Education frees the people (1)

My column two weeks ago elicited some heartening responses, kind people who want to help. And a Department of Education that seems to have its heart in the right place, if not the money to pump it. Robert Chan of Atlanta Industries donated 160 new desks. David Du of Caliraya Springs Golf Resort sent in his electricians to determine what was needed to make the electrical system safe, and working. And compiled a list of those needs. William Belo of Wilcon Depot (a hardware store I visit, and spend money in weekly) agreed to supply those materials plus toilets, sinks, and plumbing materials to bring some decency into that area. My good friend Johnson Ongking is providing all the Boysen paint they’ll need to have the school looking like new. My thanks to them.

The Department of Education responded too. Secretary Briones wrote me a very positive response detailing the activities being undertaken to address the shortcomings I raised. Apparently there is a fund for minor repairs and maintenance that each school principal receives. Maybe, though, it’s too limited. Understandable when Congress doesn’t agree to all the funds requested. The Deped has been able to construct some 120,000 new classrooms and renovate about 70,000. But this is only half of what they have. And no doubt most of those need improvement too.

Article XlV section 5.5 of the 1987 Constitution stipulates that “the State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.” Well that isn’t happening is it.

One thing DepEd MUST do is provide at least two fire extinguishers in every school, otherwise they’re guilty of manslaughter should a fire breakout.

In a sensible move the DepEd is prioritizing ‘Last Mile Schools,’ a program that will improve schools either farthest from town centers, or those with makeshift/non-standard rooms, without electricity, or those without repairs/new construction projects in the last four years.

I’ve been involved in two other schools for a long time. One of them is up in Bulacan.

Believe it, or not (you who know me) I have a friend who’s an Irish priest, Jim Teeling. He came to the Philippines and saw the lost children, those without a mum and dad. So in 1997 he opened an orphanage, Ateneo Casa Familia, with his own money. Two dormitories for 20 boys and 20 girls, and built a school around them.

Today it’s a whole block in a town in Bulacan with 500 orphans and poor all the way from primary to collage. It teaches not just the four R’s, but trades from welding to computer technology, practical skills to make children job-ready. A sign in the schools says “Education Frees the People.”

The other I support is a school called ATRIEV. It’s a school for the blind where two enterprising young people, Tony Llanes and Carol Catacutan, both blind, decided to help others like them. Many years ago I was at a presentation they participated in where they brought a young lady on stage and she typed. She was blind, I was touched, so I helped.

They teach the blind to type, then seek jobs for them. One call center, Sitel, employs them to monitor calls, and type a report. They transcribe all my speeches. Transferring oral to written is what they can do. We need job openings for them. They are talented young people trying to make a better life for themselves.

As I turn 80 (on Monday) helping young people start off their lives properly educated so that it will be a decent, fulfilling life is an important task. Education breaks poverty.

Going beyond that, where I’m equally concerned is how we teach, and what we teach. Teaching is going to have to change, and it’s going to have to be split into two: One style for those who will capture the world of the fourth revolution, and those who’ll just need a job.  For that latter group, the curriculum of today provides all that is needed. But for those who’ll be taking up the challenge of the IT world, a vastly different system will be needed.

To be continued

E-mail: wallace_likeitis@wbf.ph