Saturday, July 19, 2008 Oledan: Status quo By Radzini Oledan
IN THE recent survey of the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development, the Philippines ranked 40th out of the 55 countries in the World Competitiveness Yearbook. The yearbook studied 55 countries using 331 criteria grouped into four categories: hard economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
The same survey also showed the Philippines hitting the bottom in education indicators. The percentage of public expenditure on education in the GDP was found to be the second lowest among the 55 countries.
The World Bank estimates that education spending in the Philippines was equal to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2004. The figure is below Malaysia's 8 percent and Thailand's 4.2 percent.
Thailand climbed six notches in the ranking from 33rd in 2007 to 27th this year while Malaysia landed 19th this year, four notches higher than its ranking last year.
There is low priority on education. This is despite the fact that the synergies of education investment have been proven to be powerful.
Basic education empowers individuals by opening up avenues of communication that would otherwise be closed, expanding personal choice and control over one's environment, and providing the basis for acquiring many other skills.
It is a basic human right. Investment in education supports a much broader agenda including health, nutrition, the values of the environment, and community participation.
Education provides disadvantaged people with the tools they need to move from exclusion to full participation in their society.
The correlation between education and poverty is plain. The poorest households are those whose heads have no formal education at all and those who had no more than an elementary education.
In poorest provinces in Mindanao, dropout rates are much higher. Most are unable to get formal education.
Eliminating poverty requires providing access to quality education. Educated people are better able to improve the quality of their lives and involve themselves in community processes.
Statistics would show that only six out of 10 children who enter Grade 1 are able to finish Grade 6. Only four finish high school and only two enter college.
The bottom line is to enable people to make informed choices and participate in charting their path to development. This is a scenario that threatens the current political and economic power of the few. When the populace is educated, the public can be expected to be more critical of policies and their implication on people's lives.
