jun.anteola

I haven’t updated this site until now, as I’ve been kept busy by an OFW brother who was on vacation recently. (He has acquired British citizenship but works in New York, so that does qualify him as an OFW still, doesn’t it? Ang gulo!)

Distraction out, I have yet to recover and get warmed up again to blogging. But a comment from broadcast journalist Adrian Ayalin got me checking out his newer entries, and the article on naked out-of-school youth protests did strike a chord. I was in my alma mater’s student council for some time. This topic deserves a better treatment, but you’ll have to forgive if I just give a rundown of random thoughts. Forgive my title, too. My mind still lingers on the pasalubong chocolate and designer watch. Kalat.

To my knowledge, we have yet to have a Magna Carta of Students to define and guide over the issue on existence and breadth of the right to accessible education and its balance with the educational institutions’ necessary academic freedoms. Students are finding it harder to get and maintain an education, as yearly tuition fee increases by 10% may be too prohibitive for most. It could be higher for some schools, particularly private tertiary institutions as the Commission on Higher Education has suspended its own directives which limit these hikes. Schools, on their part, need to raise in order to survive and keep up with the demands of an supposedly progressive system.

It’s easy to agree that those who can afford go to private and exclusive schools, while those who can’t, as most Filipinos, go public. But the irony is that, the Philippines relies much on private schools to meet the need for higher education. And as the government’s budget for education remains insufficient, the quality that must be had in the public school system is affected. Primary and secondary public schools are basically free, but do they still give the kind of education that people hope and deserve to have?

Is education a right? Is it a privilege? Is it both? Or does a line drawn between them exist?

Teaching at a local university, I am appalled at the inability of many, if not most, of the newer batches of students to carry out simple tasks (requiring basic skills) for college work. I don’t believe I belong to a Jurassic generation, but I also sense a different set of values and attitude among them, of changed priorities. I had earlier attributed this to the fact that many come from barangay/municipal high schools, but then conversations with colleagues from Manila and larger cities all lead to the same comment. I just hope that these “kids” are aware of, appreciate and hold responsibility for the right and privilege they have been given, and from which these arguments about education stem.

Schools are encouraged to meet with students regarding tuition hikes and other policies, but these “consultations” often turn out to be just venues for them to announce an already decided matter. Given this, and considering they do have valid reasons to increase, students can only anticipate and be vigilant about welcome improvements in instruction, in the facilities, and the campus in general.

Our culture sees tertiary education as the means to having a better life. Unfortunately, not many are suited for it, and a lot of those who are capable opt to enrol in courses they won’t be practicing here. Later, they either apply for jobs abroad, at call centers, or rather audition for PBB and the likes. I have to say that, as I have known a few who are too taken in by the perceived glamour of certain jobs, and would see these as the only other option/s to, yes, finding employment abroad.