Monday, May 05, 2008 Echaves: Signs of the times By Lelani P. Echaves Thinking Aloud
WITH class opening just a month away, there’s expectedly a deluge of application letters from teachers wanting to belong.
They come fresh from graduation, neighboring schools, or overseas jobs.
Those from neighboring schools present say they want “greater challenge.” It’s an apparent, rather than real, reason though. When discussion nose-dives to salary expectation, “challenge” means a higher salary.
They can’t be faulted. Especially in these times when prices are skyrocketing (Jeez! A kilo of rice now costs P40 from P30; P500 now just buys 10 kilos, no longer 16.5 kilos), the struggle to survive becomes acute and desperate.
Even old men are out in the streets, begging. Some just press their faces to your window and spread their palm. Others, in some feeble attempt to mask the begging, strum their guitar and mumble a song. But their look is pained and heart-rending.
A friend asked me what thoughts these scenes trigger in me. He asks God why He allows these things to happen. I ask where all their children have gone, and why they’re not taking care of their aging parents.
This struggle to bring in money to the family has not spared the students either. Every last child standing is expected to contribute, whether by cost reduction or income generation. Those applying for OJT (on-the-job training), for instance, now compare companies according to the allowance they’ll get.
OJT assignments aim to develop industry skills to prepare students for actual work after graduation. But they’ll all troop to companies giving them a higher allowance than others, even when allowances are not expected by the recommending school. This, even if all they’ll learn in their 300 hours or 1,800 hours in a company is merely how to mix coffee, dust the window sills and be a gofer (go for this, go for that) to buy employees’ lunch and snacks, or run up and down to the photocopier, that’s okay for them as long as they earn.
Obviously, for a school that requires 1,800 hours of OJT for its students, their parents have just cut down college spending days to three years instead of four. I think OJT coordinators should monitor more regularly, even bi-weekly at the start, whether or not their trainees are really learning things relevant to their students’ academic programs.
Experience, however, tells me that OJT coordinators simply turn over their students to the receiving companies, assumedly too ready to transfer their obligation of mentoring and supervising. Some just go through the motions of coordinating, and don’t bother choosing the companies their students should best learn in.
As it is, companies would prefer OJTs simply because they cost less versus the Minimum Wage Law. Managers and other employees as well can now avail themselves of their own personal janitors and errand girls, even if assigned tasks have no bearing on their academic course.
More of this and schools strengthen many a CEO’s observation that even the best college graduates are actually just 25 percent prepared for entry-level work.
