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Monday, August 22, 2005
Editorial: Feats of survival
VERA, 17, seems at first glance to be luckier than most. The education freshman enjoys a scholarship in a reputable private college in Cebu City. It is a big step for the valedictorian of a public high school located in the hinterlands of the south of Cebu. (Pseudonyms used for minors interviewed for this article.)
Appearances deceive: the eldest daughter of a master carpenter and day care worker is still hostaged by the dismal state of Philippine education.
Current education research shows that the Philippines is afflicted by “high intake rate but low survival/retention levels.” This means that many enroll in elementary, secondary and college levels; few of these entrants reach the final year.
Like the other 33 students in her high school batch, Vera persevered, even lugging her own chair every day to and from school. She worshipped her teachers, wanting to become like them so she could help her three younger siblings.
But a year after she read the valedictory address penned by her teacher, Vera was still out of school. After failing in the entrance exam of a state university, she pondered if there was any truth to the line she remembers from her commencement speech: “ang pagkapobre dili babag sa pag-uswag (poverty is not a hindrance to growth).”
According to www.bulatlat.net, the tuition in state colleges and universities (SCUs) is relatively lower than in private schools. But massive cuts in the SCU budget and the rationalization policy of the Arroyo administration have reduced SCUs from 271 in 1996 to 173 in 2002.
Ironically, the remaining SCUs’ high cut-off mark and limited slots put them beyond the reach of students like Vera.
Endure
Vera might have been an out-of-school or working minor statistic had it not been for the association that gave her a college scholarship this year.
Though she has yet to see her midterm grades, Vera foresees the struggle to attain the 1.15 average semestral grade required to keep her scholarship.
“Bitay ko sa akong leksiyon (I do poorly in my studies),” she admitted to Sun.Star Cebu. As desperately as she wants to be a teacher, she now feels only anxiety that her education in barangay schools has not prepared her for higher studies.
Her chief weakness is math, specially problem-solving. Vera remembers that her high school math teacher was the only one who had a book in the whole class. They hardly had seatwork or assignments. Absenteeism was tolerated as students worked at home and in the farms.
When her barangay high school opened, her first year was spent for “adjustment”. Vera remembers tackling first year subjects during her second year, and so forth.
Now that she is in college, Vera no longer feels she is still “catching up.” College has definitely overtaken her.
Evade
The valedictorian who once volunteered at the barangay day care center during the year she was out of school, now copes by adopting a protective invisibility in class.
Her favorite subject used to be English. Vera is now scared of it. She is tongue-tied, not knowing how to reply to teachers who converse in English even when they sometimes meet in jeepneys. She feels paralyzed to speak out in class, conscious of better-off classmates who might find fault with her.
Asked why she keeps silent even when she thinks she knows the answer, Vera takes refuge in “basin wrong pa lang (I may be wrong).”
According to a paper written by J.M. Luz, DepEd undersecretary and associate professor of the Asian Institute of Management, low achievement levels and poor survival rates in college reflect last school year’s shortages in public elementary and secondary education: 39,383 classrooms, 4.1 million seats, 9.9 million textbooks and some 49,212 teachers.
Survive
Another barangay high school valedictorian, Myrna, 16, struggles to keep her college scholarship because the allowances from her father have dried up.
A construction worker, her father supports five children, fruits of his union with three women. As Myrna’s mother is not married to her father and is in another relationship, Myrna solely depends on her father for her daily needs as a college freshman in Cebu City.
Now that the allowances come erratically, if at all, Myrna depends on her teachers sometimes doling out bundles of joy left from last year. In the eddying crowd of faces in the university belt, how many pinched faces besides those of Myrna and Vera hide a hunger for food and learning?
(August 22, 2005 issue)
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