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A reflection on Philippine education

15th June 2008, 07:32 am

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 15 June 2008 Issue

An average Filipino devotes at least fourteen years of his or her life in school from elementary to college. Some others would spend a couple of years more.

Student life in the country is very stressful. Pupils have to be in the campus early morning and stay there for most of the day for academic instructions and other school activities. By the time they reach home, they need to spend another time to study and prepare for homework for the next day. Some unlucky others are under obligation to fulfill household chores or even help the family earn a living. The more diligent and serious students may need to deprive themselves of a balanced way of life - unfortunately only to learn what American philosopher John Dewey referred to as dead facts and mere memorization of lessons.

Students go to school to complete a formal education in the hope that their diplomas could be their passport for a better life for themselves and their families. After years and years of enduring the life of a student, many would land a job for which they did not prepare for. Many would have to compete for employment that does not even pay more than the minimum wage. Others would seek greener pasture in a foreign land engaging themselves even in lowly occupation. The more unfortunate of them would just probably be sitting endlessly at home searching and responding to job openings, or preparing biodata for submission to prospective employers.

This is what fourteen or more years of labor for knowledge generally await ordinary Filipino students.

There is no argument that education is essential to a civilized human existence. Ancient thinkers had long recognized that education is the process of satisfying man’s quest for perfection. Education is the key to building both the intellectual and moral fitness of human beings to serve the ultimate aspirations of individual happiness and produce a bunch of good and productive men and women who will promote the welfare of society.

Existing educational systems in almost every nation, this country included, are premised on a liberal model, a framework that promotes free thinking, free expression and self-determination. As early as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Scottish moral philosopher and political economist Adam Smith proposed a minimum general education for all citizens arguing that men who do not use their intellectual faculties properly are not fully human.

Some philosophers of long ago, including Dewey, abhorred specialized education or vocational training or pure craftsmanship because it is a mere training for slaves to make them fit as cogs in the industrial machine.

The irony of it all in this country, that adopts a liberal education for its citizens, is that the long and stressful years of academic pursuit make many young minds merely end up as slaves of the corporate world and of foreign employers. Perhaps, it is safe to assume that nine of every ten Filipino graduates would always look forward to a fruitful employment after graduation rather than look at entrepreneurship or self-employment as a more viable alternative simply because they lack the skills and the talent to pursue their own craft.

Filipino students are stucked to long years of liberal education taught over and over again in elementary, high school and even during the first two years of college. The entire process obviously delays their strong potential to become productive and responsible citizens of this country at the soonest time. At best, the process suspends their becoming a part of the unemployment and underemployment statistics of this country. Worse, the system unduly prolongs the economic burden of parents and families if only to keep them in school.

There must be another framework of a blended liberal education and craftmanship that government could adopt to reverse the predicaments confronting the country’s educational system. Of course that requires a lot of political will and conscience.

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Tags: craftmanship, education, government, liberal education, parents, schools, students, vocational
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A reflection on Philippine education

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