PAGADIAN CITY—Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) has more public elementary and secondary school teachers than New Zealand, newly retired Department of Education Region 9 Director Walter Albos said.
Albos, who recently toured NZ with a group of Filipino field school executives, said it has only about 25,000 public school mentors compared to the nearly 40,000 tutors of Region 9, that comprises the schools divisions of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Dipolog City, Pagadian City, Isabela City and Dapitan City.
He noted that each NZ school is decentrally governed by a local board of trustees that implements the national government’s educational program from pre-school to Level 1 (elementary) and Level 2 (secondary).
NZ’s public education, Albos said, is free and compulsory with students not paying even miscellaneous fees for Parent-Teacher Associations, Red Cross, Boy and Girl Scouts, schools’ light and water consumption, anti-TB and others that Filipino parents have to shoulder.
School participation in that Asian country is 100 percent as parents who do not send their children to learning centers are punished by the state; hence, school dropouts are unheard of.
The shortage of Philippine schools and teachers results in crowded classrooms. A NZ class enrolls a maximum of 20 pupils who perform most of the class activities—with the teacher’s attention focused mainly on management and supervision.
In a Philippine classroom, Albos said, a Filipino teacher does almost all the talking with the pupils virtually doing nothing but listen.
He observed that NZ instruction “is very informal with every classroom having a socialized atmosphere where children usually sit or squat on the floor. Classroom walls are full of colorful instructional devices and reading materials are displayed on side shelves.
Albos noted that the NZ government provides students with free school buses service which bring them to school in the morning and return them to their homes after classes.
The Zamboangueño educator also noted that NZ local streets, complete with electronic gadgets, have virtually no policemen even as motorists are so disciplined they strictly follow traffic rules. It has more cattle and sheep than people and boasts of a virtually zero crime rate.