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VISITING our town market midweek last week to buy
freshly harvested pineapple, I came upon a mother and daughter who
were selling vegetables and fruits and some root crops. The daughter
was about 11 years old, and should have been in school, but that she
was not invited my curiosity. When I asked why, the mother promptly
replied that they could not afford to have two kids in school. The
girl’s kid brother was the one in grade one.
“Daghan man bayranan [Many
things to pay for],” she said pointing to the fact that not only
would they be contributing monthly for maintenance of school
amenities, but also to pay a counterpart of the salary of teachers
who are hired by the local school board, and are not in the national
budget. This is on top of contributions for classroom repairs,
purchase of supplies the school is unable to provide, as well as the
monthly bill for light and water.
I understand that since these
extra assessments are not envisioned in the constitutional mandate
to provide free primary and secondary education to the youth, the
education department has generated a convenient pipeline to work
around the mandate. Last week, being a guardian to half a dozen kids
enrolled in the town’s elementary and high schools, I was invited
to attend the first meeting of the year for parents.
As usual, the agenda was
dominantly about the need for the parents to cooperate with the
school, and help out with financial contributions to purchase
whatever was needed to make the school operate efficiently. There
are school needs that the government is unable to provide, and hence
the parents are asked to pitch in. Why, for instance, are school
children asked to pay P50 a month for the study and use of the
computer?
The school authorities have been
into this practice for many years now, and it is time for us to
pause and ponder how this circumstance had come about.
What has the government of the
Republic done to strengthen the country’s educational system and
fulfill the constitutional command to give each citizen free primary
and secondary education, and grant each person an equal opportunity
for advancement.
Right now, where I come from,
there are still school children in mountain barangays that have
nothing but the shade of mango and acacia trees for classrooms, or
are having classes under makeshift bamboo and nipa roofs of frail
structures that serve as a wall-less classroom in open low hillside
school ground. In many a rural school, children’s parents
automatically become members of the association that meets regularly
to talk about the school needs.
Thus it is, that the cost of
maintaining the schools in the countryside are partly shouldered by
the parents of schoolchildren, confirming the fact that the reported
assertion of free primary and secondary education in the country is
more of a myth than a reality. And so, need we wonder why there is
an increasing number of Filipinos of school age who are out of
school? The answer to the query lies in the hands of our national
leaders.
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