Education Talk

Jose Rizal once said, “ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan” but how do you make them the hope when majority of the kabataan are not even in school?

Lucky for me, I go to school in one of the so-called premier universities in the country, the national university. We are dubbed as the best university but day after day we wish the school is given a higher state subsidy. We students are promised quality education but are given facilities that we have coined as coming from “pre-historic times.”

There are 110 state universities and colleges, 334 satellite campuses of the main campuses, 77 local universities and colleges and 10 other government schools but the student ratio to the number of universities is more than we can imagine. Universities are overpopulated. There is no proper screening process. Worse, there are no facilities for the students to learn the best they could.

Where does this all lead to? Well, unemployment or maybe if lucky, just underemployment. Companies nowadays do not accept employees with no strong educational background. Some graduates choose to be a bum for the rest of their life living off whatever mom or dad will be giving. Some choose to flee abroad thinking that going out of the country would solve their problems.

The Constitution states in article 16 that “the state shall promote the right of all citizens to quality and education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible.” This is a promise given to the youth so that they would work hard to lift this country up. But instead, a bulk of the country’s budget goes to the military and to the pockets of we know who. In turn, the youth suffers. Education now becomes a privilege than a right. Gone are the days when education is given to all, as with the American concept of education.

(c) Philstar News

Education is clearly a right rather than a privilege. The investment on the next generation would bring hope to our dire nation. I believe in what Jose Rizal said way back. But aside from a good educational system and funding to boot, we also need another important component – teachers.

We need teachers, competitive teachers who will pass on their knowledge to the students.

What happened with the faculty of Velez College last week was a clear example of the importance of teachers.  The teachers demanded that they be given just compensation for their work. Which was a puzzle for students who pay a huge tuition fees.

We need teachers. We need our teachers to be paid well so they can help us. We need teachers who are willing to sacrifice so that we will be the best, globally.

Going back to Rizal, he was a good student and he had great teachers. Rizal is the model of a well-educated man. It would have been better for the students of today to get the same quality education that he did before. Maybe then, the youth could really be the hope of the nation.

** First published in The Freeman newspaper on November 13, 2012