Argumentative Essay

ENGLCOM – WC

Alcantara, Ma. Romelie F.

11341092 – C42

Claim-Counterclaim Essay

Poor Quality Education in the Philippines

“Every child should have the opportunity to receive a quality education” (Frist, n.d.).

However, one of the most pressing issues that the Philippines is facing right now is the low quality of education, particularly in public elementary and secondary schools. UNICEF (2000) stated in their paper that quality education includes “processes through which trained teachers use child-centered teaching approaches in well-managed classrooms and schools and skillful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce disparities” (p. 4). Yet, the government is not giving enough funds to address the major problems of education to achieve high quality education. According to Cerda (2013), the Aquino administration only spent about 2.2 percent of GNP to education, which is quite far from the desirable 6 percent of our GNP. In order to improve the quality of education, the government should allocate more funds to education to construct more classrooms, to hire and train competent teachers, and to provide quality and updated textbooks.

It is alarming that the number of enrolling students continuously increases every year, but the government does not build enough classrooms to accommodate them. According to the statement of Constantino which was published on Sun.Star (2012), the country is short by 48,802 classrooms. I believe that government should allocate funds on building of more classrooms to enrich the education of the students. If there are sufficient classroom, the students will not be jammed and packed together. Thus, the learning of the students will be enhanced because of favorable and conducive learning environment. Also, if they are fewer children in one classroom, the teaching will be much easier. However, some people argue and say that schools can also hold classes even with large number of students in a single classroom. In fact, according to...