Have you watched Harry Potter? For sure you know about the various houses right? Well apparently that doesn't only happen in fictional magic schools set in the UK. How do I know? Well Thursday night last week (during my rest day) I saw a new YouTube documentary. It is about a school swap in the United Kingdom (UK) that happened back in 2015. Well of course I watched it because of the title. I mean come on, posh kids going to public school, what could happen indeed?

So I watched the first of two episodes and found out UK schools really do have houses and such like in Harry Potter (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, etc). Wow. I didn't think that was real. I thought it only happened in Hogwarts. 😅 I only knew the Britons have boarding schools, like you live in the school grounds as soon as you start education. Apparently kids as young as age 7 or 8 live away from their family or parents for the sake of getting educated in Britain's private schools.

Anyway based on the two episodes I was able to see the difference of education in private and public school in that country. In terms of general behavior I think it's the same here in the Philippines. Let me share with you the general differences and a few similarities of public and private schools here.

🔸 What's Different in Private and Public Schools in the Philippines?

Let me tell you what I know about education here in our country. This might be quite outdated now since I went to school before the K-12 education system was implemented (2013). Feel free to share more in the comment section if you have knowledge of the current differences. 😁

Not sure if I can call myself lucky for being able to get educated in both public and private schools. At least I was able to see the difference of being in either of the two. As young as 7 years old I saw the great contrast of private and public education. After being in nursery and kindergarten private schools I was enrolled in a public elementary school and wow I really noticed the stark difference.

Let's just say that if your family has enough or more than enough money then you can enjoy certain education privileges than those with lesser family income. What are the main differences I noticed in the two school types? Here's a short list:

• Private schools have school buses/vehicles to bring kids to and from school. Public school pupils can take public transportation on their own.

• Private school students are more behaved than their counterparts. Those from public schools are more prone to get rowdy/distracted due to the bigger number of students per class.

• Private schools can offer more things or facilities for each student to use as opposed to being in public schools. For example, the former has an extensive library, a lost and found section, a clinic, open area or playground, etc.

• Most private schoolchildren don't clean their classroom before going home. Public school students clean the room after the entire school period is over.

• City pupils have field trips to various educational places. Rural students are taught how to prepare the soil and then plant, grow and harvest vegetables.

Comparing the above to what I watched, I can say the second and third bullets are similar to what goes on in Britain. In my case I even noticed a difference in both type of schools in the urban and rural setting.

🔸 What's Different in Urban and Rural Schools in the Philippines?

I've lived in the National Capital Region (a.k.a. Metro Manila which is composed of many cities) more than in provinces but I do know the stark difference when it comes to education. Whether it's a private/public or city/province school I can say there is really something different in each type of institution. My entire school life I've gone from one to four of the mentioned categories.

Now let me tell you about some of the differences I experienced in city and provincial schools. Let me compare the school categories based on location/setting.

1. PRIVATE Urban and Rural School Similarities and Differences

• Urban schools have more things to offer than rural private schools. In my provincial private school, there was no library or clinic and such.

• The number of students to teacher ratio is almost the same in both locations as opposed to public schools.

• There are private schools in the provinces where designated pupils of the week clean their classroom once the school period is over. Urban ones don't have such (at least in my experience).

2. PUBLIC Urban and Rural School Similarities and Differences

• In the city, there are times you can watch kiddie movies. Not sure why but I remember seeing some. In the province there's no such thing.

• Both provincial and city public schools make students clean their own classroom from elementary to high school only.

• Rural schools have provincial meets and/or interschool competitions whether sports or quiz bees, etc. The urban counterparts don't have such except in college (basketball, volleyball, etc.)

• Provincial students are weighed to see if anybody is malnourished. If they are, bulgur wheat meal are fed to them. Those in the city are never checked of such nor given healthy food to help curb malnutrition.

Those are the main differences I can remember. If you have more to add feel free to comment below. 😊

How Does UK and Philippine Education Compare to Each Other?

Well as far as I know we don't have any boarding schools here in the Philippines. This is why students are also part of the bulk of commuters everyday before the pandemic happened. (We also have home schooling here and international schools.)

What's similar is the way public and private schools differ here and there. Generally it is not overly different as private education mostly trumps its public counterpart. But as you can see above there are certain things we do here that aren't being done in the UK (like planting veggies I think).

The confidence factor mentioned in the show is something I've never thought of before. Here in the Philippines, private school educated students only have an edge depending on the job or company one is applying for. Generally it only matters if someone is applying to top and famous companies. The university where one graduated from would really matter to the Human Resources department hiring for corporations and such. Also if the individual is considering to work abroad, small local universities/colleges are not recognised in other countries.

Other than that I think it all comes down to the behaviour and personality of the person. If they are driven to succeed no matter the kind of education they will still strive for success.

Would love to write about success stories but that may be a topic for another article. Do you have any examples of private and public educated individual success stories? Or how about in your country, is there much of a difference with schools and the education or no?

XOXO,

@LucyStephanie

* * *

Lead image and other images are via Unsplash.

• About Me

Not a member of read.cash yet? Come join us! Let's microblog on noise.cash too!