I’ve read a front-page article about pupil illiteracy in the Philippines from the August 17 edition of The Philippine Star — a daily newspaper in nationwide circulation. The article, entitled Only 6 of 100 Grade 6 pupils ready for high school — study, showed statistics of disappointing value. But, I am not going to talk about it here.
I guess, you’ll say, But, why did you start with that topic?
Oh, I have a reason. I think Sandy Araneta, the author of the article, is one of those “pupils” not ready for high school! She said in her first sentence, Fewer than one percent of Filipino students are high school and college material…
Fewer than one percent? I thought you’ve just said 6 of 100 in the title? Six of 100 is 6%. And, all of the other numbers you mentioned inside the article referring to the Grade 6 pupils stated 0.6 percent
, or only six out of every 1,000
!
Please, please, try to make it right everytime. I would also like to mention your editors though I do not know who they are. Yes, we make mistakes, but (all of) you are writing in a nationwide newspaper and your Math and proofing aren’t even correct! I think that’s one evidence to really say illiteracy is widespread in the country.
To the writer and editors from The Philippine Star: I’m sorry for the harsh comparisons and descriptions written here. I admit I was a little bit exaggerating.
Note: Image scanned without permission from August 17 edition of The Philippine Star.
Note: The incident was reported by email to the webmaster of philstar.com. In response to that, the webmaster told me that the editors were informed about the error they have committed.
Comments
8 responses to “Are you one of them?”
:))
That’s one heck of an observation! You are one funny guy. :p But, you know if that’s true, then it’s very frustrating. If the students are like that, then what will happen to our country? Now, that’s no laughing matter…
wahahaha…. nakakahiya naman yung author ng article… i mean, she was lamenting the sorry state of literacy among the youth and here she was being a prime example of her article. The irony of it.
keep it up.
hope you write about people and what they read…
wow. she must have forgotten her math101 in college. ehehe
forgive her for i belong to her clan of masters of idiots in math. lol
tama si Mia.
ang bangag ba ng comment ko?
hehehe..
hehe that cracks me up. but you have to give the writer some slack. we are not perfect beings you know. it’s sad to hear that our country’s educational system is deteriorating. Paano na ang kinabukasan ng bansa natin?
I, too, didn’t like the fact that the majority of our country’s population is incompetent and uneducated, but we can’t not talk about it. And, we should even work something out for it.
Now, about the writer and editors, I can’t just simply ignore it. Thinking about the fact that they proofread the articles made me wonder why that happened. They are professionals and they should, especially for the subject they just wrote about, make themselves an example.
no one is perfect! everybody commits mistakes!
if your in her position a writer every day of ur entire life, the only thing ur doing is to write a compre news for the masses? syempre naman po u cant absorb na everything, sometimes ur ideas just clashes with, all i can say Sandy is a good writer, yeah she did that but comparing with her past articles i cant say anything!
yah right. 🙂
i do certainly agree with your reaction. i know SANDY really is a wonderful write but it really her article did hurt. it’s time for a REALITY CHECK. i think it’s really unfair to say that many of the filipinos are not college material.
if that’s true, why are there science highschools all over? and to think that public schools is just using the term “SCIENCE” to uplift their names is so stereotyping.
coming from a science highschool, i know how standards are. get an 84 average on even one subject and you’re out. imagine the horror, and to add up, science highschool curriculum ain’t the same as to average highschool’s. we have 13 ( or maybe 15, as i can remember) subjects. we’re taking up physics and at the same time, advance chemistry. calculus and analytic geometry. and don’t forget the gruelling research (or what college vocabulary refer to as THESIS MAKING.)
see, if that’s not enough of the college material they’ve been looking for, then go to mars instead. maybe an alien would even bother to talk. :DD