PH the only Southeast Asian country with declining literacy

DURING my college days in the late 1960s, I remember that there were so many Thais studying in Philippine universities and colleges that the Royal Thai Embassy in Manila had to create a student department with a separate location in Taft Avenue, Pasay City, away from its embassy chancery in Makati. That is no longer the case nowadays because with the continuously waning reputation of Philippine schools, young Thais instead now prefer to go to the United States, Australia and other English-speaking countries for their college education.

My first foreign posting as a Foreign Service officer was at the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, and I was there from 1980 to 1984 as third secretary and vice consul. The Landoil Company of the de Venecias had several construction projects in Libya at the time. Later the Libyan government, under Muammar Gaddafi, informed Landoil that it wanted to send at least 2,000 young Libyans to study in Philippine schools. The problem was that the young Libyans hardly spoke any English, and they could not be readily accepted in Philippine schools because of the difference in curricula. But the young Libyans were determined to proceed to the Philippines for their studies, and Landoil had to find a way to have them accommodated. Eventually, a special school exclusively for the Libyans was established in Mariveles, Bataan, and 700 out of the 2,000 were able to travel to the Philippines for their schooling.