Quality education costs money

The television camera focused on this placard in a student demonstration against tuition fee increases which read: Quality education first before tuition fee increases. My initial reaction was to wonder if these students know what they are asking for. Quality education costs money. It isn't even a chicken and egg situation. You simply must invest money first in order to have a chance at quality education.

Then again, I thought that perhaps, local schools, colleges and universities are getting what they deserve. They have failed to make their students think logically all these years. They have given their students a diploma mill type of education, which is why skepticism has taken hold. Students and their parents doubt they are getting value for money.

The quality of Philippine education has indeed skidded dramatically. We used to be a center for learning for the region. Students from as far as the Middle East come here to get college degrees and do graduate work. A trickle still come but we have lost our reputation. Singapore and Malaysia have taken the lead, with branches of world class universities establishing campuses there. Thailand isn't doing badly either. Hong Kong is getting recognized.

In contrast, even our top universities fail to make it among the top 10 in regional surveys. Mostly, we don't do well in faculty development or provision of research facilities. Faculty-to-student ratios are also not too competitive. Indeed, local diplomas are good only for local employment. Filipinos going abroad find out that they have to take additional studies and tests to qualify internationally.

In fairness to our educators, we are giving them a pretty short leash. We want quality education but are not ready to pay for it. And when educators try to improve efficiency with what they have, they get into trouble with the labor sector. This is what happened to the administration at Miriam College when they tried to cut down on operation costs by contracting some non academic functions.

I am sure Miriam College isn't the only one facing a problem like this. It is a non-profit foundation so that profits do not even enter the picture. They may have made a modest positive balance in their past year's operations, but I doubt if they generate enough surplus funds to finance needed capital investments to improve the learning experience. Filipino alumni are not yet known to be generous givers of endowment funds, which enable universities abroad to make ends meet and more.

Under our circumstances, I can understand why they want to contract out janitorial services. It doesn't make sense to pay more than market rates for this kind of service, which happens when annual pay increases and benefits add up for long serving employees. We simply have to give our educational institutions, specially those known to give serious effort towards academic excellence, a little more slack. I agree that the for profit colleges and universities should be more strictly regulated by government. But let us also remember that we get what we pay for. We lose our right to complain about quality if we refuse to allow them the resources they need to give us just that.

Open skies

There are reports that the United States is once again trying to convince our government to adopt an open sky policy. We have heard the pros and cons of the issue once too often. I doubt if opening our sky to all comers will really increase the number of tourists going to our country as much as it will cannibalize the traffic that rightfully belongs to our flag carriers.

If the purpose is tourism promotion, maybe we should consider declaring Cebu open to all airlines that care to come. For that matter, Davao, Zamboanga and Laoag could be opened for tourism promotion purposes. We have seen that the area with the best tourism potential is the Visayan islands of Cebu, Bohol and Boracay and foreign tourists can be brought directly there, bypassing Manila. Laoag, on the other hand, has the potential of becoming the Boracay of the North because of Pagudpud.

In any case, Manila is not a viable tourist destination. There is nothing much in terms of things to see and even then, the traffic jams will prevent tourists from enjoying places like Intramuros and Fort Santiago. Tourist destinations in nearby provinces, like Pagsanjan, take too much time to reach. Given our limited resources to promote tourism, we are better off concentrating our effort to promote the beaches of the Visayas and Ilocos.

I understand a recent study by a respected management consultancy group found out that our beaches are our prime tourist attractions. By all means, let us promote them and let us make sure there are facilities there and that they are safe. We don't want Boracay to get a sleazy image where peace and order could be a problem. Surely, it isn't too much to ask our PNP to ensure the safety of one small island. Or is it?

Human body

This one is from reader Chito Santos.

Three engineering students were discussing the possible designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints."

Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections."

The last said, "Actually it was a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area!"

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is bchanco@bayantel.com.ph)