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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.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 4 May 2008 

With the age of information technology at the center stage of human interaction, there is an emerging global consensus for collaboration in providing access to learning and knowledge and developing a wide range of educational resources in cyberspace that are free and open for everyone to use outside of the traditional models. It is referred to as ‘open education’.

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration in September 2007 and now signed by over 1,500 individuals and more than 150 organizations all over the world urges educators and learners participation in the open education movement, and the promotion of open education resources and open education policies.

Open education operates on different framework from open university, e-learning, open content to wikis, e-books, legal commons or open coursewares. And these methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in a speech before the William Flora Hewlett Foundation Grantees Meeting in a symposium on Open Learning Interplay at the Carnegie Mellon University on March 12, 2008 said:

“Open education broke open the iron triangle of access, cost and quality that had constrained education throughout history and had created the insidious assumption, still prevalent today, that in education you cannot have quality without exclusivity.”

“Open as to people, open as to places, open as to methods, and open as to ideas. That is a good framework to think about open education.” quoting and paraphrasing a 1969 address of ‘The Economist’ editor, Geoffrey Crowther, an early advocate of open education whose speech was still probably written in a typewriter.

In the first forum dubbed as “Open Education: Are we ready and where are we?” held on April 23, 2008, the Philippine Commons and the e-Law Center of the Arellano University School of Law advanced the idea that ‘open education’ should refer to any scholarly, academic or guided initiative that promotes access to learning and knowledge in a free, open and collaborative environment using the tools and infrastructure of information technology.

Open education is an initiative whose time has come.

In the words of Kristine Mandigma, editor-in-chief of Vibal Foundation: “In leading economies technology and knowledge are the critical factors of economic growth.” She emphasized though that innovation is the key.

Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books believes that open education would eventually fill the gaps in the educational system as technology attempts to address the issue of content quality and commercial viability.

Lawyer Michael Vernon Guerrero of Philippine Commons submits that open education empowers people. He thinks that open content is the first step toward collaboration as international endeavors in this respect continue to grow, develop and mature.

Miriam Coprado of the Department of Education shares the view that while government continues to pursue the integration of information technology in the educational system, the contribution of the private sector remains a most important element.

But the societal significance of open education was best expressed by Siegfried Herzog, resident representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines, during the forum when he said:

“Remember, knowledge is power. Whenever access to knowledge is restricted, there is an issue of power behind it – a ruling elite will control knowledge in order to maintain power. If we truly believe that power should be vested in people, not in elites, anything that increases access to knowledge and deepening of knowledge is welcome. Open education is thus not just a nifty tool to enhance skills. It is a way to build a freer society.”    

Certainly, open education empowers because it is built upon a platform of collaboration, equal opportunities, and open access to knowledge that could shift the paradigm of conventional educational systems that are perceived to be discriminating.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 30 March 2008 Issue

Congratulations to the hundreds of thousands of Filipino youth who received or will receive their diplomas in various graduation rites this month of March and next month after completing their elementary, secondary or tertiary education for school year 2007-2008.

Special kudos to James Soriano and the rest of the Ateneo High School Batch 2008 as they officially bid farewell to high school life today.

Former US President John F. Kennedy once reminded his countrymen that “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.” 

US educator Horace Mann, the first great American advocate of public education in the mid-nineteenth century put it in this wise: “Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”

Everywhere in the world, there is no argument that education is a key element in emancipating individuals, families and nations from the bondage of poverty and misery.  This country in fact even ordained in its Constitution to give the highest budgetary priorities in government spending for education.

But it seems that the world, including the Philippines, is merely paying lip service to the vital role of education in human survival and progress.

Some global reports and statistics say that today, there are still 125 million children who never attend school. At least 150 million children of primary age start school but drop out before they read or write. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2007 notes that based on enrolment data, approximately 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world, 57 percent of whom were girls, were not in school in 2005.

One out of four adults in the developing world is illiterate. Nearly a billion people entered the twenty first century unable to read a book or sign their names. A child in Mozambique is fortunate to go to school for two to three years while European or American child spends at least seventeen years of formal education.

And yet, according to the magazine, New Internationalist, less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it never happened.

In the Philippines, the enrolment ratio of children going to school seems high. Most of them though are in the public school system presumably because most families are unable to afford the exorbitant costs of private education. In fact, less than 20% of Filipino children are enrolled in private schools. And this aggravates the perennial predicament on the inadequacy of classroom and academic facilities, books, and qualified and competent teachers that necessitate huge public spending allocation every year. Worse, it is perceived, and the perception is most likely true, that there is a great disparity between the quality of education between private schools and public schools. 

The irony of it all is that the country’s educational system graduates hundreds of thousand of students every year many of whom obviously appear undeserving of the diplomas that they hang in the walls of their homes. It is a case of education for diploma’s sake and not for learning’s sake. Thus, it is no coincidence that the country still nurses a high rate of underemployment and unemployment. Filipinos use their diplomas simply as a passport to get a job period. Never mind if their employment is not necessarily what they prepared for after at least fourteen years in school.

Education does not guarantee success, wealth or fame. Education offers only the hope and the preparation for the attainment of human aspirations at the very least. In the scheme of things, getting educated is certainly most important than just having a diploma. 

The poverty of education looms. The world would not afford to have tomorrow’s parents and leaders out of today’s uneducated children and educated derelicts.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 10 June 2007 Issue

It is self-evident that nothing is permanent in this world except change. Ironically, some public concerns in Philippine society today remain either stagnant or perennial. Or perhaps, there were changes but for the worse.

Heavy traffic in the metropolis. Some would say that heavy traffic is actually a sign of progress. It could be true.  But if one closely analyses the bad traffic condition in major thoroughfares, there is actually only the lack of discipline on the part of drivers and pedestrians to blame. Traffic rules and regulations are certainly one of the most violated laws in this country. The strict imposition of traffic discipline would probably solve at least half of the problem.

Tax evasion. The most honest and faithful taxpayers in this country are the ordinary wage income earners.  It is simply because they do not have the flexibility or the schemes to avoid paying their taxes. Taxes are automatically withheld by their employers every time they receive their pay. Unfortunately, paying the right taxes is the least concern of those who could afford to pay and should pay more because they think they have all the legal ammunition to cover their violations. And government lacks the adequate resolve, resources and manpower to run after them. If caught, tax violators know that it is easier and practical to settle amicably and privately than to follow the rules.

Diminishing access to good education.  There is no argument that education is vital to national progress. But every school year, the country has the same concern of lack of classrooms, teachers, and books in public schools, where access to education is supposedly free. There is no telling, on the other hand, when tuition fee increases in private schools, would stop even momentarily. Thousands of private schools mushroomed all over the country over the years because it is one big business. Many parents entice their children in courses where they could easily land a job abroad after graduation. The focus of education in this country is simply employment and not entrepreneurship. Sometimes even the quest for knowledge becomes secondary. The net effect is tens of thousands of Filipino youth graduate every year from many diploma mills.
 
Rising costs of fuel and utilities. The promise of the oil deregulation law is lower prices of fuel. But as they say promises are made to be broken. Oil companies usually blame the high peso-dollar exchange rate for their upward price adjustments for their imported fuel products. And when fuel prices are high, the increased cost of utilities and prices of commodities usually follow. Now that the peso is performing very well against the dollar, prices of fuel continue to upsurge even more.  This sounds illogical, if not irrational.

Electoral fraud. When former President Ramon Del Fierro Magsaysay ran for the presidency in 1953 he knew fully well that the “birds and the gees” voted in Lanao province in Mindanao.  Fifty four years later, they still do but this time in many part of the country.

Lack of a good public health care system. One commercial ad described this issue aptly in the vernacular – “Getting sick is prohibited”. The cost of medicine and hospitalization is becoming more prohibitive and would make an ordinary Filipino want to just die instantly. Social security is weak, benefits are low, and many complain of red tape. Public clinics and hospitals are in a pitiful state. Thus, the drug market is now flooded with herbal medicines and vitamins. But even these supposed preventive and alternative medicines are getting costlier.
 
Graft and corruption. This is the same old problem that continues to hound every political administration since time immemorial to the point that a public discussion of the matter already sounds corny.  

There are other perennial problems confronting Juan and Maria de la Cruz like squatters, beggars in the street, unemployment, and human rights violations.

But who really cares?