The Covid Latin Honors

Cum laude, asterisk

First it was Randy David. Now Mahar Mangahas joins him in questioning the validity of Latin honors accorded graduating UP students this year. The two appear obsessed with maintaining the state university’s “rigorous” academic standards.

The term coined by David is “grade inflation.” The basis is the policy of leniency set forth not only by the UP board, but also the DepEd throughout the whole education system, including higher education institutions.

It was timely that my exposure to the public education system happened just before the pandemic broke out. Prior to this, my professional experience was in management and marketing, particularly in local and international trading. Not having the time to take up post-graduate studies, I took it upon myself to read, after checking out master’s curriculums in the top universities.

The role of Chief of Staff to the University President was alien to me. I was awed by working with individuals who all had a minimum of master’s degrees and some who had PhD’s tucked under their belt. But I got the shock of my life when I found out that the degrees were just that and didn’t have any measurable quantity of substance insofar as the work output of the concerned individuals.

This was the beginning of my exposure to the culture of credentialism pervasive in the public and private education sectors. The second discovery was the fact that faculty members were barely tech literate. The institution I worked for didn’t even have a PABX system. As such, administrative aides literally had to be sent to the offices of the different departments if they were called to report to the President’s office.

It was from my boss’ vision that I learned about Education 4.0 in relation to Industry 4.0. Reading about Education 4.0 led me to conclude how similar it was to the Montessori method but without the learning materials. This was basically the concept of blended learning; combined synchronous and asynchronous teaching methodologies.

It was during the Christmas break that I came to the conclusion that the n-Covid at that time wasn’t going away any time soon. When work resumed in January, I coordinated with the Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology to focus on the customization of one of the open source learning management system at that time, so that we would be prepared in the event of a lockdown.

When the lockdown was announced, we were ready. We had two weeks to go before the order took effect and the biggest challenge was the conduct of the orientation seminar for the faculty members to familiarize themselves with the learning management system.

Other educational institutions were caught with their pants down. They weren’t prepared because Education 4.0 wasn’t even in their field of vision. But they had no choice but to adapt. Two years into the pandemic, I would think that both the institutions and the students have had more than enough time to adjust. It goes without saying that the pre-school and elementary students are the most affected because it requires more time and effort to teach these learners on a remote basis.

What I’m wondering about is the obsession of David and Mangahas with grade inflation and only for that of UP and not the education sector as a whole.

The bar exam held in 2021 had a record 72% passing rate. I was surpised to find out the other day that one faculty member from the institution I worked for, passed that bar exam when he previously failed at his first two attempts.

Some of my high school batchmates who studied law later in life, also passed the bar finally. Most of our other batchmate’s children, passed that iteration of that bar exam as well. Considering that Associate Justice Marvic Leonen was the bar examiner and also a UP alumni, the operative question is why wasn’t his conduct of the same questioned, considering that was probably the highest passing percentage in the history of bar examinations in the country?

Thus, the pandemic put (a) a downward bias on the average quality of the entering students, and (b) an upward bias on student grades. The column counts 147 summa cum laudes, 652 magna cum laudes, and 634 cum laudes, altogether 1,433 or a fantastic 38 percent getting honors out of the new bachelor’s degree holders of 2022. This was not because online learning is ideal for education; it is just a temporary substitute for the lack of face-to-face classes.

I believe that the quality of Philippine formal education was generally lowered—at all levels, from elementary upwards—by the pandemic. Education is a joint product of the efforts of teachers and students; the pandemic handicapped both.

I accept that it’s unfair to penalize students for the lower quality of the education they got. But I disagree about over-rewarding them relative to their “true” performance.

The UP graduates of 2022—as well as 2023, and forthcoming years, for as long as the lenient grading policy continues—are all “COVID-vintages.” Like wines in years of questionable quality in the harvested grapes, they need to be tested and/or processed further before being recommended.

Now Mangahas wants to discriminate against these UP graduates who obtained Latin honors. Shouldn’t the burden of proof be on the graduates when they go out in the real world when they are employed? Their mettle will surely be tested by company’s which are looking at hiring them.

To my mind, what’s not being talked about is the weakness of character prevalent among the Gen Z and millennials. Education after all, is not just about academics but also the harsh realities of life. Honesty and integrity for one, should be both at the top of the list.

There is also the issue of critical thinking. UP’s students don’t appear to be capablel of crititcal thinking when it comes to the country’s political history. They cant’ seem to distinguish what is the truth and how the events of the past unfolded. I’m actually befuddled because some of these alumni have already worked in government and have an idea how the bureacracy runs. Yet they continue to have this foregone conclusion that the only good comes out from their cohorts and all the bad lies with the likes of Duterte and Marcos. The kind of pragmatism they have is biased as they are inclined to live with the rot in the system for as long as it’s to their benefit.

Yet, the products of UP are the same ones who are calling government’s attention to the education crisis. Since UP is funded by taxpayers, shouldn’t it be logical that its graduates be required to spend a fixed term working in government in return for the subsidy they received similar to the arrangement with PMA graduates?

Mangahas and David’s ideology is what’s wrong with the country even if they do belong to the boomer generation. We identify as Westerners even if we are Asian. It’s both boon and bane. It’s a boon because we’re an English-speaking nation but it’s a bane because we lack a national identity and patriotism.

The deeper issue is the lack of equality which both Mangahas and David claim to promote. The truth is they’re only paying lip service to poor Filipinos. If they were sincerely for the plight of the less fortunate, they would’ve taken advantage of the time their cohorts were in power and transformed the socio-political structure to be more equal and make more opportuntities available to those who have less.

The last election has shown that majority of Filipinos don’t believe in their bullshit anymore. They are against China but also against training our men and women to be prepared for battle by way of ROTC.

The geopolitical realities are there for all to see. Any attempt by China to take back Taiwan will have the Philippines right smack in the middle of the conflict. We can’t afford not to be prepared.

It can be said that Mangahas, David and their cohorts, have a totally misguided sense of priorities given the arguments we have detailed above.