The sad state of our educational system

The 2013 Bar Exam results are out and what a dismal record for all the law schools all over the country, where only 949 examinees passed out of 5,343 who took it. This is the second lowest passing grade in history. The Supreme Court even brought down the passing average from 75% to 70%, otherwise the figure would have been a historic low for our law schools. How embarrassing! Am I surprised? Not really! There is no doubt that education in this country has hit the bottom of the rung and that’s because we don’t see any reforms.

Take the case of the untimely death of KristelTejada, a 16-year-old University of the Philippines (UP) Manila student who took her own life because her parents could not pay her tuition fee. Thus, she was forced to take a leave of absence. Yet despite that leave of absence, she continued to attend her classes so she wouldn’t miss anything. But the school forced her to surrender her school ID, and that was the last straw. She got depressed and committed suicide. Now the students are up in arms in righteous indignation.

What is wrong with our educational system? Everything! Education in this country has been on a perilous downslide in the past 20 years… but this is the first time ever that we have heard of a student committing suicide because she was not allowed to finish her schooling despite laws that ordained a socialized tuition fee for state universities.

The Filipino people ought to wake up to the present realities that despite the nearly three years of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III, he has not solved the problems of this country. If there is anything he is very good at… it is in blaming others for the problems plaguing his administration.

But the whole truth is, Pres. Aquino’s educational policies have only worsened the situation. Despite his administration’s supposed concern for the poor, the victims of the ineptitude of the Aquino government are the poor themselves. If only Kristel got P10,000 from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, she would have not taken her own life. Now it is too late for the poor girl. What a sad state for our educational system.

However, there are a lot more students studying in schools that are not state owned and I’m sure they too are suffering the same symptoms of poverty that caused Kristel to kill herself. But ask yourself, are we still a “diploma-oriented” people? Why is it that when I open the Sunday pages of our national and local newspapers, there are so many jobs available? Could it be that these jobs are only for highly-skilled workers?

The Business Outsourcing Process (BPO) industry is a good example. They don’t really care if you are a college graduate for as long as your speak good English and can be understood when you speak. May I suggest that we should not allow KristelTejada to die in vain and it is high time to look again at the needed reforms of our educational system, not just from the point of view of the academe, but also from the point of view of our business and industry leaders so that we can produce the workers for the waiting jobs that are available. Its called matching courses to work that are available.

But since PNoycame to power, all we heard from him is noise about solving our problems with corruption, noise about exterminating poverty and noise about good governance, while at the same time, putting the blame on his predecessor or anyone else, but himself. All this senseless talk by the President is nothing but hot air. Worst of all, PNoy is failing in our foreign relations because he just can’t handle the problem on hand. PNoy better shape up before it is too late!

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I fully agree with comebackingsenatoriable Richard “Dick” Gordon who questioned the Aquino regime, why all of the sudden, Pres. PNoy held a commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor Island, when that bloody incident that happened 45 years ago was still an unsolved crime. If you looked back at the start of this year, no one and I mean no one even talked about the Sabah claim of the Philippines as the Scarborough Shoal was permeating the national consciousness.

Suddenly the Aquino regime called for the commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre. What’s going on here? Is this another Aquino propaganda in order for the President to show that his heart is for the fallen Muslims? But as we said, that was so long ago. PNoy was still a child. Why can’t he feel sympathy for the Muslim Tausugs who were killed by the Malaysian Forces in Sabah? Aren’t they Filipinos too? While Pres. Aquino is in a celebratory mood, why don’t we also commemorate the Mendiola or even the Luisita massacre, which has a commonality with the Jabidah massacre as infamous unsolved crimes in this country? What we do not need is hot air!

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