Time to invest big in education

We have heard a lot of pleas for voters to think of the nation’s future during the just-concluded election season. Now that we are supposed to get back to normal, whatever that might be, it is time to think what it would take to assure this nation’s future.

I say, we have to think big in terms of investing on education. And I mean, not just the government but the private sector as well. If we just shrugged our shoulders and say that education is the government’s job, we will end up sacrificing our future and even our present. It is to the interest of private business to be most creative, most proactive in supplementing, if not supplanting in some cases, government efforts to educate our best and our brightest who can’t afford the quality education that would benefit them and the country.

I was surfing the Internet during the election break and came across a number of stories about the problems now being faced by India in the outsourcing business. Despite the fact that India graduates a lot more college educated technicians every year than we do, they are running out of qualified staff to handle the fast growing offshore outsourcing business.

As a result, the cost of qualified staff has started to go up significantly. The piracy of talent has become so bad that the big guns of India’s Silicone Valley had to agree among themselves that they would not pirate from each other. Still, market forces prevail and the best talents go to the highest bidder. If the situation worsens, given that India can’t produce trained manpower much faster, the cost of outsourcing to India would no longer be significant for American clients in terms of cost savings.

That is probably why there are a number of big Indian outsourcing ventures that have invested here. While that is good news for us, the good news is not likely to last for very long. We are also reaching the limits of trained manpower to fill the jobs being opened up in the outsourcing business. Even in the low end side of the business, like call centers, I am told that as high as nine out of 10 applicants are rejected and those hired must undergo massive retraining.

Proficiency in English is just one of the attributes our college graduates is fast losing. Science and technical education, including computer skills, are not exactly in large abundance among our jobseekers. While we may invest in remedial education for those who are already supposed to be in the workforce but are unable to find jobs, we must make sure that the next generations are taken cared of from Grade One.

What I have in mind is something like what the Ayala Foundation is now implementing in just two public schools – the Centex project. The two Centers for Excellence launched a few years ago, started with very bright but poor pupils in Grade One. Every year, one new class is added until such time as we will have six grades of Centex scholars who can then go on to one of the science high schools and for college at the UP.

When my daughter Trishy was doing her practice teaching at a Grade One class in Balara Elementary School, she noticed that a few of the pupils were really very bright. She felt that their talents were being wasted in a class of 80 pupils, most of whom need remedial help in arithmetic, reading and writing. Because she also did practice teaching in her home turf at Miriam College, she knew that the best in Balara can compare with the best in Miriam, if there was a program that saw to their education and, yes, giving them a proper breakfast and nutrition in general.

There are many programs out there that are designed to help improve public education. ABS-CBN Foundation has for over 10 years now, been producing programs that have been proven to help improve learning in our public elementary schools. The Knowledge Channel Foundation of SkyCable has cabled and distributed television sets to thousands of public schools nationwide to deliver not only the programs of ABS-CBN Foundation, but also other educational programs produced abroad.

But we need to do more, and by this I mean propagate the Centex concept a little more widely. The business sector should think of adopting elementary schools, one each company, and introduce the Centex concept that would take care of the bright but poor pupils. I am sure the Ayala people would be only too glad to share their knowledge and experience to sponsoring companies.

Other than Centex, there is also the effort of Ambassador Precious Soliven to introduce the Montessori method of teaching young children in poorer communities. This effort of Mrs. Soliven goes back many many years. She wanted to make a point of spreading the benefits of the Montessori system to children everywhere, not just among the well-to-do communities. Perhaps, this missionary effort can use a lot of push from the business sector as their contribution to a nationwide effort to invest in our future.

Maybe even professional groups can adopt classes. This would put their money where their do-gooding mouths are. Because Jojo Binay has taken good care of the public school system in Makati, the Makati Business Club can adopt a school elsewhere, maybe in Pasay or Taguig. Smart Communications can adopt a school in Payatas and call it a Smart School. Nestlé can do the same in Cabuyao and Cagayan de Oro. The federation of Chinese businessmen can go beyond building school houses and go to the meat of it all.

This way, the business sector can be directly involved in this civic project and see the progress being attained. This is better than paying your taxes and just letting government do the job, which isn‘t likely to be done. In the end, the business sector benefits in terms of better trained manpower available for them.

Let us also not forget teacher training. Corporations as well as foreign donor agencies can do much in this area by undertaking regional teacher training. Money should be spent to benefit more teachers in the field rather than send a few abroad, who may not come back anyway. We need to improve the quality of our teachers because Centex type programs only take care of the bright pupils, the vast majority must still get better education than they do now. And that’s only possible with better trained teachers.

The education of our people is now the most urgent need that both government and the private sector must somehow meet. Education is at the base of any viable economic development program that would relieve the tremendous social pressures bearing upon all of us now. The private sector association of foundations, set to have their annual meeting again soon, must focus on this problem and help get us going again.

History Lesson

Now, here’s Dr. Ernie E.

Teacher: "In our history lesson you learned that George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but he also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didn’t punish him?"

Student: "Because George still had the ax in his hand?"

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])