proposed-bill-implementing-k12-as-ap…&gt;.