We are all aware of a number of private schools that have emerged, the main objective of which has been to engage in the business of education, to earn a profit and make sure that the institution’s financial statements are always on the positive side of profit. Quite a number of business plans of the school have, as an underlying factor, the profit consideration.
We are also aware of the deplorable state of the Philippine public school system. We view with alarm the conclusions that there is a decreasing trend in the allocation of the national budget for basic education, though enrollment in our public schools has been on the rise, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that there is a drastic need to spend more money for the more than 42,000 public schools in the country.
According to the Stratbase Report, for the second quarter of 2005, Public Affairs and Research Consultancy Group of the Strategic Research Institute: "The goal should be to establish a complete elementary school in every barangay, and a complete high school in every town. There is a need to pursue a massive school building program nationwide, which entails the release of P18.8 billion to address a backlog in classrooms nationwide of more than 51,000. Also, if we are to live up to international standards for the school year 2005-2006, backlogs in book printing, desk manufacturing, and teacher hiring are all immediate needs. P1 billion is needed to purchase the backlog in books, yet only P809 million is budgeted. School desks are also badly needed. The backlog is 4.56 million desks, yet the P1 billion budget allocation can cover merely an estimated 1.5 million. The most crucial need would be the hiring of additional teachers. P970 million had been allocated for the hiring of 10,000 teachers; the official records of the Department of Education indicate a need for 38,535."
The figures appear huge, but the task of addressing this problem is absolutely necessary. And when you look at the huge amounts allocated for the pork barrel fund, you begin to wonder whether education is indeed a priority of our leaders.
God blessed me with parents that could send me to the excellent private Catholic school that SSC is, one that gives nothing short of the best to her students. For a hundred years now, SSC has given not only the best education possible, but that particular dimension of Benedictine missionary presence of social justice and social activism, the so-called Education for Justice that has influenced the Scholastican’s growth.
It has never been a business for St. Scholastica. It’s been a mission of excellence!
On Sept. 14, 1906, five brave German nuns from the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in Germany arrived in Manila Bay, and hardly four months after, set up a small classroom at Moriones St. in Tondo for six paying students and 50 scholars. It also saw the first Holy Mass celebrated by the Apostolic Delegate, Msgr. Ambrosius Agius OSB. On Oct. 7 the next year, Sr. Baptiste Battig OSB commenced music lessons using a second-hand piano. SSC became a pioneer in the establishment of formal music education in the country. The SSC Conservatory of Music was born, at the same time that high school admission began.
On Dec. 24 of the same year, the enrollment became so large, the Archbishop of Manila Jeremias Harty offered the nuns a new site, and on Christmas Eve, they moved to a bigger lot at 134 San Marcelino St. Government recognition was granted and SSC was born, and the sisters began their commitment to the educational apostolate. Due to even greater demand, seven years after, also on Christmas Eve, Archbishop Harty offered SSC a large church site on 1532 Pennsylvania Ave. (now Leon Guinto St.), and at early dawn, SSC moved to the newly constructed building. At the inauguration, Governor Francis Burton Harrison was a special guest.
When World War II broke out, SSC was sealed off as "property of the Japanese Imperial Forces." Parts of the school were converted into a hospital, and the nuns opened their gates to all seeking refuge. On Valentine’s Day 1945, however, an incendiary bomb set St. Cecilia’s Conservatory of Music on fire. The Sisters escaped injury, but all buildings were razed to the ground. SSC had to close, but reconstruction was finished two years after. SSC thus re-opened and pursued her goals with greater dedication and vigor – the education of "finished women of character."
It was at SSC where I first was given a lesson on the value of truth by Sr. Elia OSB, my English teacher, who always said, "God is in my heart, yet thou searchest for Him in the wilderness."
An important year for SSC was 1975, during Marcos’ martial rule, where the Benedictine sisters in the Philippines, under the leadership of Mother Prioress Irene Dabalus OSB, made a declaration of their strong commitment to social justice and adopted the theme "Education for Justice" amid the harshness of the Marcos dictatorship.
This was capped in 1985, in commemoration of its decade of social orientation through the initiative of now Mother Prioress, Mary John Mananzan, by the introduction of programs to promote a keen awareness of women’s issues. An introductory course in women’s studies was incorporated in all academic programs in the college department and this soon led to the establishment of the Institute of Women’s Studies, an effort my late mother was involved in, she having four Scholastican daughters. Soon thereafter, SSC ventured into frontier work in eco-feminism with a model farm in Mendez, Cavite.
I was thrilled when I was given the Pax Award that year I resigned from the Estrada government in disgust, and joined the parliament of the streets. The next year, Clarissa Ocampo, star witness par excellence, received the award. In humility, I stand proud to be in the company of women I admire: the first woman-president of our country President Cory Aquino, and the first woman Supreme Court justice, Cecilia Munoz-Palma.
At a lunch recently presided over by Sr. Angelica Leviste, OSB, herself a Pax Awardee and honorary chair of the SSC centennial committee, and Ma. Angela "Gigi" Prats, president of the SSC Alumnae Association, I witnessed again a microcosm of the Scholastican woman.
Gigi has a master’s degree in Aviation from the Westminster University in London where she studied Air Transport Development, a unique achievement for a woman. Together with Louie Agnir-Paraan, an English professor at the school, Charlie Azcuna and Lala Castillo, as well as Sr. Angelica, they make up the Centennial Excom.
I was thrilled all over again that I was a Scholastican just as I was gratified and happy to be in the company of dedicated Scholasticans, like Rosemary M. Rodriguez, exemplary wife and mother to nine accomplished children; Opat Labrador-Hermano, vibrant and chic as always, interior designer par excellence; Jenet Bautista-Zulueta, a former student of mine at Assumption, still looking like a young student; Precious Soliven who brought Montessori education to the Philippines; Sonia Ner, Elsa Mapua, and Elaine Decena.
Sr. Angelica read out to me who the Scholastican is – one who thinks, judges, acts constantly and consistently according to right reason, illuminated by the light, example, and teachings of Jesus Christ … a true finished woman of character, earning multiple distinctions and exceptional recognition for their excellence in their chosen fields of endeavor. I could not help but think that everyone at the lunch was indeed a Scholastican in the true sense.
On Dec. 3, 2006 will be the grand alumnae centennial homecoming where, at the dinner, a program will be held and the "100 Outstanding Alumnae Awards" given.
Yes, indeed, my alma mater is about to be a hundred years old, and I am thoroughly glad that I obtained my elementary and high school education at SSC. Just as my heart feels heavy that there are many young men and women who have to get theirs from a public school system the lamentable state of which has become a constant problem denounced by our leaders but never truly rectified. This, by the way, goes to the very soul of the Philippines.