Reflection: The Presence of Religion in Filipino Schools

Our first day at Philippine Science High School (PSHS) also marked the start of the school year for the students. The day opened with the Flag Ceremony, a traditional Filipino assembly held at the start of each week. Here, students and staff recite the national pledge and opening remarks are made by school leadership. In addition to welcoming students to campus, it also set the stage for the year ahead.

My co-teacher and I were struck by the tone of duty and communal responsibility throughout the Ceremony. As a school funded by the Department of Science, everyone is expected to pursue careers in STEM following graduation from PSHS. While there is technically no tuition, students are responsible for paying back the entirety of their schooling fees if they do not pursue STEM pathways in college. Something like this is unheard of in the United States, and we were shocked by the amount of pressure put on young people so early in their lives.

However, this model speaks to the culture of the Philippines. While the Flag Ceremony was largely centered on the school network and the achievements of the Southern Mindanao campus, we also witnessed a series of televised pledges. The group started by playing a Christian prayer that many staff and students vocally joined. Next, a similar Muslim prayer was recited on screen. Both of these stressed a commitment to God, family, and society, highlighting a devotion to powers outside of oneself. Next, the students and staff boisterously sang the school song, pledging themselves to science and innovation along with maintaining a positive school community. And, lastly, the Filipino National Anthem was performed.

Each of these recitations shed light on an important tenet of Filipino society, one that is frequently lacking in America. Filipinos have a belief in community and sense of responsibility to their society that we have lost in our intense focus on individuality in the US. This changes the flavor of the culture in a multitude of ways; while we perceive the stress as overwhelming for the students, we also live in a time where scientific problems imminently need to be addressed. In the US, we often encourage young people to pursue medicine, engineering, or research as a way to increase their capital, while the Philippines is intensely impacted by the realities of increasing natural disasters, effects of climate change, and disease. The country needs to cultivate a competent workforce who will dedicate their lives to innovating solutions to these issues and prevent inevitable destruction.

The same theme of service shows up in students' required coursework. Across the country, students are mandated to take a values education course each year. While these classes do have some religious undertones, such as encouraging a commitment to God, they are largely geared towards building one's national identity, moral character, and interpersonal skills. This, of course, gets complex; though religious content is explicitly not covered in the classes, the selection of morals and discussion of duty to God makes assumptions inherent to organized Abrahamic religions. On the other hand, a strong sense of responsibility to people, community, and the land is extremely important to encourage in young people, especially as they continue to become more isolated and dependent on their phones. Across each school, teenagers exhibited a conscientiousness and regard for their peers, their families, and the environment that we rarely see in the US. In discussing with many students at PSHS, I learned that they are passionate about addressing the environmental harm and corruption plaguing their country, and the world, today.

After experiencing the pressure that these students felt, I left feeling conflicted. While they were clearly passionate about their careers in science, and certainly will go on to achieve great things, the mental burden that they carry saturated even the first week of school. In sharing their innovative research ideas for their senior capstone projects, students also shed light on the pressure that they felt in carrying out their research. Though they were excited about their studies, they also expressed disappointment in themselves for changes that needed to be made and stress about the substantial amount of work ahead of them that year.

This same sense of conflict existed for me around the presence of religion in schools. While it was moving to witness the students join together for both the Christian and Muslim prayers, I wondered whose voices were left out. Given the tendency towards conservative forms of Christianity and Islam in the Philippines, I also question what impact this has on students, especially those who may not conform to the morality encouraged by traditional religions such as LGBTQ folks. This also led me to reflect on the intersection between the undertones of conservative religion and societal issues in the Philippines, like misogynistic public figures and decreased female student enrollment at the science high school. Similarly, sex education is severely missing from schools, and abstinence is taught as an important value. This, alongside the Philippines' 500% increase in HIV infections over the past 15 years, sheds light on areas for change in the educational system.

In summary, we have a lot to learn from one another. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to education, some type of values curriculum could be really beneficial to students in the US, especially as we track the post-pandemic decline in socialization and interpersonal skills in our youth. Similarly, I strongly value a commitment to nondenominational public education, particularly as I have witnessed the struggles faced by my LGBTQ and non-binary students over the years. And, as we have seen in recent decades, access to sexual education is integral for public health.

While I left with more questions than answers, this experience did affirm my belief in the importance of programs like Fulbright. Hopefully as we learn from one another, and create continued partnerships with educators around the world, we can work towards building classrooms that provide the holistic education needed for all of our young people to thrive.