Take a bow, parents

End-of-school-year (EOSY) rites, more popularly known as moving up and graduation ceremonies, are taking place in most of the country’s public and private schools this week, and these events hold a special place in the hearts of parents, sometimes more than their children.

Truly, most Filipino heads of the family work hard to get their children through basic, secondary, and tertiary level education, and while many aspire to send them to expensive private schools, income limitations and the high cost of private education often curtail these dreams.

Still, whether the ceremonies take place on public or private school grounds, parents proudly take their place beside their children for the all-too-important photo- or video-op, to be enthusiastically shared with family and friends almost instantaneously through social media channels.

These EOSY rites signify the huge amount of sacrifices parents have expended, and this does not just mean the monetary cost of sending off a child to school five days a week for the next couple of months (for college or university levels) or the whole academic year (for elementary and high school levels).

For parents who are committed to see their children gain a college degree, the early years of tutelage and coaching are all-important in motivating and laying a good foundation that will ensure consistently good grades and hopefully, graduation from higher education.

Oftentimes, this means following up daily on school work progress, checking on the result of quizzes and tests, monitoring extra-curricular activities, and beyond dutifully attending parent-teacher meetings, personally getting to know homeroom and academic class teachers.

Especially during the primary and secondary education years, parents often shadow what the teachers have done, trying to make sure that their children had fully understood the lessons of the day so that any surprise quiz or test would be answered well.

To these parents, you deserve a big applause.

After-school guidance

Given the kind of public education system we currently have, when teachers are saddled with more than the ideal number of students in a class, the role of parents becomes unmistakably all too important to ensure that the student continues to be motivated to stay in school and do well.

At the end of the day, even as we heap blame on how inferior teaching quality has become or how unsuitable learning principles continue to be in tackling the demands of the future workplace, parents need to act to ensure that their children are able to build on learning skills day after day.

Unfortunately, not all parents are similarly conscientious and enlightened. Often, the excuse is about both the mother and father becoming too busy earning money for basic household needs to bother about providing the after-school education guidance.

Also, many parents are not fully aware of their roles. Sometimes, they had borne children at too young an age, not having fully completed secondary education, and thus fail to appreciate the value of learning. Usually, their own parents mirror this lack of ambition or aspiration to do better.

Poverty indeed is one of the biggest hindrances for children to become better at learning, and the government’s effort at providing social interventions to bring down the country’s poverty levels is well appreciated in that regard.

Many studies have established the fact that children from low-income families, with less involved parents, are at risk of lower academic achievement.

When you have parents and children who do not give enough value to education, this becomes a foil to government efforts in reducing the number of families living in poverty. More importantly, it increases the ranks of the population who are unable to become more productive citizens.

Perhaps it is time for our educators to come up with programs that will institutionalize the role of parents in their children’s education, especially during the formative years. Our already harassed and overburdened public school teachers will only be too happy to welcome such initiatives.

Getting back on track

The current school year in primary and secondary learning represents the first time after three years that actual face-to-face classes have been conducted. Thankfully, fears that such initiative would prolong the public health emergency that caused lockdowns have been laid to rest.

Our education officials can now focus on the more important tasks of bringing back to school those who had dropped out because of reduced family incomes, and more importantly, putting back on track a program designed to raise the education quality in our classrooms.

Let us also not forget that one of the objectives that prompted the Department of Education (DepEd) to shift to the K-to-12 curriculum was to allow students who could not pursue a college degree to build on technical and vocational skills that could quickly pave the way for employment.

Even if not for local jobs, these short courses should open doors for high school graduates to consider overseas work opportunities, which could even provide for higher skills training to allow them to earn better or find other jobs.

Our still rapidly expanding population sadly cannot solely rely on the local market to provide good jobs, and much as our job seekers would want to remain in the country with their family and friends after graduation, the grim reality of a career as a migrant Filipino worker looms large.

In ending today’s column, allow me to congratulate not only the millions of Filipinos who have graduated or moved on to a higher grade, but also their hard-working parents. Despite the distracting political noise of our governance system, the cheerful and optimistic disposition of 110 million Filipinos somehow bodes of better days to come.

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