BRAIN DRAIN IN THE PHILIPPINES Eleanor R. Belizar , Dorothy Silva, Juner Valdez, Elmerita Palcon,Gerardo Palcon PHDEM 1 Introduction Poor working conditions, a dim chance at career advancement and low salaries have continued to push thousands of experienced Filipino teachers to greener pastures abroad, leaving behind a generation of students hungry for quality education. In less than a decade, more than 4,000 Filipino educators, including school principals who demoted themselves to teaching jobs, have moved to the US, Middle East, and other Asian countries like China, Japan and Indonesia to teach. In the US, a Filipino teacher with at least three years of teaching experience could receive between $4,000 and $8,000 a month or 20 times their paycheck in the Philippines. With more experienced teachers in core subjects like math and science leaving Philippine classrooms, the
Transcript
BRAIN DRAIN IN THE PHILIPPINES
Eleanor R. Belizar , Dorothy Silva, Juner Valdez,Elmerita Palcon,Gerardo Palcon
PHDEM 1
Introduction
Poor working conditions, a dim chance at career advancement and low salaries
have continued to push thousands of experienced Filipino teachers to greener pastures
abroad, leaving behind a generation of students hungry for quality education.
In less than a decade, more than 4,000 Filipino educators, including school
principals who demoted themselves to teaching jobs, have moved to the US, Middle East,
and other Asian countries like China, Japan and Indonesia to teach.
In the US, a Filipino teacher with at least three years of teaching experience could
receive between $4,000 and $8,000 a month or 20 times their paycheck in the
Philippines. With more experienced teachers in core subjects like math and science
leaving Philippine classrooms, the quality of education in the country is slowly becoming
compromised, she added. Math and science teachers who receive scholarships and study
grants from Philippine Institutions hike their chances of getting hired in the US. The
continued outflow of Philippine teachers has helped create a shortage of 16,000 teachers
as school year opened (Department of Education, 2010).
According to Shannon Lederer of the American Federation of Teachers, said part
of the reason teachers are lured outside is because of very aggressive recruiters offering
attractive packages to Filipinos, including permanent US residency. "If teaching is a
public service, recently it has become a business," Lederer said. The AFT said there are
2
33 recruitment agencies luring teachers into the US. Currently, 19,000 foreign teachers
are working in various US states such as Maryland, Texas and Louisiana of which a very
significant portion of this figure are Filipinos.
The exodus of Filipino teachers and other professionals such as doctors, nurses,
engineers, etc. is known as brain drain. It is a phenomenon that becomes the subject of
many debates because of its impact on the countries of origin and destinations not only
on economic but even political and socio-cultural aspects. But what is really brain drain?
Is it really a necessity for Filipinos?
This paper then aims to explore the brain drain phenomenon by first looking at the
macro perspective then at the national level. Then, it will look into the implications of
brain drain to the Philippine educational system. It is hoped that this paper will shed
light on the issue and at the same time arrive with policy recommendations to cushion the
impact of brain drain in the Philippines.
What is brain drain?
Brain drain is also known as human capital flight is the large-scale emigration of
individuals with technical skills and knowledge. It is the departure of educated or
professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for another, usually for
better pay or living conditions.
3
Other definitions include the lost of skilled intellectual and technical labor
through the movement of such labor to more favorable geographic, economic or
professional environment. Overseas migration deskills their country of much needed
expertise and at the same time, they deskill themselves once they reach their country of
destination because they ended up in jobs that are way below their professions.
Brain drain or human capital flight is regarded as an economic cost since
emigrants take with them the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the
government and other organization. Their government spent for their education but other
countries took advantage of them after graduation.
Brain drain is associated with the de-skilling of emigrants in their country of
destination, while their country of origin experiences the draining of skilled individuals.
Thus, the converse phenomenon is “brain gain.” Labor activists call this movement of
labor force as “brain drain in the south and brain grain in the north.”
Waves of Migration
The first wave of Philippine labor migration to the United States was based on
skills needed in the farms, factories, and military facilities. This occurred in early 1930’s
when Filipinos were recruited to work in agricultural plantations in California and Hawaii
and as crew of the US Navy.
The second wave included many more professionals. Doctors, nurses, and
engineers traveled to the United States in the 1960s to support its booming economy
4
while young American men were busy fighting in the Vietnam War. It was also this time
that Filipino scholars in the US opted to stay behind and become American citizens.
Two Major Causes of the Filipino Diaspora
There are two major causes of the exodus of skilled Filipino workers.
1. Push Factors
Push factors come in many forms. Sometimes these factors leave people with
no choice but to leave their country of origin. Following are examples of push factors
driving people to emigrate from their home country.
Not enough jobs
Few opportunities
Primitive" conditions
Political fear
Poor medical care
Not being able to practice religion
Loss of wealth
In the Philippines, economics (lack of jobs and poverty) provides the main
reason behind migration. Jobs simply do not exist for a great deal of the population.
In others, the gap between the rewards of labor in the sending and receiving country
are great enough so as to warrant a move. The Philippines experienced a surge in
5
emigration due to poverty and lack of job opportunity. The greatest challenge facing
the country is creating enough jobs for its burgeoning population.
At present there are an estimated 12 million OFWs in 192 countries around
the world. As long as there are job opportunities, Filipinos will leave their families
with the hope of a better life.
The economic condition in the Philippines is such that the only solution is to
get out. What is ironic is that nurses are paying the hospitals (instead of the other
way around) to get the required work experience and training to qualify abroad.
Moreover, public school teachers being paid so low that they can’t even afford good
education for their own children. This situation is further compounded by a whole lot
of graft and corruption and government kickbacks being done. It is estimated that
P50B of government funds go to graft and corruption yearly. Just imagine the social
services that this amount could deliver to the 90 million Filipinos. With these
situations, families are being pushed further and further down the poverty line
2. Pull Factors
Whereas push factors usually drive migrants out of their countries of origin,
pull factors generally decide where these travelers end up. The positive aspects of
some receiving countries serve to attract more migrants than others.
Job opportunities
Better living conditions
Political and/or religious freedom
6
Enjoyment
Education
Better medical care
Security
Family links
Following are two examples of the pull factors attracting Filipino migrants to
receiving countries.
Higher standards of living/Higher wages
Economics provide the both biggest push and pull factor for potential migrants.
People moving to more developed countries will often find that the same work they were
doing at home is rewarded abroad with higher wages. They will also find a greater safety
net of welfare benefits should they be unable to work. Aware of this situation, migrants
are drawn to those countries where they can maximize benefits.
Labor Demand
Almost all developed countries have found that they need migrants' labor. Rich
economies create millions of jobs that domestic workers refuse to fill but migrant
workers will cross borders to take. In 2001, the British minister of foreign affairs, Robin
Cook, gave a speech in which he argued that the country needed to continue taking in
7
foreign workers to meet labor demand. He said, "Legitimate immigration is the necessary
and unavoidable result of economic success, which generates a demand for labor faster
than can be met by the birth-rate of a modern developed country."
The Exodus of Filipino Teachers
Two places were the likely magnets for Filipino teachers—the United States,
which would need two million teachers in the coming decade, and Arab countries, which
would need at least 450,000 teachers.
Identified causes why foreign teachers are being recruited are teacher shortages,
growing populations, and expanding educational systems in many other countries
coupled with the dismal work conditions and salaries at home could push local teachers
to go abroad.
The massive recruitment and emigration of Filipino teachers started in the early
1990s, reaching its peak in 2002. From 1992 to 2004, a total of 3, 269 teachers fled the
country, half of them to the US to teach science or math subjects.
For the period of 2000-2004, it was estimated that 818 Filipino teachers, most of
them science and math teachers are deployed abroad. The United States accounted for
72.8 percent of the total number of teachers deployed abroad. Other popular destinations
for Filipino teachers include Canada (12.4 %), Australia (9.2 %), Japan (1.9 %), and
Germany (0.9 %). Other countries make up for the remaining 3.5 %. The figures refer to
documented teachers who actually landed teaching jobs.
8
In a forum sponsored by the Science Education Institute (SEI) of the Department
of Science and Technology, educators are one in saying that the current exodus of
qualified teachers is aggravating the deteriorating quality of science and math education
in the country. Science and math education is the foundation by which a nation can
achieve technological progress. The direct relationship between technological
advancement and achievement in science and math is supported by the results of the
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). The test is conducted
in almost countries all over the world and is held every four years. Students from highly
modernized countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea have
consistently occupied the top spots in the TIMMS survey. On the other hand, less
developed economies, like the Philippines and other countries from South America and
Africa, consistently ranked at the bottom of the standings.
What is making it more alarming is the fact that even before the recent aggressive
recruitment of Filipino teachers; the country had been experiencing a chronic shortage of
science and math teachers at the secondary level.
Lack of adequately trained science teachers was, in fact, already a serious
problem in the 1950s. By SY 1997-1998, the country had only 29 percent and 56 percent
of the required number of secondary level science and math teachers, respectively.
This shortage contributed greatly to the dismal performance of the country in the
1995, 1999, and 2003 TIMMS survey. In the result, the Philippines ranked either third or
fourth from the last placer.
9
While other countries, particularly the US, continue to benefit from the steady
supply of science and math teachers from the Philippines, the number of education
students majoring on these subjects in teacher education institutions (TEI) is low.
Based on the 1997 and 1998 data obtained by the SEI through a survey of TEIs
offering bachelor of secondary education (BSE) programs, only about 15.3 percent of
BSE graduates majored in mathematics and about 15.1 percent majored in science.
Teachers with no specialization in science and math are compelled to teach those
subjects. In a study done by the Department of Education, it was found that majority of
