Field trips

ONE of the things that had parents of students feel rather uneasy about their children enrolled in high schools and colleges of the country is the requirement of field trips that entail not only added expense but also the risk to the students’ lives.

The other day, a member of the the Senate called on the head of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to impose “moratorium on field trips in light of a bus accident in Tuba, Benguet...”

The accident involved students from the Marinduque State College (MSC) that had a field trip to Northern Luzon. If I recall correctly, this is the second time in less than a year that a field trip accident occurred that also caused the death of a number of students in Central Luzon.

Sen. Ed Angara, who was former president of the University of the Philippines (UP), has urged Ched to suspend the holding of field trips “until there is devised a more reasonable set of criteria for allowing such trips.”

The more important point that I wish to bring about here, riding on the proposal of Angara, is the many financially demanding activities that schools are requiring their students to undertake, resulting in additional expense for the already hard-up parents.

I am referring, of course, to the schools getting contributions from the students to finance various activities, such as doing various projects even if these entails only small amounts.

The school’s head could justify these expense as necessary in the course of the pursuit of well-rounded learning and education, even if the same may not necessarily be significant to their intellectual growth.

I know that some schools have what is called as Nature Lover’s Day for their students and they would go to the rural barangays or villages to explore their so-called nooks and crannies. But some would take the students out of town.

Yes, the senator had pointed out, too, that some “educational tours are very expensive, costing P5,000 to P10,000 per student.” Well, when the cost reaches this high, I think this is no longer merely for higher education.

I think it is no longer a joke to be asked to spend such amount when the head of the family could not even double that amount for the family every payday. The cost of living in this country has gone. This is making our higher education even more costly.

Frankly now, I think Senator Angara did his homework to notice that the Department of Education is not helping the parents any by allowing the latter to spend more when they should be scrimping.