26 Years and Going: EDSA I, A Continuously Missed Opportunity for Social Progress and Development

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes

Yearly, we are remembering EDSA I, otherwise known as the People Power Revolution that toppled a dictator.  It's 26 years and is going, however, while the economy and living standards tremendously improved at least for the bourgeois and the regular working class in major industries, the poorest of the poor remained entangled in centuries old struggle.

The poorest of the poor remained marginalized, ignorant, and exploited made worst by the onslaught of intensified materialism and commercialism.

The poor have yet to learn to elect leaders from themselves.

 While democratic space returned, the expanded space seems to lead many astray.  Veteran traditional politicians and opportunists took it as a leverage to expand their base of power.  To see brother and sisters, mother and son, father-son-brother in both the executive and legislative departments is now ordinary.  Out of almost a hundred million Filipinos, how lucky are these people to be elected to the various national sit of power to represent their family and of course their interest.

Another mockery of the democratic system is the existence of inefficient local leaderships from the barangays to towns, the Sangguniang Kabataan and the Party List system.  Yes, it is creating jobs for this people but the way they are performing their jobs of which nobody has forced them to do is very inefficient and short of ordinary expectations.

In many provinces, we are witnessed to see a father as congressman, his son governor and the sibling mayors, municipal or city councilors and barangay captains.  Many times, it’s funny to hear of having a mother as the mayor, her husband as the municipal administrator, and the son a board member.  It too is a mockery of the real essence of democracy.   Haven’t there are no other choices and options left?  Thanks to unaware and ignorant majority of the voting public.

Was it one of the fruits of EDSA, to make many of the voters totally blind and ignorant?  Some political analysts call it the result of popular politics and patronage borne out of two decades of dictatorship and has continued as a system up to this day..  Many look at politicians not as a leader but as their provider and shining armor that will protect them from harm, even many times it tends to be wrong.

For a righteous wealthy individual, to go to politics is an economic suicide for so many reasons that everybody knows. Another dilemma is the weakening volunteerisms and participation of many to even basic political exercise in their respective institutions i.e., schools, churches, villages.

If EDSA I would have been a bloody one, will our political attitude be the same as it is now?  What about the economy?

What EDSA has given us is a great opportunity we continuously fail to use for the common good due to lack of faith, hope, discipline, narrow mindedness, apathy, selfishness and greed.

Unless, we learn from our own misfortunes and realize our unrighteousness, what we are heeding to are lots of missed opportunities in favor of competitor neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh.  We have been left by Malaysia and Singapore and a little by Thailand.

More and more of learned, skilled, talented dismayed countrymen will leave the country in favor of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, US and Europe and those who remained will be left to the dogs or the decaying system of governance and value system of apathetic middle class majority and the poor matched by a culture of dependence under a consumerist capitalist economy.

The country could not afford another EDSA, or we may be the Somalia of the orient.

DepEd Orders Relevant for Schools Operations and Management

DEPED ORDERS

• Conduct of Schools Division Superintendent Examinations and Needed Qualifications 
• DO No. 83, s. 2010- Amendments to DO No. 77, s. 2009 Otherwise Known as Guidelines for the Conduct of PTA Elections at the School Level and their Federations 
• DO No. 77, s. 2009- Guidelines for the Conduct of PTA Elections at the School Level and their Federations 
• DO 55, s. 2013 - Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) No. 10627 Otherwise Known as the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 
• DO No. 54, s. 2009- Revised Guidelines Governing the PTA at the School Level  
• DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012 - DepEd Child Protection Policy 
• DepEd Order No. 39, s. 2012 - Policy Guidelines on Addressing Learning Gaps and Implementing a Reading and Writing Program in Secondary Schools Effective SY 2012-2013
• DO 34, s. 2013- Ortographiyang Pambansa
• DepEd Order No. 33, s. 2012 - Revised Basic Education Information System (BEIS) Data Gathering Forms for the End of the SY 2011- 2012 and Beginning of SY 2012- 2013 
• DepEd Order No. 32, s. 2012 - Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act (RA) No. 10157 Otherwise Known as the "Kindergarten Education Act of 2012"
• DO 32, s. 2013 Reiterating DECS Order No. 53, s. 2001 (Strengthening the Protection of Religious Rights of Students) 
• DepEd Order No. 31, s. 2012 - Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of Grades 1 to 10 of the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) SY 2012- 2013  
• DO 31, s. 2013- Clarifications on the Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of the Language Learning Areas and Their Time Allotment in Grades 1 and 2 of the K to 12 Basic Education Program
• DepEd Order No. 30, s. 2012 - Policy Guidelines on the Hiring and Deployment of Madrasah Teachers  
• DO 28, s. 2013 Additional Guidelines to DepEd Order No. 16, s. 2012 (Guidelines on the Implementation of the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) 
• DO 27, s. 2013 - Guidelines and Procedure on the Establishment or DepEd Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Point System (GFPS) at the Regional, Division and School Levels 
• DO 24, s. 2013 - Revision of the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS) Data Gathering Forms for the End of School Year (EOSY) 2012-2013
• DepEd Order No. 23, s. 2012 - Clarification on the Computation of Co-curricular Performance in the Ranking of Honor Pupils and Students  
• DO No. 22, s. 2012 - Adoption of the Unique Learner Reference Number 
• DO No. 22, s. 2013 - Revised Guidelines on the Transfer of Teachers from One Station to Another
• DO No. 21, w. 2012 - Policies and Guidelines on the Implementation of the Universal Kindergarten Education Program 
• DO No. 20, s. 2012 - Procedural Guidelines for the Grant of Additional DepEd Provident Fund Loan 
• DO No. 19, s. 2012 - Amendment to the Implementing Guidelines on the Granting of Loan from Provident Fund
• DO No. 17, s. 2012 - Guidelines on the Implementation of Regular School Building Program (RSBP)
• DO No. 16, s. 2012 - Guidelines on the Implementation of Mother-Tongued Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) 
• DO No. 15, s. 2012-   DepEd Policy Framework for the Implementation of the Alernative  Dispute Resolution (ADR) System -Mediation
• DO No. 15, s. 2015- Amendment to DO No. 88, s, 2012 (Conduct of the Schools Superintendent Examinations) 
• DO 14, s. 2013 Strengthening the K to 12 Basic Education Program Delivery System for Elementary Education 
• DO No. 14, s. 2012-  Policy Guidelines on the Proper Distribution, Care, Recording, Retrieval and Disposal of Textbooks with the Teacher's Manuals and Others 
• DO 13, s. 2013 - Reiterating the Observance of the Fire Prevention Month Through the Continuing Fire Safety and Awareness Program (FSAP)
• DO 12, s. 2015 - Guidelines on the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy Program: Professional Development Component
• DO No. 8, s. 2007- Revised Implementing Guidelines on the Operation and Management of School Canteens in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools  
• DO 8, s. 2015 - Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program 
• DO No. 7, s. 2015- Hiring Guidelines for Teacher I Positions Effective SY 2015- 2016 
• DO 5, s. 2013 - Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of the School Readiness Year-End Assessment (SReYA) for Kindergarten 
• DO 3, s. 2013 - Amended Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 8190 (An Act Granting Priority to Residents of the Barangay, Municipality or City Where the School is Located, in the Appointment or Assignment of Classroom Public School
• DO 2, s. 2013 - Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act (RA) No. 8525 Otherwise Known as the Adopt-A-School Program Act
•  

Teachers, SH Tendencies in Accomplishing the CB-PAST

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes

Introduction:

Drawing from the Vision and Mission of the Department of Education, CB-PAST is a comprehensive appraisal system which addresses one of the mandates of the Department as embodied in the RA-9155.

Teacher Performance reflects School Outcomes

The primary purposes of the CB-PAST are (1) to ensure support for the continuous professional growth of teachers  and (2)  to recognize  the quality of teacher’s accomplishments over a period of time  for maintaining the high standard of work and  properly rewarding excellent performance  in terms incentives, awards and  promotion.

The first purpose is formative-developmental in nature which will provide teachers with meaningful activities that encourage their professional learning and growth. The procedure will be supportive, non-threatening, fair, collegial and self-directed within the community of professional learners.

The second purpose is summative-evaluative which will assure that school learners have the benefit of instruction at high level of proficiency from the teachers. Appraisal of teacher performance is made on the basis of the evidences collected, observations made, conferences, and dialogues that accompany each procedure. The ultimate intention of the performance appraisal is achieving high levels of learners’ performance and improved learning outcomes as part of the school outcomes.

The Real Score

Looking at samples of accomplished CB-PAST in our area, the ultimate intention of the performance appraisal which is high levels of learners’ performance and improved learning outcomes as part of the school outcomes was not considered or was forgotten in the appraisal and rating process.  Based on the accomplished CB-PAST forms,  it was identified that teachers commonly had a general Teacher Performance Index (TPI) description of Proficient and Very Satisfactory as description of their over all performance rating.  Not a few had a TPI of Basic or OPR of Satisfactory and so, none has given themselves a rating of below basic in all of the indicators.

If this occurs in an area as ours, how much more nation wide?

If the performance rating really conforms to their competencies, then, there is almost no problem at all and there is only a few to be desired for they are all nearing to reach the highest level or outstanding level of performance and so most importantly, the learning outcomes.

With this kind of self assessment, teachers don’t realize that they are the one at a lost because there will be no room that will encourage professional learning and development.  They seem to forget that the ratings they gave themselves is expected to be or should be reflected in the performance of the school learners.

Popularity Contest?

This may not happen if the appraisal of teacher performance is thoroughly made on the basis of the evidences collected, observations made, conferences, and dialogues that accompany each procedures.

It was aptly said that CB-PAST should protect school heads from being hostages of the usual dilemma of ratings colleagues because of its being evidence-based driven appraisal tool not withstanding the carefully elaborated and well defined indicators in each domains. 

Still, it wasn’t because of the tendencies of school heads to narrow or dilute the degree of evidences required due mainly for fear of becoming unpopular or being tagged as overly strict and inconsiderate.

Thus the appraisal and rating process have just seem become a popularity contest.

The Dilemma

When we continuously fail to assess and know where we really are, which is the main purpose of any appraisal, there will be no room for improvement and nobody will be at a loss but ourselves, the quality of education, the youth, and the future of our nation in particular.

Teachers and school heads therefore should treat any assessment both subjectively and objectively disregarding any personal or emotional attachments, biases and pride.  Not unless, we are able to do an honest to goodness assessment of our performance, CB-PAST just like previous performance assessment tools will just be an objective of compliance, not of a higher degree of scholarly endeavor.


Our Response

CB-PAST could be effectively used if everybody will consider the fact that its varying elements relate to each other in relation to the teaching performance.  The outcomes of the appraisal should lead to continuous capacity building of teachers and results to higher teacher performance and improved learning outcomes.

The key is to really reflect on the literal meanings and descriptions of TPI’s which include Below Basic (BB), Basic (B), Proficient (P), and Highly Proficient (HP).

Finally, teachers and school head should consider and should not forget that the primary barometer if the group is basically or proficiently performing is no other than the quality of the school's end product, the learners.  It is by far the mirror of every educator that could speak well of their competence.

Reference:  CB-PAST Revised Primer by DepED BESRA TED-TWG

We need your comments on this article.  What is your take on this issue?

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.)  

From Stardom and Glamor to Her Downfall: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48

By Gilbert M. Forbes

Just seem to be after some time that the king of pop, Michael Jackson passed away, here is another sad news about the passing of the record superstar Whitney Houston.

Photo from ABCnews.com

One may now predict and estimate how old I am for songs of Whitney Houston were part of my childhood life.  For music lovers, regardless of generation, who will not forget some of her popular songs in the late eighties like "The Greatest Love of All," "All at Once," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," "One Moment In Time," " You're Still My Man," and the seemingly classic dance music of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

In the early nineties, who will not forget the movie "The Body Guard" she starred herself in  and with its sound track, she herself sings.

No other than our international youtube sensation, Charice Pempimco is amazed by her wonderful voice together with other big time international record superstar as Cristina Aguilera and Maria Carey as evidenced by the way they sing when they were just starting.

Charice in fact was brought to fame with her rendition of the popular songs of Whitney which include sound tracks from the movie "The Body Guard" to wit "I Will Always Love You,"  "Run To You," and "I Have Nothing."

The sad thing for Whitney is that although, millions were inspired and transformed by her classic songs, on her part, its the opposite.  Her popularity and glamor just brought her later to nowhere and emptiness until her tragic death.  She is too young to die at 48 which is supposedly should still be at her prime.

At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

Certainly, to all of us who desire success, and for some who wants to be famous, there are lots to learn from her tragedy.  Something that could be a good point for discussion in Character Education with her biography as a starting point.

Based on the Breaking News;  Singer Whitney Houston Has Died at 48 and Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dies  

DepEd warns of extravagant 2012 Graduation Rites

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon

DepEd warns again of extravagant 2012 Graduation Exercises via DO No. 9, s. 2012 released much earlier, Jan. 27, 2012. 

It also warns against splurging display of pomp and pageantry but instead encourage an spartan affairs exhorting civic duties, sense of community and personal responsibilities and should be memorable, exciting and animated without baggage of extra cost and excessive spending.

The department is consistent in reminding the public and school officials that graduation rites should be conducted in appropriate solemn ceremony befitting the graduating students and parents. 

This year's graduation theme is Your Gift of Learning, Our Tool for Nation Building or Ang Alay Ninyong Kaalaman, Gamit Namin sa Pag-unlad ng Bayan.  It shall be scheduled not earlier than March 28 and 29.

Kindergarten now a full part of the Basic Education System

google photo and www.eturo.org

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon

Finally, in a memorandum released last Feb. 9, DepEd MEMORANDUM No. 25, s. 2012, the department announces the binding institutionalization of kindergarten into the Basic Education System by virtue of the passing of the Kindergarten Act or the  Republic Act 10157, AN ACT INSTITUTIONALIZING THE KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION INTO THE BASIC EDUCATION SYSTEM AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, dated January 201, 2012.

The act aptly describes in Section 2. Declaration of Policy  that it is consonance with the Millennium Development Goals on achieving Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015.  It will apply to elementary school system being the first stage of compulsory and mandatory formal education. Thus, kindergarten will now be an integral part of the basic education system of the country.

Further, the new law recognizes the significance of kindergarten education to to the academic and technical development of the Filipino child for it is the period when the young mind's absorptive capacity for learning is at its sharpest.

With this law, the government through the department of education in partnership with other agency could now require all children age five be enrolled in kindergarten classes just like in grade one.

Being now compulsory and fully institutionalized part of the elementary learning years, enrollment increase shall be expected in the coming years.  And this should be anticipated by all schools so as not be an additional contributing factor to classroom shortage particularly in cities and highly urbanized areas experiencing high and alarming rates of migration.

RH Bill: Rejecting Dangerous Proposal, Restoring Values

Jose C. Sison 
The Philippine Star, February 3, 2012 

For the supporters of RH Bill, it will do more positive and actually do more help than what the antis are saying.  However, if one will just analyze some of its provisions hiding on the many good provisions, one will realize how destructive it would be particularly to the moral fiber of our society which has essentially deteriorated through the years.

To mention a few is the proposed mandatory sex education among our children, the availability of free artificial birth control drugs which will only support the promiscuous behavior and free martial sex.  One couldn't imagine its blow to the already deteriorating moral caliber of our people as a result of materialism.

Here is the take of Jose C. Sison on his article entitled Rejecting dangerous proposal, restoring values.

This has something to do with some harmful and dangerous provisions of the RH Bill now being considered in both houses These provisions specifically refer to the proposed mandatory classroom based sex education in private and public schools where classroom teachers who may not be competent at all are tasked to teach their pupils as young as ten years old, lessons in sexuality, sexual rights, and reproductive health. While the bill also mentions lessons in values, more emphasis is given to contraceptive methods and services thus giving a clear impression that sexual behavior or activity even among minors is acceptable for as long as the risk of teenage pregnancy or early marriage are addressed.

The mandatory classroom based sex education provisions in the bill comes to mind once more because last Tuesday, I was privileged to listen to the lecture of Dr. Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D., one of the most sought after speakers and consultants of parliaments, legislatures and courts worldwide regarding a) fraudulent sex science, sex education and b) the power and effect of images and media monopoly to alter human brain, mind, memory and conduct.

Apparently, and as usual we have again copied and patterned the proposed sex education program in classrooms after the sex education programs for young Americans which Dr. Reisman was discussing. Dr. Reisman clearly and convincingly traced the origin of this human sexuality education to Alfred Kinsey, the man who instigated the sexual revolution in the US way back in 1948 with his dubious scientific research on human sexual behavior that has since been referred to as the “Kinsey Reports”.

These reports had such a tremendous impact on the morals of American society such that the era before 1948 has been known as the “pre-Kinsey Reports” while the era thereafter and up to now, is called the “post Kinsey Reports”. As Dr. Reisman explained, after these reports came out, the field of American education had acquired a new dimension in the form of sexual education based on the sexual research of Alfred Kinsey who claimed that sexual activity began much earlier in life (from birth), so there is nothing wrong in teaching young people that sex can be fun.

In her book, “Sexual Sabotage”, Dr. Reisman demolished the foundations of these two reports by showing that in his sexual research Kinsey merely “questioned an unrepresentative proportion of prison inmates and sexual offenders in a survey of ‘normal’ sexual behavior”. She also pointed out that at least some of these offenders who are “the sources of information on stimulation to orgasm in young children” are pedophiles. “Sexual Sabotage” also tells the story of how Kinsey and his cohorts in Indiana University “sabotage our nation during World War II and the decades that followed by entering our libraries and schools as sex educators — ridiculing marriage, fidelity and chastity. They preached widespread sexual experimentation, succeeded in nationwide fraud campaigns, and gutted the tough laws that kept pornography and predators at bay.”

Dr. Reisman likewise relates in her book “how and why the children of the Greatest Generation traded their parents’ traditional morality for Kinsey’s sexual immorality believing that sexual freedom was their own idea” and “how billions made by the “Sex Industrial Complex’ propelled pornography and the spread of Sexually Transmissible Diseases (STDs). And she backed this up with shocking statistics on the substantial increase in the number of teenage pregnancies, child sexual abuse, abortion and STDs in the United States. Then she mentioned that these “deviant fraud campaigns are vetted by the Rockefeller Foundation, the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) which is the foremost advocate of abortion and later the Playboy Magazine.

Our legislators should therefore consider all these findings that have devastating effects on the social and moral fabric of a nation like the US which has sex education programs for young Americans that we are now substantially adopting in the proposed in the RH bill. And if only for this reason, they should scrap the bill right away. Instead they should think of how we can return to and restore the traditional sexual morality of Filipinos in the ’50s and earlier which have somehow been also eroded by this fraudulent Kinsey Reports.