Our society was made to believe that education is the great equalizer. For a limited number of students, this may be true; but for the vast majority, it is not. Despite unequal realities of social classes, people attribute students’ underperformance to “not studying hard enough and distractions” from “socio-economic-status free” schools that place students on the path of social mobility and economic well-being. This mindset keeps society steady by shifting blame and accountability from Dep Ed and society, to the poor and powerless, for the education system that is tilted to the small and powerful elite.

In a perfect world, all runners would be well-trained, in excellent health, and wearing first-rate equipment. They have the same starting line. In this equality model, schools would guarantee that either everyone begins on equal terms at the starting line or schools can control the race to ensure the competition remains fair. Real life is far from ideal. If we look closely, schools reinforce- rather than overcome- poverty poisoning education.

Of course, Filipino children do not take off with equal competencies at the start of schooling. The children of 3.50 million impoverished families (PSA, 2021 Family Income and Expenditure Survey) are encumbered with poverty as they strain to be alongside better-prepared peers born on third.

There is evident dissimilarity in pre-natal care and nutrition received by mothers belonging to different social classes. Children in poverty are much more likely to suffer developmental cognitive delay and damage, to drop out of high school, and to give birth during teen years. Poor students may move often, and the effect of frequent mobility on student achievement is clear (Vail, 2003). They may be subjected to more violence and more family instability, often living in substandard housing and have less space to study at home (Evans, 2004). Poor students attend class hungry and feel left out in school embarrassed by their distressed uniforms and tatty shoes. Their parents cannot afford to hire a needed tutor, and cannot attend parent-teacher conferences. These are the debilitating influence of poverty (Ebert II and Culyer III, Introduction to Education, p363©2012).

Research [Hart& Risley (2003, Spring)] found that, on average, parents who are professionals spoke more than 2,000 words per hour to their children, working-class parents spoke about 1,300 words, and welfare-recipient mothers spoke about 600 words. By age 3, children of professionals had vocabularies that were nearly 50% larger than those of working-class children and twice the size of welfare recipient children- a 30-million-word gap.

Even more importantly, children’s vocabulary uses at age 3 was predictive of their scores on language skills measures at ages 9-10. Children encouraged to build and use a vocabulary and to constructively use their initiative from an early age are probably more likely, on average, to understand teachers’ language and directions, master vocabulary-based instruction and content more quickly, and take more responsibility for their own learning than children who lack these previous experiences. The reading and math proficiency scores also show a close relationship with the student’s social class. It seems reasonable to expect that their teachers cannot fully offset these early differences.

In general, higher-class status correlates with high levels of educational attainment and achievement, and lower-class status with lower levels of educational attainment and achievement. The middle classes fall somewhere in between. Generally speaking, research shows that differences in social class culture, parents’ education, and resources lead to different child-rearing practices. These factors, in turn, contribute to different educational outcomes. (Leslie Kaplan & William Owings, American Education, p.371-372 ©2011).

The antidote to lick the predicament of the multitude of underprivileged children constantly underserved by public schools is for Dep Ed to finally ante up the essential upfront costs of RA 10533 strategies in the usage of the first language of the learner, learner-centered curriculum decongestion, and must-have teacher quality upgrade.

Photo: Nikko A. Quiogue

Atty. Magi Gunigundo is a former lawmaker, civil law instructor, and author of law books. He is also an education reformer and an advocate of anticipatory governance.