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Back to school

The school year began a week ago for a lot of kids. Mine won’t go back to school until Friday. And that’s a good thing, really, since I’ve been out of commission for the past so many days. If your kids are like mine, then the school year opening also means no more sleeping late ... (more)

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A new twist to the fake diploma culture

You’d think you’ve heard it all after learning about how fake college diplomas can be bought along C.M. Recto Avenue in Manila. You’d think nothing could be more shocking than people who hired themselves out as ghost thesis writers. Well, the fake education culture has gone a step farther. Thesis-writers-for-hire are actively advertising themselves on ... (more)

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Some thoughts about home schooling

Today’s column: Religion, education and the Constitution Religion, education and the Constitution Stefanie Patag, a U.S. based Filipina mother who has been home-schooling her children for the past several years, sent me links to web pages about recent legal developments and community discussions on the right of parents to homeschool their children. The main issue ... (more)

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Right of parents to choose home schooling

From Steph, links to recent discussions on homeschooling vis a vis Constitutional rights. The full text of the controversial decision in In re Rachel L. [No. B192878. Second Dist., Div. Three. Feb. 28, 2008.] Basically, does compulsory education encroach upon the parents’ right to choose homeschooling?

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UK parents to access kids’ grades electronically

In the UK, the days when parents have to make appointments with teachers to follow up on their children’s progress will soon be a thing of the past. By 2010, all secondary schools will have replaced traditional report cards with the new electronic version. And it’s not something that parents will get only at the ... (more)

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Spelling, grammar and future employment

More than once, I have written about some of my sad experiences when, working in HR some years back, I had the unfortunate responsibility of going over hundreds of application letters every time a vacancy occurred. My main conplaint complaint–how come college graduates were unable to compose decent application letters? Some didn’t even know the ... (more)

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The spelling factor

Perhaps, you’ve noticed it — SMART telecom’s new advert exhorting everyone to spell correctly. I have far too many gripes against SMART but, this time, I am writing to congratulate the telecom giant. About time it paid attention to what the SMS culture has done to this generation’s ability to spell correctly. The TV advert ... (more)

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600 books in a year

Home-schooled 11-year-old Gabrielle Henderson must be holding a world record of sorts by finishing 600 books in one year. Very impressive. And I thought I did pretty well coping with my law books after a crash speed reading course the summer before I entered the College of Law. I wonder though how much time the ... (more)

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PhP 10B and 10 years to upgrade public school education

Although DepEd has submitted a proposal of P581 million for teachers training next year, [OIC] Fe Hidalgo confessed that they need at least P1 billion a year to train 10 percent of the total number of public school teachers nationwide, and 10 years before all the teachers finished their training program. “Between now and 10 ... (more)

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Education and the pursuit of money

My August 9th column titled Exodus and Patriotism about how Filipinos view the goals of education vis a vis its effect on the exodus of Filipino professionals drew a long discussion thread in my weblog. Some people believe that education is about economics. It is an investment and, therefore, the rate of return should be, ... (more)