EDITORIAL - Rizal’s dream

As classes start in all schools, we are seeing images once again of children without desks or classrooms. One picture showed students seated on the floor of a school hallway as they wrote down the day’s lessons. The hallway is an improvement; at least there is a roof. Elsewhere in the county, it’s still common to see classes being held in the shade of trees in a schoolyard.

The lack of classrooms is just one of the many problems besetting the education system. A hundred years ago, national hero Dr. Jose Rizal had preached that education, not revolution was the key to national progress. Over a century after his execution, his compatriots are still not focused on the urgent need to give every Filipino quality education.

The 144th birth anniversary of Rizal is marked today with Filipinos preoccupied with another revolt of sorts rather than education. Primary and secondary schools are churning out graduates who keep failing qualifying exams for higher grades despite depressingly low passing scores. Tertiary education is just as bad. A number of colleges and universities whose graduates keep flunking professional licensure exams cannot be shut down by the government without some politician posing objections.

As in other government agencies, corruption plagues the education department, affecting many aspects of education from the appointment of teachers to the production of textbooks. In public schools there is an acute shortage of textbooks, and the few that are available are often riddled with errors. When a concerned citizen raises an alarm, pointing out glaring errors even in the titles of books, the red-faced National Book Development Board attacks his credentials instead of focusing on correcting the mistakes. Malacañang should be reviewing the performance of the book board, but much of the energy of the administration is currently devoted to its survival amid allegations of corruption and poll fraud.

Rizal saw how the suppression of mass education during the Spanish colonial era seriously impeded Filipinos’ progress. Educated in the best schools in Manila and Europe, he was the prime example of what a Filipino could achieve, given world-class education. Rizal dreamed of providing that kind of education to his compatriots. Over a century after his death, his dream remains unrealized.