Pinoy senior high students overworked compared to Southeast Asia counterparts

- Advertisement -

FILIPINO senior high school students are overworked “by design” compared to their counterparts in Southeast Asia, a new study said, adding that more time does not translate to better performance.

The study titled “Are K to 12 Students Overworked by Design? showed that Filipino students spent an average of 55 hours per week attending classes and doing academic tasks at home.

This is 21 hours longer compared to Vietnam students and the 2007 and 2008 studies by Cooper and Tetus et al.

- Advertisement -

The study showed that Grades 11 and 12 senior high school students have to contend with eight to nine subjects per week and 21 learning competencies.

“The Philippines has longer academic learning time relative to Vietnam and Cooper of 21 hours and 50 minutes,” said the study authored by De La Salle University academicians Maria Fe Carmen Dabbay and Gerardo Largoza.

“For Senior High School students, prescribed instructional time totals 33 hours per week, two hours more than international recommendations, and nearly ten hours more per week compared to Vietnam,” it added.

Combining estimates of instructional time plus homework time, the study showed that “total academic learning time for Senior High School students in the Philippines comes close to 55 hours per week, 14 hours over the Cooper’s benchmark, and 21.5 hours more per week compared to Vietnamese students.”

The study used Vietnam as a reference to compare the two countries given that both are developing countries and the latter is a regional peer of Manila in the Southeast Asian region.

“Vietnam’s educational system can be considered as a regional model given that Vietnamese students performed well in PISA studies and even outperformed students in some developed countries,” the report said.

“We find that despite the shortest actual weekly instructional time, Vietnam has outperformed its Asean peers, while the Philippines, with the longest actual weekly instructional time, has underperformed,” it added.

Vietnamese students spent three hours and 35 minutes in Math, three hours and 50 minutes in Language and five hours in Science weekly, while their Filipino counterparts spent five hours and 21 minutes in Math, five hours and 14 minutes in Language and five hours and 22 minutes in Science.

On the other hand, Indonesian students spent three hours and 34 minutes in Math, three hours and 45 minutes in Language, and three hours and 19 minutes in Science, while their Thai counterparts spent three hours and 31 minutes for Math, three hours and 7 minutes in Language, and 3 hours and 15 minutes in Science.

Malaysian students spent three hours and 27 minutes in Math, four hours and 48 minutes in Language, and three hours and 36 minutes in Science.

The study added that Filipino senior high school students spend nearly twice as much time in instruction as first-year undergraduates in the country in the same track or discipline, or 33 hours per week compared to 17 hours.

“Even adding 2.5 hours of homework per unit of tertiary instructional time, undergraduates spent 42.5 hours per week on academics. Senior High Students average 55 hours, exceeding undergraduates by 12.5 hours per week,” the study said.

The same study also found the same predicament among elementary and junior high school learners in the country, with the excess in instructional time from Grades 1 to 6 ranging from one hour per week (Grade 1) to nine hours per week (Grade 3).

“Compared to Vietnam (ranked 31st in the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA) for mathematics (compared to the Philippines’ 75th) the excess ranges from 15 minutes per week for Grade 1 to 7.5 hours per week for Grade 3,” the study showed.

“For Grades 7 to 10 (Junior High School), the excess time vis-a-vis Testu ranges from three hours per week in Grades 8 to 10 to 5.5 hours per week in Grade 7. Compared to Vietnam, it ranges from 5.5 hours per week for Grades 8 and 9 to just over six hours per week for Grades 7 and 10,” it added.

The study showed that schools in Region IV-B (Mimaropa) have the longest actual weekly instructional time in the country of 38 hours and 14 minutes while schools in the Cordillera Administrative Region have the shortest actual instructional time of 35 hours and 24 minutes per week.

Overall, the study said Filipino students in the lower secondary level spend more instructional time per week compared to their counterparts in the Asean region.

- Advertisement -spot_img

“Furthermore, Vietnamese students who spend the shortest actual weekly instructional time in school performed best in PISA while Filipino students who spend the longest actual weekly instructional time in school performed worst among their regional peers,” it added.

The study recommended that the extensive academic learning time in the country’s schools be “re-examined” both in terms of total weekly hours compared to international recommendations, and in terms of daily schedules, adding that “excessive learning time” may be counterproductive and disadvantageous to students and may trigger academic stress.

It added there should be more frequent and longer breaks and more thoughtfully sequencing clusters of subjects to address overwork and stress.

“Reducing excessive learning time, incorporating strategic breaks, and implementing alternative scheduling methods can mitigate academic stress and improve outcomes. By learning from international best practices and low-cost solutions such as those observed in Vietnam, the Philippine education system can create a more balanced and effective learning environment,” the study added.

It said such reforms could better support high-performing students and those at risk of falling behind, leading to improved academic achievement and well-being.

Author

- Advertisement -

Share post: