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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Ong: Suspending quality education
By Ted Aldwin E. Ong
PHILIPPINE education is the focus of discussion today after Gill Westaway, the country executive director of the British Council, cited a study funded by the Asian Development Bank that the Philippines is "suffering from too many colleges and universities."
I believe in Westaway's practical analysis on the current situation of the country's education sector. Westaway said, "in a country like the Philippines, where resources are scarce, it's better to have fewer universities with quality rather than allowing hundreds of universities that are diluting the overall quality." (PDI, 1/27/05)
Too many colleges and universities immediately recall the long standing question by both the public and academicians - quality. But one of the factors that constantly surface in public discussion is affordability. Academics and technocrats have pointed many factors in the quality of education and have proposed measures to uplift its status but the affordability of education is a constant concern among the public.
For a country with a fast growing economy more schools are required but quality and affordability are not areas for compromise. We all know that education is a human right but it has become a commodity all these years. Undeniably, only the rich has access to quality education. The cost of sending a child to a university is something that the majority of the impoverished Filipinos cannot afford.
Given the country's fiscal position, our state colleges and universities has a limited slot for all interested students despite the same mental capacity. Affordability is something we cannot ignore and an increasing number of colleges and universities is not a solution towards this end.
Filipino sociologist Randy David has a point when he said that "there are factors beyond the control of the school." The quality of life for the Filipino family has been in decline as a result of stagnant economy. This has opened more complexities for a Filipino family to survive and send their children to school. A fragile economy is a threat to labor and employment security of working parents.
This has also increased the working parents' susceptibility to retrenchments. A parent who will find himself retrenched from work endangers the continuity of a child's schooling. Once the child ceases schooling, this can open the cycle of unemployment. Temporary employment is likely to happen to assist the family in providing basic necessities of the family in order to survive. This further lessens the chances of a child to complete schooling.
Philippine education has not enjoyed top priority in the past administrations resulting to its continuous deterioration. As an important factor in the development of a nation, education must be a top priority and must have the highest allocation in government's budget appropriations.
The dismal increases in annual appropriations did not provide substantial room for Philippine education to remain at par with its neighbors in the Asian region. Many of our neighboring countries claims pride in achieving a nationalized education. Ours is a direction of a privatized education giving less intervention in improving quality education because of autonomy.
Through the years the number of state colleges and universities has decreased while private schools continuously multiplied especially IT schools. Skills training schools focusing on caregiver also proliferated with its promise of foreign employment opportunities after completion.
All this might give temporary relief to our nation's employment woes but not in terms of addressing the issue of quality education. More schools might grace the landscape Education might not be the only problem of the national government but we are building another crisis if this concern continuous to be suspended.
A nation with a growing financial, cultural, and moral crisis cannot simply leave quality education in the backseat to give way for other pressing concerns. Everything has move altogether and we need leaders who are sympathetic to the plight of the impoverished by providing not only quality education but affordable and accessible to all. (Comments to peoplesdomain@yahoo.com or SMS to 0920 - 4284719)
(February 8, 2005 issue)
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