IF YOU’RE reading this and you’re a parent, are you ready to go back to school?
There is no lack of reminders that many youths will be trooping back to campuses when June opens the traditional school year still followed by many academic institutions. Is your child or children among those who will be returning to school?
Or will they be among the 560,000 estimated high school graduates who will not enroll in college every year due to lack of funds, as estimated by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd)?
Preparation
A long-time government doctor never held back his scorn when confronting ill-prepared husbands or partners of urban poor women about to give birth. When told that the men had no money to buy cotton, alcohol and other basics, he chided them, “Didn’t you have nine months to prepare for this?”
This same logic parents can apply in examining how responsible they are in meeting the
needs of their children, especially education, which, traditionally, is the legacy Filipino parents pride themselves in leaving their children.
Today, education has become not just a privilege but a battlefield in the country.
Last May 6, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo party-list representatives Gary Alejano and Francis Ashley Acedillo filed a petition, asking the Supreme Court (SC) to declare the “K to 12” education program as unconstitutional.
This is the third petition to seek that the SC issues a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of the “K to 12” program. Many groups oppose the program, which extends high school by two more years. The critics
say that, for parents, the 12-year curriculum means more costs.
For children of poor parents, it means absence of choice. The National Union of Students in the Philippines reported that, to date, there are 1.5 million dropouts and 15 million out-of-school youths.
Yet, while many criticisms can be raised against the ills of the present educational system and the lapses of the government in making education accessible to all, parents must face and carry out their duty to provide for their children’s education, as well as other needs to maximize their potentials.
Foresight, presence
Ideally, the parental foresight that aims to give one’s best to one’s child should begin even before a fetus forms in the womb. How many futures are compromised because of a parental decision to force a child to leave school and work?
Or how many children suffer when a breadwinner decides to start an illegitimate family? When BPO workers Leslie and Mark found they shared the same father, among the first things they asked each other was: who paid for the children’s education? Mark and his siblings worked to finish college; Leslie, an only child, was supported by his mother. Their father has, aside from his legal one, a fourth family.
The cost of schooling is not just financial. The extension of the old 10-year curriculum will not just mean additional expenses for students and their families. It will demand more commitment and support from parents and educators so that students will acquire an education that makes them become not just competitive workers but also better parents and citizens.
Hillary will be repeating the second grade when school opens in June. It’s the third attempt for Hillary, a non-reader. Her mother is quick to blame the “terror teacher” but cannot see how her addiction to telenovelas may explain why Hillary has difficulty reading even the months in their wall calendar.
Although he has to ask others to send an SMS for him because he has difficulty spelling, Hillary’s father sought the help of a neighbor, who improvised flash cards.
When he’s not doing odd jobs as the family breadwinner, he plays with Hillary, coaxing her to read the calendar, can labels, and other items.
For education to truly improve in the country, parents must share in the stake, too.