Enrolment problems ranging from late enrollees to transferees hounded the opening of classes on Monday, when some 25.7 million students from kindergarten through high school returned to public and private high schools nationwide.
It was the first class opening for the Aquino administration, whose Department of Education (DepEd) is grappling with inherited shortages in critical resources, including teachers, classrooms, textbooks, seats and toilets.
As it happened, a group of 50 teachers, still in uniform, trooped to the DepEd central office in Pasig City to protest the introduction of K+12, a costly universal kindergarten program, amid yet unresolved problems including the low wages of educators. (Inquirer.net)
These unsettling realities would seep into our cores since we were students before. How could a young kid learn something while sweating buckets of perspiration while he is sitting on the floor? How could a teacher mill-around to do the process-checking when he himself could not move around since the classroom is filled with wriggling bodies?
With the onslaught of 5-year-olds for the K+12 Program of the Department of Education and the inconsistencies of the salaries given to the (untrained) pre-school teachers, one could really wonder about the intellectual destination of our young. With the influx of gadgets and availability of on-line cafes around, which child psychologists point as one of this generation’s major distractions, we could also see that the kids are into things which they could not use in real life. Could they communicate well if they’re into DOTA? Could they really perform deep analyses since they know how to do Counterstrike? Maybe…
The government must do something. The painful thing is that almost all the mistakes would be pointed to the president and other leaders. That could be another unsettling reality. Since the state is created for its people, then everyone could almost put the blame to the government. This was probably one reason why P-Noy hesitated to run for the presidency. In fact, he went for a retreat somewhere in Mindanao to be enlightened. But majority of Filipinos pushed and voted him to office with Cory’s charisma as an add-on… It was indeed a sacrifice on his part for now even his relationships and his nicotine addiction are newsworthy.
Again, what would become of our educational system? There’s the 4 P’s of the DSWD where critics term as dole-outs. Government subsidies are given to poor families and a portion of the grant must be for the kids’ education. But some parents won’t go the school to pay their dues. Some would try to experience being one-day millionaires once they receive the money in lump.
The brouhaha for the RH Bill is continuing. Some analysts say that this could be one of the alternatives to control the population so that the Philippines won't be in future limbo. According to them, the more people, the more problems. The more children, the more classrooms to be built, the more textbooks to be produced and the more errors to correct. But the church is waging war against the issue since its stand is Pro-Life. It considers the bill as anti-life.
Because of these chains of confusion, others would resort to drown in DEADMA and LET IT BE and WHO CARES.
For us teachers, we could squeeze in more students inside our classrooms; damage our vocal chords so to be heard; arm ourselves with anti-TB medicine; think about being a caregiver; go on for more loans... or resign from being one. In the end, only the willing to serve endures...
Welcome back to school.
(photo:uk.reuters.com)
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