Trillanes half-correct on K-12

As Published in Panay News

July 25, 2014

PEOPLE POWWOW: Trillanes half-correct on K-12

BY HERBERT VEGO

THIS corner half-agrees with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who said the other day that the K-12 program should be suspended until the government has resolved the current fundamental problems of the country’s education such as lack of classrooms and school materials. The clarion call of the moment is to rebuild the typhoon-wrecked public and private schools. There are still thousands of them.

That’s correct. I “half-agree” because, rather than just be suspended, the K-12 should be discarded. As envisioned by the elitist Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro, it would require compulsory kindergarten and prolong elementary-to-secondary education from 10 to 12 years on the wrong assumption that “we have been left behind.”

It would also prolong the agony of poor parents and students. Shouldn’t we be prouder that we do it in only 10 years while others do it in 12?

The K-12 program having kicked off, most parents now see added commercialism beneficial to the schools, especially private ones, and textbook publishers, among other beneficiaries.

Look at some of the new modules K-12 has enforced. To name a few: Handicraft Production, Bread and Pastry Production, Caregiving and Electrical Installation and Maintenance.

Why ram them all into high school kids? Does Luisto expect high school graduates to bake cake or baby-sit for a living right after high school graduation?

These are the same modules that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) separately teaches to short-course vocational trainees, depending on the field sought. In fact, the main reason why TESDA exists is to accommodate students who can’t afford long professional courses.

The extra two years of high school would have been more than enough for a vocational tertiary education, or for the first two years of professional education. Extending the agony of students and their poor parents would not result in better and more college graduates.

As I said in a previous column, records at the DepEd show that, out of every 100 students who enroll in elementary school, only 58 make it to high school. Of these 58, only 33 enroll in college but only 14 finally graduate. Those who drop out do so due to the incapacity of their parents to spend for their tertiary education.

On the other hand, Trillanes is correct in citing the government’s unpreparedness to solve  the threatened retrenchment of about 85,000 college professors and employees when the first batch of K-12 students enroll in Grade 11 (the equivalent of fifth year high school) in 2016. Without K-12, they will have graduated by then.

Simply put, with no high school graduates moving into college in the year 2016 – of course with the exception of a few previous years’ graduates who temporarily stopped schooling – instructors and professors of college freshmen would go either unemployed or underemployed for at least two years.

And so, the only sane move for the PNoy government to do is scrap Luistro’s K-12 program, which has not undergone public hearing, before it’s too late.

It’s really not too late to scrap K-12 because this year is only the third year of its implementation; the third year high school students this year would be glad to hit fourth year and finish high school in 2016.

Who cares what President Noynoy Aquino and Education Secretary Armin Luistro say? The prolonged basic education would only result in more dropouts.

There has been no evidence to show that Filipinos who spend only 10 years in basic education do not succeed. If that were so, then Luistro himself would have gone to the farm.

I remember my friend Canuto, who did spend six years in high school long ago. Did that make him a good college student?

No, he did not have to. His parents bought him a plow and carabao to work on the farm. Today, he is one of the richest farmers in our barangay./PN

The oatmeal solution

As Published in Panay News

Dated: July 23, 2014

PEOPLE POWWOW: The oatmeal solution

By HERBERT VEGO

AS late as one year ago, I had become so frail and underweight that I thought it was a matter of time before I checked into kingdom come. I blamed it on my proven afflictions, namely hypertension, atherosclerosis and ventricular dysfunction.

“Don’t give up,” my sister Susie, a doctor of medicine, advised. “Try altering your food preferences.”

Today, at age 64, I am no longer that skinny scarecrow. For whatever benefit it may give our readers, I am now writing about it.

My sister’s advice was for me to immediately forget pork, beef and all other fat-rich meals as much as possible and switch to fish and plant-based products. Since then, oatmeal – topped with fresh fruits – has become my favorite breakfast.

Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol. Soluble fiber, which is also found in such food as kidney beans, mongo sprouts, apples, pears and prunes, appears to reduce the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines. Gel-like soluble fiber binds bile (which contains cholesterol) and dietary cholesterol so that the body excretes it.

Based on my sister’s research, five to 10 grams of soluble fiber a day decreases LDL cholesterol by about five percent. Eating 1.5 cups of cooked oatmeal provides 4.5 grams of fiber — enough to lower cholesterol.

A cholesterol-lowering diet in which 20 percent of the calories come from may reduce LDL cholesterol by 12 percent. For a 1,200-calorie per day diet, a little less than 1/3 of a cup of pili nuts or peanuts is more or less 240 calories, or 20 percent of the total calories for the day.

Since all nuts are high in calories, a handful will suffice. As with any food, good or bad, eating too much can cause weight gain, and being overweight places you at higher risk of heart disease. To avoid gaining weight, replace food high in saturated fat with nuts.

Studies in the 1970s showed that Greenland Eskimos had a lower rate of heart disease than did other individuals living in Greenland at the same time. Analysis of dietary differences between the groups showed that the Eskimos ate less saturated fat and more omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and whale and seal meat.

Researches since that time have supported the heart-healthy benefits of eating fish. The Eskimos are naturally healthy because they have plenty of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon.

Other good sources of omega-3 fatty acids or fish oil are mackerel, herring, sardines and tuna, which are also noted for their triglyceride-lowering effect. They also help the heart in such other ways as reducing blood pressure and the risk of blood clots. In people who have already had heart attacks, fish oil significantly reduces the risk of sudden death./PN