An Assessment of English Proficiency Among Selected College Freshmen of Lipa City Colleges During the School Year 2003 – 2004

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

With the proliferation of national high schools or more identified as government schools, the underprivileged students of low-income families enjoy the right to finish secondary schooling. As it is mandated by law, the Philippine educational system has given a chance to all elementary graduates to enter high school, one that was something remote to the past. On the other hand, those with sustainable means for secondary education were found taking for space in private schools that have always been keeping academic records for excellence in their efforts to compete with one another in terms of deserving graduates with language competencies, exceptional mental abilities in science and mathematics, and talents in co-curricular activities in campus journalism, oratories and declamations, singing and sports events. Students, as a result, can be at par with one another, can be better or worse than others related to their school backgrounds and fundamentals of learning in all subjects areas.

According to Felipe B. Miranda in his “Chasing the Wind,” The Philippine Star, June 2004, private secondary institutions are normally beyond the reach of the poor. Their high tuition and other school fees, moderated at times by well-meaning subsidies for the economically disadvantaged, actually can intimidate even those from the middle class. This has become a sad fact for those whose preference is study in a reputable private secondary school and end up to be in a national secondary high school. This scenario is common in depressed rural or urban areas due to financial constraints of the family income. Fixed earner parents especially those with very lucrative remunerations because of good educational qualifications usually have the first impulse to choose a private learning institution without any questions about its quality of education. Middle and low income parents with no other choice send their children to...