Shamed by the CNN report on child prisoners

Last Wednesday, I joined the morning session of the Conference of the UNESCO Clubs/ASPnet Fora in the Visayas whose theme is "Towards Lifelong Education for Sustainable Development" led by UNESCO National Commission Secretary General Ambassador Preciosa S. Soliven; Dr. Vilma Labrador, national coordinator for UNESCO Clubs and ASPnet; Dr. Virgilio U. Manzano, national coordinator for teacher training institutions; Mrs. Lucille Gregorio, deputy secretary general; Dr. Ethel Agnes Valenzuela, vice chairwoman of the Education Committee; Mrs. Carmen Padilla, chairwoman of the Culture Committee; and Mrs. Leonarda Camacho, chairwoman of the Science and Technology Committee. Most of the attendees of the conference, held at the University of San Carlos’ Girls High School, were principals, deans and education officials of Regions VII, VI and VIII.

It was my first time to attend a high-level conference on education, especially at this time when we are not only facing a political crisis, but also a crisis on education for the last 20 years and we have yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as the quality of our education is concerned. But the inputs which the principals and deans gave were invaluable and I could sense that they’re so hard-pressed in finding better ways to improve our teaching skills so we can come up with better quality graduates.

I said my piece during the Q & A and, indeed, while the UNESCO motto is "Education for all by the year 2015," this goal has been taken up by many local government units (LGUs) which boast free high schools. But while the LGUs can come up with a school building or infrastructure, the problem is what quality of graduates they are coming out with. Unless they adopt the UNESCO format, like the implementation of a complete system of education where teachers really focus on the needs of the students and set up a formal system and balance it with an alternative learning system, only then can we have a chance in reversing the present trend of having so many high school dropouts throughout the country.

One point of interest during the conference was the question of whether we should allow tuition for public high schools. I’m sure that many parents would oppose this, but if paying tuition assures parents that their children will have a better quality education, why not? Our present system has only produced high school and college graduates who cannot find good jobs because they didn’t learn much during their most formative years in high school.

The best example of this is in the call center industry where call center firms are hard-pressed in searching for applicants who can speak good English. They will hire only those who speak good English because they are the ones who have to be retrained to speak American English... with the slang or twang! It has come to the point where call centers hire anyone at any age. If you’re below 20 years old or above 70 years old, you can be hired if you speak good English. This clearly proves that English taught in our schools hasn’t helped people get jobs in call centers. This is just one example and I’m sure that there are many other examples out there.

There is no question that we already know what’s the problem with our deteriorating educational system... as we have already over-analyzed ourselves into some kind of paralysis. The time for action is now if we are to reverse this ugly trend. Over dinner with Mrs. Soliven, I told her that when I was in school, I truly believed that we, the youth then, were really the "Hope of the Fatherland." Well, I’m already a grandfather to two lovely kids and the situation in the Philippines, whether in politics or education, has become hopeless. Today, the Conference of the UNESCO Clubs/ASPnet Fora will also be held in Davao City. We hope that this forum would trigger some kind of change in the attitude of our principals, deans and professors in whose hands the future of our youth heavily rely on.

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At the UNESCO forum, I also met ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila, a member of the Communications Committee, who spoke about the role of communications in today’s world. During lunch, I told her about the CNN Special Report I saw last Tuesday evening aired by Jim Clancy entitled "Child Prisoners." No doubt, the documentary done by Chris Rogers of ITV News with the help of Fr. Shay Cullen who went covert inside a Manila jail posing as an NGO member helping prisoners, was devastating to the reputation not only of the Philippine government, but to all Filipinos as well... after all, the authority of the government emanates from the people.

Karen Davila told me that she recently did a documentary on "Juvenile Prisoners" which is almost the same as the CNN report. Well, like it or not, this is an issue that will not soon go away. It’s bad enough that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) hasn’t done much to arrest the deteriorating situation in our jails, now we are faced with the reality that we have child prisoners in the same jails as adult offenders.

That CNN Special Report showed many teenage boys aged 13 and 14 and one as young as 11 locked up in jail together with adult criminals, many of them sex offenders or even pedophiles. Some face criminal cases, others are there for no apparent reason, except that they are homeless and found our filthy jails a better place than sleeping in the streets. The only saving grace from that CNN report is that Jim Clancy said this is also happening in Pakistan, Brazil and Indonesia. But because of that documentary, we have been shamed! I hope we fix this problem quickly.

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Today, the Embassy of Canada, together with the University of San Carlos (USC), is having a public forum on the structure, processes and dynamics of the parliamentary and federal forms of government, using the Canadian system as a model. It is entitled "Prospects for Federalism: The Canadian Context" and will be held at the USC main campus from 9 a.m. to l p.m. I hope you can find the time to attend.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.