If your children are studying in public schools in Dagupan City, chances are they are either not learning enough or not being taught enough.

And unless priorities of the city schools division change drastically, indicators point to a rapid deterioration of public education in Dagupan City.

Lawyer Gonzalo Duque, president of the Lyceum-Northwestern University, made this observation and has called on officials of the city  to conduct an investigation into the dismal performance of pupils and students in Dagupan despite the huge school board fund going to public education here .

He made the call after noting the very low performance indicators of pupils in public elementary schools and students of  public high school, based  on  an evaluation conducted by the Department of Education in Region 1 recently.     

The performance indicators  released by DepEd Region  showed that Dagupan was last among 11 schools divisions in the region in high school and 8th among the same number of  school divisions  in the elementary schools.

Topping in performance in the secondary schools are students from   Laoag, 92.02 percent; followed by Urdaneta City, 88.28 percent; Alaminos City, 87.69 percent; Candon City, 85.01 percent; Pangasinan II, 84.30 percent; 83.38 per cent; Ilocos Norte, 83.38 percent; Ilocos Sur, 80.90 percent; La Union, 80.82 percent;  Pangasinan I, 80.58 percent; San Carlos City, 79.07 percent; and Dagupan City, 72.74 percent.

Duque  also expressed apprehension over the results of the National Achievement Test for fourth year high school students in which very few students scored 75 percent in English  and the rest with  failed scores not only in English but also in Science and Mathematics.  

A graph from the  National Education Testing Center showed that fourth year students from Dagupan City  who took the National Achievement Test did poorly in English, Science and Mathematics.

Doubting that the school board fund was really spent solely to promote  quality education,  Duque  said  local pupils and  students  would have fared well against their counterparts from other parts of the region if the city government had clearly prioritized the need for quality education.

Ilocos Norte topped in performance for pupils  in the elementary school at 91.55 percent; followed by Pangasinan I, 91.32 percent; Alaminos City, 91.06 percent; San Carlos City, 90.54 per cent; Urdaneta City, 90.33 percent; Pangasinan II, 89.91 percent; La Union, 89.20 per cent; Dagupan City, 88.95 percent; Candon City , 88.95 per cent; Ilocos Sur, 88.40 percent; and Laoag, 88.24 percent.

Pointing to the statistics as proof, Duque told newsmen that the performance of  the public school system in Dagupan City belies the claim  of Mayor Benjamin Lim and all others that Dagupan City is the center of education in Pangasinan.

Duque hinted that main cause of the deterioration is the improper and  funds of  the school board. He said fund t is being channeled to  activities other than promotion of academics. He cited as  an example the release of P200,000 to defray expenses of athletes from a private school that competed in Dumaguete City.

“P200,000 can already buy hundreds of books or tools for the use of poor children to help increase their competencies.

He also deplored the use of school board funds to fund the city’s contingent to the Ilocos Region Athletic Association meet, where in many instances, there were more officials than athletes.  

Citing the latest results as extremely embarrassing to the city government, Duque called on Mayor Lim to give education a high priority and make the city schools officials account for their performance. He also urged  the city council to investigate how the school board funds are being utilized.

Duque called on city officials to allocate more funds to promote quality education in the city as a means to fight  ignorance and poverty.

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