Schola Brevis and Butthead
The number of private school students admitted into the system has increased steadily versus the number of those coming from the public education system. For the past five or six years now, the gap has only widened. Currently, it is almost 75% to 25%. Eligibility for admission is determined solely on a ranking of the test scores, and so far the private schools have had the wider share.
What does that say about the public education system, then? More to the point, what are the elite science high schools doing to help those other high schools?
Seriously, when I started reading Schola Brevis, that was the question I thought was going to be answered. Instead, I come across this:
But even more surprising is what I’ve learned from those who came from the public schools. They could have actually been more, they would tell me, but there were some who didn’t enrol. That surprised me. Why would they pass on a scholarship that includes monthly stipends and free dormitory residence? Later we discovered that a significant number of public school students who pass our school don’t enrol because they are encouraged not to. Or worse, their top students are discouraged (or at least not encouraged) from taking our entrance test. The reason for that was never made explicit, but looking at a system that requires high test scores to secure budget allocations, keeping your top performing students in your school (however inadequate for the gifted child) only improves your bottomline.
Basically a whine about how public schools try to keep their top performers from disappearing into the elite school system. And intrinsic to that whine is the implication that keeping students in those other public schools is to deprive those students of the best education possible. And intrinsic to that implication is the belief that those other high schools cannot be as good for a kid as the elite schools are.
Come ON.
There is no such thing as a ‘bottomline’ in a public school. It’s a non-profit, isn’t it? So, when schools fight tooth and nail for money, it’s not so the school can get rich – its so that the thousands who go there can have the basic things that elite science high schools take for granted.
The argument can be made, of course, that the public schools are holding one gifted student back. Fine. But think about it from another angle: holding one gifted student back benefits a thousand others (assuming first of all, that putting a student in one of those elite schools is actually better for that kid’s future – a non sequitur if you ask me – or that keeping one student back actually affects budget allocations). Besides, what would you have the ‘other’ public schools do? Give ‘em all up to elite schools? If, as Schola Brevis maintains, budget allocations are tied to performance, where would that leave the ‘other’ public schools?
I think the problem here is that too many people are enamored with the idea of elite public schools, and too many people – teachers included – take ‘other’ public schools for granted; maybe even hold them in contempt. It’s easy to disguise that contempt as concern for the welfare of individual students. But as even these elite high schools are still part of government, perhaps there can be a little more sensitivity to the plight of other, less privileged, public schools.
And if the concern for the welfare of gifted individuals is authentic – that is to say, not just a consequence of a mind-set that is biased against the ability of other public high schools to produce top-caliber graduates – then perhaps these elite public high schools can actually do something to ensure that those other public schools aren’t as worthless as people say or imply they are.
For instance, is it not possible for elite public schools to arrange to have their teachers do a one-month (or more) tour of duty in those other high schools, so that those other kids can have the benefit of powerpoint presentations and modern teaching techniques?
In exchange, those other public schools can send their teachers for a one-month (or more) tour of duty in those elite high schools where they can be exposed to what really excellent and motivated students can do, and how other teachers handle their elite classes.
But reading Schola Brevis, I fear that such an arrangement may not be received with favor.
The Filipino teachers made a proud and powerful point that our students receive an exceptional, college-level course (just as all courses in our school are, actually) and that we must defend it from moves by the DepEd to overhaul the Filipino curriculum.
Defend? The wisdom of the DepEd’s policies is a question that is beyond me. But what makes me worry is the insular thinking that is implicit in the use of that word – defend. Apparently, the wider public education system is seen as an enemy. From that, I imagine it’ll be very easy to start forgetting that elite public schools are still part of the public education system. I guess when you’re getting Ateneans and Lasallians and what-not, it’s easy to think that you’re a private school too.
[June 2, 2008]
