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Monday, May 30, 2005
Oledan: Ifs and buts
By Radzini Oledan
Slice of Life
"Lack of priority to education is a sure fire way to keep these children and their families in a disadvantaged situation. Nothing can justify this injustice."
THREE weeks from now, classes will start in both public and private schools.As expected, we will again hear the lamentations even from the Department of Education itself on the perennial lack of classrooms, teachers, facilities and textbooks.
Let us not lower our expectations.We will also hear various commitments and pronouncements and yes, witness the grandstanding of some legislators and officials on their desire to improve the state of education. Good. Except that for many years, the public needs results.
What is badly needed is the commitment and political will to genuinely transform the educational system, put in place a realistic budget and hire competent teachers who are able to teach the children the skills not only to read and write but also to critically analyze, make their own decisions and actively participate in community affairs.
Around 85 percent of the present learners are enrolled in public schools.They are the same batch of students who will have to contend with sub-standard teaching instruction, lack of facilities, cramped classrooms and even gender insensitive textbooks used for classroom instruction.
Families are left with no alternatives as they are faced with high cost of tuition. The big amount being shelled out every year or semester does not guarantee quality education.In fact, the quality of education in private schools has also been a question in recent years as most of the institutions, even those being run by religious groups (and therefore, conveniently tax-free) are more obsessed with profit than producing top quality graduates.
On the other hand, the initiative of private groups is not wanting especially in Mindanao where most of the funding is concentrated.If anything, it highlights the very low commitment of government in seriously addressing the gaps and challenges in the educational system.
In a recent study by the National Youth Commission, it was found that one in four barangays does not have elementary school, in sum, depriving some 1.6 million children of basic education. A third of the country's barangays does not even have complete elementary schools, making primary education still inaccessible.
In terms of indicators, the average elementary cohort survival rate for the Philippines was 68.6 percent in 1997, which means that out of a hundred who enter Grade I, only 68 of them normally finish Grade VI.
Survival rate in high school also showed a slight decline, from 74.7 percent in 1983-1984 to 73.3 percent in 1995-1996. This rate indicates that roughly a quarter of first year high school students do not reach the fourth year level.
In the last school year, there was a shortage of 39,383 classrooms, 4,125,413 seats, 9.88 million textbooks and some 49,212 teachers nationwide.
Lack of personal interest and community support and high cost of education are among the reasons why students do not go to school, according to the Functional Literacy and Exposure to Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
Those who drop out are forced to work at an early age to help augment the family income, sacrificing their education in the process.
Between helping their family put food on their table and get by day in their daily needs, education for these children almost always takes a backseat.
The social cost proves to be so high.Today, 14.7 percent or 4.84 million out of the 32.96 million population aged 6 to 24 years old are out of school and four million or 16.2 percent of children aged 5-17 years old are considered as economically active. Of these children 37 percent did their job in between taking their classes.In the end, they have to drop out.
Majority of these children worked as laborers and unskilled workers or in the service sector or in sweatshops and as market sales workers.
Poverty is not a coincidence.It is borne by the lack of productive opportunities on the ground. Lack of priority to education is a sure fire way to keep these children and their families in a disadvantaged situation.Nothing can justify this injustice.No ifs and buts.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 30, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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