Many times, I have received queries about how a foreigner or foreigner/Filipino couple would educate their children if the took the big step of moving to the Philippines before waiting until the children were ‘up and out’ of the home and US schools.
First of all, let me give you a burst of philosophy and say, the right time to make the move (or the right time to decide to stay in the Philippine or move back to the States) is likely to be different for every family. There is no one size fits all answer, and you can’t just copy what some other couple did, you really should make your own decisions.
That being said, I think that if you are delaying a move you really want to take solely for the reason that you don’t think you can get a quality education for your children here, then you are probably delaying things for the wrong reason.
In my view, you can educate your children here at least as well as they can be educated in the US, and as a bonus, they will grow up more cosmopolitan and definitely more world-oriented than the typical US-only educated person of today. My belief is, this is an advantage to a child on a personal development level, and we can all see the way the wind is blowing … for the last 50 years the US was pretty much able to stand-alone, in the next 50 years this is not going to be the case at all … so children should, at the least, be “globalized” in their education and outlook.
Anyway, suppose you make the choice to move here with children of school age (and I mean from pre-K to college undergrads). Can they get a decent education in the Philippines.
My short answer is, yes, for sure. But a caveat (which I believe applies just as much in the US as it does here), the more interest and participation a parent takes in their child’s education, the better the results. In the US we still often see parents who really know nothing and care less about what their child is learning and progressing. “I pay taxes, dammit, let the schools worry about that”. Ask any US teacher how many parents show up at parent-teacher nights or similar events for example …
Here are some strategies you might think of. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I do not have much direct experience here, but these are all strategies with at least some validity, and they should at least stimulate some thought/discussion.
1. Leave the children back in the US with a relative/guardian:
Many might think this sounds crazy, but it’s been suggested and certainly could be done by some families. I’m against it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is we have way to many children in today’s world with absent or deceased parents, I think it’s cruel and tempts fate (easy enough for a kid to get in trouble even living in a normal home). I think it unfairly shields parents from their own responsibility too … but it’s a legal alternative.
2. Send Children to a Resident School, in the US or Another Country:
I’m against this one too, although there may well be some advantages. After all, institutions like Phillips Academy, The Kinkaid School, Punahou School, have produced US Presidents, so they can’t be all bad. Unfortunately. aside from the issues of children away from home and parents for long periods of time, private residential schools are often beyond the financial means of many parents.
3. Bring the Children to the Philippines and Enroll in Public School:
This one I don’t recommend. The Philippine public school system is a subject I shall leave pretty much for discussion at another time. The Spanish held the Filipinos in subjugation for nearly 400 years by restricting and denying education to the people who would “see things the conquerors’ way”.
If the US, during their time of occupation, ever did anything good, it was the immediate and wide-spread roll out of free public education to all.
(do a Google on Thomasites – hint, it isn’t a religion such as the name might suggest)
You can still find walking, talking evidence of the value of the US-founded school system today, in people of my in-law’s generation who actually started school before WWII, in little white school houses that flew both the Philippine and US flags.
Sadly, after full independence was granted in 1947, it is as if one of the first things the nascent country chose to throw away was the US-inspired school system. Seems as if Quezon, well-known for his wish for a Philippines “run like hell by Filipinos rather than run like heaven by Americans” certainly got his wish here,and then some.
Today it’s a morass of ancient, inadequate buildings, “lowest common denominator” teachers, greed, (teachers are paid starvation wages and are often required to “kick back” percentages of the already meager salary they do get to principals and other officials just for the privilege of being a teacher) and corruption from the local school to the highest levels, and a system which struggles mightily internally to even decide what language to teach. (My opinion only, of course, but I would avoid it like the plague).
4. Bring the Children to the Philippines and Enroll in Private School:
This is one of the most desireable choices, in my view. There are a number of free-standing private elementary through secondary schools that teach at a high-quality level with decent teachers. Some of the larger universities also run their own lower tier schools as well … the Ateneo University (Jesuit), the De la Salle (also Roman Catholic, founded by the Institute of the Christian Brothers or FSC).
There are many others. Costs on these are very moderate in contrast to US private school costs, but please contact schools you are interest in directly, I can’t answer specific questions about them.
5. Bring the Children to the Philippines and Enroll in International School:
The Philippines is also blessed with a number of private “International” schools that pride themselves on teaching to the standards of various countries such as the US, Great Britain, etc. The Brent International School, the British School Manila, I even found Australian-based school on a Google search … you can too. accredited International Schools tend to have very International prices. Expect to pay substantially more than the bill for Philippine-based private schools. Whether you “get what you pay for” is a question I can’t answer … each parent has to make those sort of decisions for themselves.
6. Bring the Children to the Philippines and Home School Them:
In this proposed strategy I am talking mainly of the traditional non-Inteenet’ form of home schooling, where the parents essential get packages of correspondence courses, administer them and send the results back to the school for grading and credit. It should be no surprise that this is going to be a rapidly fading strategy.
Online home schooling is such an important issue that I am going to dedicate a whole article to the subject. Notice that this is nothing directly Philippine-related. Today, many US parents have chosen to home school. It’s certainly the route I would take today if I were in the child-rearing business again.
I was very unhappy with many aspects of my now-grown children’s US public schools education, and I count myself a bit of a coward for not taking matters into my own hands when it mattered.
However, this is not exactly an easy decision. My friend Bob, who is both earning a living here and raising young children, had an interesting discussion on this issue a while back.
Bob’s viewpoint was that he and his wife might feel pressured to find the admittedly large commitments of time to do home schooling properly. They also felt the children might feel slighted by not having a ‘school’ to socialize in and graduate from. All are very good counterpoints to the home school solution.
It seems especially important to Filipino/Filipino-American students too, if the children might stay here in the Philippines to make their way in life. Bonds of school classmates are, to a person like me who hated his schooling, incredibly strong here in the Philippines.
Hardly a night goes by that Mita won’t point out someone on TV or in the newspaper as ‘the classmate of my sister’, or ‘batch mate of so-and-so.’ Indeed a lot of business and government appointments seem to be very heavily weighted by school relationships, so that is certainly another factor one must bear in mind.
7. Bring the Children to the Philippines and Enrol them in a US School via the Internet:
As I touched on in Strategy 6, this is possibly the best solution overall … or in concert with some aspects of the other solutions. It’s important enough and attractive enough to devote at least another whole article to … and with a little bit of luck that article is coming RSN (Real Soon Now).
So there you have it. Your homework for the day. At least seven different ways to get your children an education n the Philippines. I don’t feel I even have the expertise to tell you which one is right for you, but I feel this gives you some places to research that you may not have even bene aware of before … and that is about all a dropout like me can offer. 
Popularity: 27% [?]
My personal opinion is that there are fine schools here in the country that are also recognized in the United States.
Although in the beginning years of the children, I wouldn’t trust putting your children in a public school, unless they belong to the University of the Philippines Integrated System (which is in Manila). Otherwise, a private school is certainly desirable, the Catholic-run schools are best.
As for College, the schools of repute here are:
University of the Philippines (Diliman is primary, although the other satellite campuses each have their field of specialization, e.g. UP-Manila is for Medicine and allied sciences, e.g. Nursing or Pharmacy, UP-Los Banos for agriculture)
Ateneo de Manila or de Davao
University of Sto. Tomas (especially for medicine and allied sciences, e.g. Nursing)
Dela Salle University (the one in Taft )
Mapua Institute of Technology (for Engineering and Architecture)
UP Law, San Beda College of Law and Ateneo (for Law School)
Even the companies in the Philippines, look almost solely for the graduates from these schools, those coming from other schools don’t fare as well. Although, majority of these colleges are in Manila though.
Hi Claudette. Thanks for that info. In particular I did think that the UP had a program where they were working with the community on primary/tertiary schools, but darned if I could find it on their web site last night.
Also, I agree with all your college comments but I didn’t mention any post-secondary schools strictly because that can lead to out and out battles here in the Philippines. I didn’t go to college here and I wouldn’t, on a bet … I leave that to someone else to deal with.
D ave, thanks for your usual thoughtful post. I have a real interest in this topic, as a retired educator in the US , and because we have our adopted son attending schools in the Philippines, where we will soon be joining him. ( in the Philippines, not the schools. Ha). I was a guidance counselor for a number of years here in Texas and helped register many students who moved from the Philippines. We found that those who went to very good schools like Ateneo were able to compete at a high level while those who went to rural schools or public schools had a really difficult time keeping up. I’m not saying that is true of all public schools in the Philippines, but that was my experience working with Philippine students who moved here.
We sent our son Cody to a private elementary school in Leyte and when he was in the fourth grade I brought a Texas test given to all students in Texas at the fourth grade level and Cody did quite well on the test, so that was encouraging.
My thought are that any ex-pat considering a move to the Philippines should check out the schools very carefully, but that would be true in the US also. I look forward to your post on internet schools, another interest of mine also. Take care and keep up the good work
Hi Richard,
Thanks for a very valuable comment. Caveat to anyone reading … the place where I am most likely to make a factual mistake is regarding education … my tag line is no joke, I am a serial dropout. never finished high school, never got a college degree and so on, so you might say either every educational system I was in was faulty … or (perish the thought) perhaps there is something wrong with my attitude
Another alternative I didn’t mention is the Philippine Science high schools… There is a national Science High with several locations around the country as well as city Science High Schools in some larger cities. One of my nieces, now in her Junior year attends Quezon City Science High and the school seems quite rigorous .. the girl has a brother and two sisters who all graduated from decent colleges here as nurses (BS) and teachers, and their mother never needed to hire a tutor to help with homework intil the ‘bunso’ went to science high … so they muct be teaching something there.
I homeschooled my two children here in Michigan. They got a better education than the public school kids. BUT…as I understand it homeschooling can only be done through a church in the RP. Meriam is a teacher and in Tagum all the schools are a mess. Ever the costly schools don’t have books for the kids. I used the School of Tomorrow here in Michigan and would do the same in the RP. The School of Tomorrow has a rep in Davao so I will talk with him before doing anything. It only takes a few hours a day to homeschool and the kids get to be with other kids at church. Perfect? No, but better than most.
Cheers,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Hey, thanks for a very interesting comment, interesting in at least two ways.
First, I have talked to very few successful homeschooling parents. I’m glad to hear your experience was positive.
Second, when you say homeschooling in the Philippines can only be done through a church, I wonder if you can expand on that … perhaps cite a source or something. I’m not sute whose rule or law that might be. My own experience with Philippine schools is, it would be darn difficult to even get a child into a formal school here in the Philippines . even local Filipino children. You may have heard me mention before that one of my pet peeves is, in a country where a pack of cigarettes sells for 30 or 40 cents, US and a bottle of gin costs less than $2 USD, a simple birth certificate costs more that $12 USD … a week’s pay or more from a lot of people, and if they are not in the town where they were born, it could be a lot more … they will have to travel to their birthplace to get it. And their child will never see the inside of a school without it … and many other expenses, even in the public schools.
So while I certainly don’t dispute you, I find that the school here in ‘near’ Metro Manila seem adamantly opposed to letting children in. It may be an ignorant view, but if I had children living with me, I’d just enroll them in a top quality IS home schooling program and not worry about anyone’s permission .. I find it hard to believe anyone would care.
Hi Philly,
Like I said Meriam is a teacher and it is her understanding that the RP government controls all education. She says they must approve what is being taught. I don’t like it because here in Michigan we homeschool and don’t have to tell anyone what we are doing. It is between me and God.
Here in Michigan so many families are homeschooling and love it as do the children. You have to remember that most homeschooling is done because we believe that is what God tells us to do. Not that it is the better education, we are just doing what we feel God has told us to do.
I will find out more when I get in Tagum this spring. I will let you know what I find out. It might be the School of Tomorrow is approved by the government. I hope that is the case.
BTW – Why are so many birth certificates wrong??? Here in the States it is the basic ID and it has to be correct. The RP?? Not so much. Just one more thing to deal with.
Cheers,
Gary
OK, that makes sense to me. What I perceive here is two people who are both absolutely correct … but they are looking at two sides of the same issue.
I am positive your wife is 100% correct. The Philipine government absolutely controls what is taught in the Philippines.
But the other side of the issue is, if you come to live in the Philippines and you have your own children in your home, there is no one in the government of the Philippines who even cares where those children are educated. In point of fact, if those children are not Filipinos they will not even be allowed in the door of a public school. So if you as their parent decide to educate them via a home school program (religious-based or strictly secular, again, a parent’s choice) who on earth will even question you? I could be wrong, but I see no issue.
In addition to the more traditional home school programs, there are now hundreds of elementary and high school-level accredited schools that off accredited programs over the Internet. This is a similar, nit not the same idea as home schooling .. the children are registered students in the school. There are some I have found who only accept students within the sponsoring district, others that are run by State BOE’s and only accept residents from that particular state, and at least a third category that accept all students who pay their tuition. I also know of at least one old-line fully accredited private high school level institution in the UK who accepts students from all over the world … I found out about them while researching Skype VOIP services. Skype is the platform they use to deliver their instruction.
Anyway, I am convinced there is away, that’s for sure.
I am sorry Philly but I wasn’t very clear. Right now I have 3 children. 2 were homeschooled. They are both in their twenties. I am moving to Tagum this spring and … well Meriam wants children. If possible
So any children would be dual citizens but still under RP law.
I always enrolled the kids in the School of Tomorrow. They are the ones that really started the post WW2 homeschool movement. It was started for children in the mission field and has grown since. Most church schools here in the States use the School of Tomorrow. Half of the children in the church I attend are homeschooled. The children excel and are far ahead of the public school children.
Great job .. thanks,
Gary
Ok Garry, I think I got the picture now. But again, doesn’t matter what the kid’s nationalities are, if you think someone is going to come around and check on your children’s enrollment in school, you are likely talking about a different Philippines than I live in. I’m in a mid to lower middle class neighborhood, not out in the provinces or in a destitute barangay, and as An opined above, I doubt anyone cares. In my personal experience there’s lots of kids in my neighborhood who should be in school, they aren’t and two different cases where neighbors or I truied to get kids into the public school instead of roaming the street, we were chased away. It isn’t like the US where schools get reimbursed by the pupil and they track them like the little ‘cash machines’ they are … truant officers and that sort of thing. Heaven only know what you might have to do to get official permission, but if it were me, I’d never ask … no one will care, in my opinion.
Hi Dave ,
, i know some folks dislike some of your opinion , but don’t give up .. u did a very good job 
– An
speaking of “Home schooling ” in philippines my opinion is , parents will never agree on that ( homeschooling ), parents who are educated are more focus on daily income and let the school handle their kids education and for parents who are poor are not qualified to give their kids education and not just that it cost more for parents to do that , i agree with you Dave nobody care if your child don’t go to school , i have a few of my cousins that cannot read or write which is make me sad and wanted to do something about it , even my own mother cannot read & write but she is very smart , she can travel all over places in phil. without reading signs but memorizing the street , corners and buildings , i can read and write but i can’t do what my mother did . it is a little bit too late to help educate my own family now ( they are all grown up ) but my goal is to keep helping filipino children especially in my area which are lots of poor family , my husband been supporting CCF for over 20 yrs. now and hope we can continue doing it , economy here are really hurting us right now but i am not planning to stop my support to filipino children . I like reading your blog Dave
Hi An, thanks for the kind words. And thanks for caring about education. I find it sad that people I know, even ones who are working and could send their kids to school often don’t. All we can do is encourage and assist when assistance is wanted, it’s hard to chnage ingrained attitudes. And yes many people may not like some of my opinions, but that’s fine, never stopped me from having opinions before.
A great introduction to the topic. I know that there are folks who put off moving there because of the school, but more than at any other time in history, there are so many, many options available.
Guys you can check out this good new school called Bannister Academy situated within Circulo Verde along Calle Industriya, Quezon City. Its a co-ed school which just started recently. I heard that the education they give and the faculty members are superb and top class like that of schools outside the Philippines and can also categorized under Paref Schools. My cousin who will be graduating in Primary School this March will be enrolling in that school and he seems so excited. Its a rare sight to see a mere child so eeager and excited to enter high school. You can see their website yourselves to see what they can offer. This is one of the private schools here in Metro Manila that you shouldn’t forget to consider.
Kindly reiterate factors about public schools in the Philippines which you hardly recommend. Thank you.
Hi Myrna,
Not much to say about public schools from me .. I’ll let others with more intimate knowledge fight that battle. However, it’s no secret that public schools are chronically under-funded, class to teacher ratios horrendous … 45 students per class is common, and for nearly a generation the schools played political football with English. Although it’s widely stated even by many in government who know better that one of the Philippine’s strengths is a wide use of English, it’s just not true for the younger generation. Public school English teachers often can’t speak it passably.
Aside from these potential quality issues, which are my opinion only, the fact is a foreigner who comes here can afford private schools and s/he ought to send their chiildren to them instead of adding a burden to the already stretched thin public-funded system.
Home Schooling is also nice since you got to always see your kids.”:’
To me, this would be a primary reason why, if I had it to do over again, I’d home school.
i was also home schooled when i was younger and it is also a great weay to get your education.*–
i was home schooled too but i would still prefer regular schools.:*-
Thanks for commenting, Zara. Could I ask you please to expand a bit on your preference? Why would you prefer ‘regular’ schools, and are you referring to schools in the US or in the Philippines, and public or private? Many people wrestle with this decision and I am sure they would like to know a little more … you could provide us some valuable information if you have the time. Thanks