Philippine Education and Democratic Governance

Reaction Paper: Philippine Education and Democratic Governance

According to a blogger, Education is a long term solution to the problems that we face. That's why we have to be extremely careful about the decisions that we make regarding this because the effects would ripple through generations. The Philippine education problems, I believe, remains unchanged. There are a lot of classrooms that is not conducive for learning. Also, the quality of education is inadequate. There are not enough textbooks for everybody. Even teacher are out-numbered especially in mountain barangays. The hottest in issue in Education is the increase of tuition fees in many colleges and universities. Some students are unable to proceed to tertiary level because of lack of money. With the increase of tuition fees, a lot more students will find it hard to continue college and pursue their students. The face of education today is becoming a business. The increase of tuition fee is one of the things, I may say, why education is becoming a business. Another are some miscellaneous fees of students in which some are not relevant to their schooling. Also, the projects are getting more expensive in which some will not be compulsory but is a must. This is one of the characteristics of education. It has turned into a commercialist way. The students are supposed to have a free education. Because some don’t even know about their rights, they are being blinded by people holdingthe institution. If one wants to learn, one must bring the money down.

Another characteristic of education today is being a colonialist. The moment we first learn the alphabets, we are taught that ‘A’ is for Apple and not Atis. Apples are not made here in the Philippines. The education in the Philippines is American standard. It is advantageous to people living in the city because they would be able to understand the English language easily. But come to think of it, they are more than 300 local languages in the Philippines, some are even indigenous and it will a lot harder to them. English is a competitive language, I agree to that. But thinking that not all are educated and well-trained to speak in English. If we use our own language in understanding things, it will be easier and convenient to many.

Because we are trained to be globally competitive, the first thing that goes to our mind is to go to abroad. Because of this, the economy of the Philippines will not be able to boom. BPO industry is one of the reasons why the Philippine economy began to raise. Come to think of it, it’s not even a stable job. Only last month, there are 300 employers in that industry who are jobless right now because their company has stopped its operation. The country cannot rely much to that. Plus, the medium is English. How can one justify to that?

The last characteristic of education is being fascist. Fascism is a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control. Philippines is a democratic country. But still that people are being slaves on their freedom. In what way? First is in an institution. The students can’t react much in their teachers. Some are even afraid to reason out to their teacher. But because students are being taught that they are teacher and one can’t just easily express their ideas, their mouths are kept shut. Another is the enslavement of Filipino in other country. A lot of parents, especially the mother, are forced to work abroad because there to sustain their families needs. If only the government has enough jobs for them, they would not have to fly outside the country and work hard there.

The problems of the country are all connected. The moment we go to school and work after graduation are just related to each other. The problems one encounters is the same as the other one. If education was more mass-oriented, nationalistic and scientific, people don’t have to suffer this hard. The effect of education is the answer to the country’s economic problem. Because student’s mindset is already to work abroad after graduation, the problem in the country remains unsolved. Recently, the country implemented the K-12 program which covers kindergarten to 12 years of basic education. With the help of this program, it will prepare graduates for development, employment and entrepreneurship. It became a burden to some parents because they have to pay more for the fees at school. Some agrees to it because the student will be able to get a work even he/she will not go to college. There are a lot of opinions to tackle, but the big question is would the government be able to attain the given goal of this program?

According to a columnist, Education is the key that unlocks the door to all life has to compromise. The question is, does one have the proper education? One may have gone to school and be able to learn something, but a concern citizen will try to think critically to what the problem of their country is facing.