Provincial Kids Outclass NCR Grade Schoolers in Academics

Despite the higher incidence of poverty in the province, kids from the rural areas were able to dominate the top 20 slots in the National Achievement Test for public grade school students. This year’s result showed that only one kid from the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) made it in the topnotchers list (No 2). The average scores also showed that that the provincial lasses outclassed the city boys. I don’t really know the situation in Manila’s grade schools but if it is similar to the situation in its high schools, the outcome was not surprising at all.

I have seen a couple of Manila high schools and the situation is very dire. It is not unusual to see 50 students in every classroom. And it is also not unusual to hear stories about higher student to teacher ratios. I was also told that drug dealers have also penetrated the schools. As kids in the province, our classrooms were never jam-packed and we had whole day classes (7am ~ 4pm), from grade 1 to high school. In Manila, the high schools that I saw were mostly crowded and the student population is divided into morning, afternoon and evening classes. For that to have been made possible, some subjects were probably scrapped or sessions were shortened. That was probably a major reason.

Despite the perceived better access to books, funds, technology and other advantages, the Manila kids fell very short.

PINOY KIDS WIN IN INTERNATIONAL MATH COMPETITION

I saw this flash on the TV screens a few days ago but found the news story just this morning.

Despite the declining ratings that Filipino kids get in aptitude tests, there is still a good number who manage to defy the trend and excel. My friend calls refers to it as pockets of excellence!
In brief, eight students took 20 medals and 15 other awards during the recently concluded 8th Invitational World Youth Mathematics Inter-cities Competition (IWYMIC ) at the Jilin University in Changchun, China. They competed against 66 other teams from 17 other countries.

I wanted to post the list of awards in this article but it is quite lengthy and will almost be tantamount to copying the original article in its entirety. Please check this link for the complete list.