Friday, July 25, 2008 Editorials: Helping hand for education
RECENT developments show a worri-some discrepancy between the number of youths of school age who are in school and those who are not, a ratio of about three out of every ten.
The reason for the sorry circumstance runs the gamut of the family’s economic inability to send their kids to school to the lack of school infrastructure.
The problem of lack of classrooms to accommodate our steadily increasing school population has been a perennial one.
The number of our school children is simply growing faster than our government’s capacity to build classrooms in both the urban and rural areas.
Assistance
Clearly, government cannot tackle the problems alone.
There is soundness, therefore, in the call of education leaders and the President for assistance from the private sector, those that can afford to share.
Yesterday, there was the report of a 9-classroom building being turned over to the Gun-ob High School in Lapu-Lapu City, in addition to the 12 school rooms that were earlier given by the same donor.
The donor should become a role model for all our other affluent people and institutions that can afford to share part of their good fortunes to the less fortunate children of countryside schools.
Care and kindness
The donor, who himself came from a peasant family and through hard work attained material affluence, is said to have dedicated his life to helping the education of our school children.
No less than President Arroyo herself graced the occasion in order to lend a much deeper meaning and significance to the singular deed of an individual for his country and people, which at this very moment is going through difficult times.
Our prevailing social order is thus in much need of a gesture of care and kindness from people who can afford to extend assistance to the less fortunate many in our society.
In extending his helping hand, the donor affirms his belief that “educated minds are the best way to make a country strong and help people achieve a better life for themselves.
