WITH the Philippine school year coming once again to an opening, expect the streets to be a little more crowded and brimming with youthful exuberance. Just imagine rows and rows of school children, half-awake and asleep, crossing the streets with their cute little backpacks and lunch bags some of them holding their parents’ hands. You’ll also see tricycles which become local school buses as they navigate the alleys and side streets to get their “sakays” to school on time. Let’s just hope that the authorities will make sure that they don’t overload and endanger the lives of the tots. How about the older ones? Possessing more experience than their younger counterparts, you’ll still be able to notice their transitory phases as they find their way through puberty and eventually, to adolescence.
Filipino students—especially those who are in the public schools—face a bunch of problems. These problems written on the blackboard include lack of classrooms, bathrooms, textbooks, teachers, and teaching materials; how our public school students soldier through in the battlefield of knowledge is nothing but inspiring. They navigate mountains and rivers. They walk barefoot carrying their “tsinelas” and shoes with them to avoid wear and tear. Some do not even eat their breakfast for monetary reasons. Now we can say that those who are in the private side of things are a little luckier and less hungry.
Education should always remain a right, not a privilege. It is comforting to know that the government is taking the right measures to ensure that those who avail of its services–education particularly–get the most out of it. Employing the K-12 system is a step forward as it prepares the Filipino student in an ever-changing local and international landscape where skills matter. There is hope for Philippine education just as there was much promise in the history of exemplary Filipino students like Jose Rizal, Emilio Jacinto, Manuel Quezon, Claro M. Recto, and Jose Diokno. Most great minds are sharpened and honed through a system, and if that system is kind and generous to all, we need not to worry about brain-drain, downgrades, death of moral conscience, and the like; for the desire to help one’s country will become as natural as breathing.
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