Help them to learn, so they don’t have to earn — too soon.
Imagine being 17 and having to choose between pursuing your education and providing for your family’s basic needs. Dreaming to become a teacher, a nurse, a writer — but instead of holding a pen or a book, they are holding a mop or working double shifts just to keep the lights on at home.
This is not fiction. This is the reality for thousands of Filipino students today.
Every day, youth are forced to abandon their dreams, not because they lack ambition, but because they’re burdened with responsibilities too heavy for their age. They sacrifice classroom time to work, not because they’ve given up, but out of genuine love for their families. However, love shouldn’t come at the cost of their future.
People should stop normalizing the idea that students have to work just to meet their needs. The question should not be, “Should students choose between school and work?” — it’s “Why are we allowing the system that forces them to choose at all?”
No student should be punished for being optimistic and ambitious, nor for loving their family enough to sacrifice. It’s not a matter of choice — it’s a cry for change.
The answer lies in our broken systems: inaccessible education, lack of resources and the lack of a strong foundation for unprivileged families. Whilst we applaud scholarships and short-term programs, they are not enough. We need real, sustainable solutions — livelihood opportunities for parents, fair education access and part-time jobs that support, not steal, a student’s right to learn.
Choosing to stay in school is not selfish, nor is choosing to work disgraceful. And no student should ever be put in that position. No dream should be kept and shelved just because bills need to be paid.
This is not just about poverty. This is about injustice. About a generation of students being deprived of their right to dream because they’re too busy surviving. We cannot continue to applaud resilience while ignoring the system that demands it.
It’s time we stop asking our youth to choose between their future and their family’s survival — and start building a nation where they no longer have to. Because when students are free to learn, they don’t just change their lives. They change the world.
Let’s give them that chance.
To every student standing at that painful crossroad: You are seen — you are not alone. Your struggle is valid. Your dreams are worth fighting for. And together, we will build a country where no one has to choose between surviving and succeeding.
Futures are made to be protected, not left in the hands of chance.