Ophelia S. Lumogda: Australia's educational system

Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.N4 Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast and New Zealand to the southeast (www.yahoo.com)

The educational system of Australia which is 12 years in Primary and Secondary Schools remind me of the proposed new curriculum K+12 which means kinder + 12 years basic education on the year 2012.However, the grade or year level of the students in Australia is based on their age hence the students are grouped according to their age not on their mental capacity. The way I look at their education, they are too liberal and loose to their students while Philippine educational system is a little bit stiff, strict to the students for we don’t promote them to the next grade level if they cannot cope up the passing marks set by the school . In short, we fail those who doesn’t deserve . In Australia, they hardly fail students instead they would be put in the special classes to help them cope their academic deficiencies. I am amiable of this idea because I believe that failure is not an option instead we will exhaust all the possibilities to help the students unless it’s already isolated cases wherein that student should be taught a lesson by failing him.

Early as Junior high school they have already the opportunity to enter the work force or in any vocational course and they are only compulsory to stay to ten years and receive a junior certificate but not a high school diploma. The additional two years in high school is very significant because it is their determinant whether they can proceed to college and enroll their chosen course. They will be evaluated by the board of secondary studies and compare to the other schools in terms of their mental abilities. In the Philippines , the DepED encourage everyone to go to school and finish high school and obtain high school diploma and if given a chance take a four year course in college .Thus, free education is a privilege given to every Filipinos as their constitutional right to attain the DepED thrust which is No Child left Behind and realize the vision which is Zero illiteracy in the years to come.

The school year calendar in Australia is different from us because they start classes on January and ends on December but more or less we have the same number of weeks in school breaks.And in terms of the subjects offer in their curriculum it is quite similar to the Philippine Educational system and to mention their subjects Health, Science, Mathematics, Studies of Secondary Environment and Technology, Physical Education, Language other than English ,Arts and English as their Second language..

Australian Education has its own way of classroom management or school discipline and to mention: Each child has a wooden peg with their name on it. Each peg is placed around the green smiley face-this is the positive behavior station. If a classroom rule is broken, the child’s peg is moved to the yellow smiley face ,this is like warning. On the second warning the peg moves to the red face which means things are starting to get serious. The last blue face means a trip to the office to visit the principal..

In our country ,corporal punishment is prohibited, that there is even a law that support it. The school should be a friendly environment wherein learning must be fun. The teacher should act as the second parent of the child and the school as the second home.

I am still on the ground that the Philippine Educational System is not behind to the other countries that we have a better curriculum than the others.However , despite the very good program of the DepED and aid of the government to the Philippine education, why is it that we are still at the bottom and in the third world country? Are we only good in planning but not in executing/


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