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Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Editorial: Investing in the future
IT'S school opening once again and perennial problems of overcrowded classrooms and lack of facilities are felt anew.
Obviously, while the problems have long been acknowledged, not much has been done about it. Thus, as classes start, public school students are packed once more in classrooms that not only become very uncomfortable but are not conducive for learning; what with the noise from outside and the heat of being made to share a small space designed for just around 40 students with around 70. And still, we wonder why students are more often seen in video arcades and streets than in classrooms...
Looking closely, there is more to this than just infrastructure and a fast growing population. There is also the dire lack of teachers to complicate the situation, and yes, the lack of quality knowledge and teaching skills among the available teachers.
Thus a vicious cycle is created. Jam-packed classrooms that discourage learning and teaching manned by students who can barely understand anything and teachers who hardly know anything.
In fact, today's primary and secondary education can be described as just a mob of students, nothing else. The teacher may or may not be there, it doesn't really matter much. Amid the din of students, if indeed there is a teacher, he can hardly be heard and can hardly deliver his day's lesson. Thus, it's just like not having any teacher at all.
With the worsening situation, local governments could do well if they heed an earlier call by Paul G. Dominguez as chair of the Philippine Business for Social Progress Mindanao Committee. After baring the findings that Mindanao education is lagging way behind Visayas and Luzon, and Philippine education is lagging behind other Asian nations, Dominguez said that one of the things PBSp wants to promote is for local governments to measure their effectiveness not only through lowered crime rates and accelerated infrastructure programs but also through their accomplishments in their educational system.
"We have to realize that development is not just how many roads and buildings we have. It is how our human capacity is doing," Dominguez said at the start of this year.
We should then ask our politicians, when was the last time we checked how our human capacity is doing? If they stammer and stutter then we are in deeper waters than we have ever imagined.
(June 10, 2003 issue)
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