Editorial: Betrayal of the public

JUNKED. Given the unmet needs of many deprived public school students and the gaps in the local appreciation of Cebu history, the illicit sale of public-funded school materials and local history books in a junk shop is not just the transgression of a person or persons but the failures of the system to arrest ignorance and misdevelopment. (File Foto)
JUNKED. Given the unmet needs of many deprived public school students and the gaps in the local appreciation of Cebu history, the illicit sale of public-funded school materials and local history books in a junk shop is not just the transgression of a person or persons but the failures of the system to arrest ignorance and misdevelopment. (File Foto)

SOMETHING creates unease over the discovery of a Capitol employee’s unauthorized disposal of Capitol-funded school supplies and history books at a Mandaue City junk shop.

Recovered last July 5 were plastic envelopes, each containing one notebook, one pad paper, and one pencil. These supplies were intended for distribution to public school students in the province.

Also retrieved were 130 copies of the local history of Cebu towns and cities. Conceived in 2007, the Cebu Provincial History Project aimed to donate a complete set of 55 volumes to public libraries and schools.

An investigation is being conducted on the illicit transaction made by a government employee, who reportedly claimed there were instructions to clear the school supplies and books previously kept at the Hope Center, which stores items for province-wide distribution.

Why were the books and materials not given to the intended recipients? In terms of financial value, the waste of public funds pales in comparison to other cases of government misspending and corruption.

However, a news photo showing the school supplies spilling out of a torn sack, with some pads of paper scattered on the junk shop floor brings to mind a contrasting image of Santa Claus’ sack brimming over with Christmas goodies being awaited by children.

If the Capitol were not tipped off by the illegal sale, it is more likely that the books and materials would be reduced and resold as scrap. The onerous waste of squandering resources is made starker by the reality of need and deprivation in the seats of learning in this country.

A SunStar Bacolod June 13, 2010 special report by Jade C. Zaldivar pointed out how the children of cash-strapped families struggle to cope with “free” public education, needing every day to eat and commute, take down notes, make projects and pass other requirements not just to proceed to the next level but undertake the step-by-step process for comprehension and mastery.

For informal settlers, the P20 required for a school project means taking out an amount that should have gone for the day’s food and necessities, reported SunStar Bacolod. Interviewed for the special report, five public school students enumerated some requirements: materials for subjects like MAPEH that require many projects, P25 for each exam handbook required by major projects and P50 for “homeroom” fee (which covers fans and classroom fixtures, according to the students).

Being equipped with notebooks and school materials determines whether a student perseveres to the finish or drops out to work, driven by a need to help the family or pushed out by frustration with a school system that demands from them what they do not have to give.

Department of Education officials point out the link between poverty and illiteracy, between dropping out and crime. To regard education’s goal as primarily churning out a steady supply for the labor pool is to miss the more essential purpose of education: to raise aspirations and attain full development of one’s potentials.

As conceived, the town history books were intended to make Cebu youths know and understand the stories of their hometown. A pioneering effort to retrain citizens’ awareness away from the grand and national narratives to often ignored local struggles and heroes, the town histories are indirect literary routes to reflect on one’s role in contributing to the shaping of the community, even as an amateur chronicler or town historian.

The person or persons behind the disposal of school supplies and history books to a junk shop did not merely waste the P34,000 estimated to be the total cost of the recovered materials. The transgression amounts to a betrayal of public trust, of scuttling young persons’ possibilities to steer our society on a path of renewal and resurgence.

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