Saturday, June 16, 2007 Roperos: Cost of education By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
SURELY, government’s implementation of the constitutional mandate to give free education to the Filipino youth, particularly in primary and secondary levels, did not envision “informal” donations or contributions.
In many countryside schools, parents of students are made to pay for classroom amenities that government can not provide. It comes out as unofficial taxation.
But if you look at the situation more keenly, you will realize that the imposition is sometimes necessary. School children must have education, and citizens must pitch in.
But there are also a number of parents who can hardly afford to provide even the kids’ noonday meals.
It is thus awkward to have the parents pay for the monthly light and water consumption of the schools, not to mention the other needs such as repair of fences, purchase of materials for school repairs, etc.
Because of this, parents of school kids spend different amounts for the education of their children because “donations” are pegged depending on a particular school’s monthly needs.
What really worries me about the situation is the rise in the percentage of countryside children of school age who are not enrolled in primary and secondary schools.
For example, I met an 11-year-old girl and her mother in our town’s market last Tuesday. She was selling, on a school day, malunggay and alugbati at 5-centavo per bundle. She should have been in Grade 4 or Grade 5.
When I asked her mother, who was tending a basket of ripe bananas and pineapple, about it she said they could not afford to send her to school and she needs someone to help her do some gardening and farming.
The family only had two children and the younger one was the one in school. “Husto na gud na, sir, basta maka- mao lang mobasaoug mosulat sa ngalan, igo na. Makahimo na sila pagbotar. Mao ra man gyud among maabot.”
That, indeed, is a sad commentary of our times.
Our national leaders have long vowed to wage war against poverty and have initiated various programs in agriculture designed to improve the source of livelihood of the countryside. But these seem to have failed to improve the quality of life of rural inhabitants.
So how do we educate our impoverished countryside kids even at the primary level?
