What's Wrong With Our Educational System?

Have you ever wondered why there are students who make it to High School (worse College) who can't even read? 

No, I do not wish to make fun of these students. Who am I to do that? I feel bad for them. But I don't blame them for such weakness. I blame the system. I blame the system that makes them believe that they are “ready” -- when in cold reality, they're not...or at least not yet.


And I will give you the answer why it's the system to blame and not the teacher...not the school...and not the student. They're all victims at some point. Unfortunately, the student who made it to High School or College without being able to read suffers the most consequence.

Meet Josh.

Josh is an Elementary student now on his 5th Grade. Due to some reasons, his family moved from one province to another. Consequently, Josh transferred to another school. His teachers assessed him and made him read an improvised (manually drawn) card that has an image of an object. Written below the picture was the first syllable of the word followed by a blank (that denotes the second syllable to complete the word).

The teacher used the card below:

Can you guess how Josh read the card? 

“ki-rat” (deformed eye)

Turns out Josh was not able to read yet. He simply based his reading from the picture so instead of saying “ma-ta” (eye), he said “ki-rat” in reference to the “eye”. Too bad for him, the teacher used an improvised card. He could have escaped the test had the “eye” on the card was well drawn.

Yeah..you may laugh your heart out. But I wish it doesn't stop there. I wish there's some realization after. A guy 5 years on school but can't even read a simple word? Nothing is funny after all, huh?

The question to ask of course is: “How could he possibly go to 5th Grade if he can't even read?”

Sir Ralph will answer your question...

Meet Sir Ralph.

He's a very hardworking and respected teacher in a private school. Sir Ralph holds high standards when it comes to his teaching. How can I tell? Well, he already made several students repeat their 4th Grade due to failing grades.

When Sir Ralph moved from private school to public school, he never realized things were about to change the way he do “teaching”.

You see, after each school year, all teachers are required to submit a “progress” report. Sir Ralph submitted the said report having 5 students marked as “Failed”. He knew he had the right reasons to do so. Either those students were not academically performing well that even a task as simple as doing home work were neglected. His “deep why” was to teach them while they're still young. And so Sir Ralph submitted the report.

He felt accomplished.

The principal did not.

He summoned Sir Ralph immediately to his office and deliberately asked the reason behind the list of failed students. When Sir Ralph was done with his explanation, the principal asked “Did you came from a private school?”.

“Yes Sir,” he replied.

“Son, this is not how you do it here.” said the principal. “If you want to be in service in a public school, you need to learn how to dance with the ropes. You need to understand how the system works.”

“I understand, Sir.” said Sir Ralph, “I now see why there are students who make it to High School who can't even read.”

The system that the principal was pointing out to Sir Ralph above was that in this “report”, a teacher is actually evaluated. How? The progress of the students will reflect your effectiveness as a teacher. Meaning, if a teacher has students with failing grades or remarks, the teacher's rating will have a lower score! Each “fail” remarks will have a direct negative impact on a teacher, regardless of the reason of why a particular student actually failed. Now if you're a teacher, would you want to have a low rating on your performance? Remember that this “rating” affects your ranking, thus your salary.

If you're already in College, thank your parents for giving birth and enrolling you earlier because that just saved your ass from undergoing the K-to-12 dilemma program. What's K-to-12? Well, it's basically 6 years of Grade School + 4 years of High School and an additional 2 more years before even hitting College!

That's already 12 years of schooling, not even counting the Prep school which is actually required now before a child enters Grade School! Oh, and before we forgot, you don't get to have a good, stable job if you don't go to College. That's another 4 to 10 years! Whew!

Assuming your parents decided to put you on school at the ripe age of 6, let's do the Math, shall we?

	No. of Years	Your Age
Preparatory/Kinder	+1	7
Elementary	+6	13
High School (K-to-12)	+6	19
College	+4	23

Warning: Above computation applies to geeks and yes-ma'am students only. Remember a student can make a 4-year course a 10-year course. Cheers!

How about you? 

What do you think are the flaws that our current educational system have? Do you think it's perfect as it is? Were you a victim of this educational system too? What area or problem concerns you the most? 

Let your opinion be heard in the comment section below!

Read Part 2

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