Our future rests mostly on the quality of education

The cost of everything is going up and that includes education. If we don’t allow private schools to lift their tuition fees, the quality of education may continue to go down. The problem is even when tuition fees go up, the quality of education still goes down.

We have always said that the first freedom is not freedom of speech and expression and the freedom from fear and want. The very first freedom is freedom from ignorance. If you give a man freedom of speech and he is not educated, what is he going to say that will be worth noting? Freedom from ignorance is attained through education. British essayist, William Hazlitt once said that "the love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves." We can see the truth of his saying by observing the actions of our politicians. Sad to say, we have too many politicians but very few statesmen. They run for office not to serve the people but to satisfy their individual wants.

The quality of education depends on the quality of people we put first in the Department of Education and in our leading universities and colleges. We are happy to note that the University of Santo Tomas is the oldest university in Asia. It was the friars that played the leading role in the education of our people. Later, the government took over. Up to now, most of our leading universities and colleges were established by different religious orders. The University of the Philippines began only during the American regime.

Traditionally, the Department of Education has always gotten the lion’s share of the national budget. This is because everyone benefits from education. Everyone’s future depends mostly on one’s education. When an individual reaches a certain age, he is either a person of consequence or an inconsequential person. And what determines his status rests mainly on his education. It is our education that opens the door to opportunities. The best thing we can give our children is the very best education. You cannot take one’s education away from an individual. If you leave money to your children, they can lose that money. But education is something that cannot be taken away from a person and is one of the things that determine his values and character.

The world is now a global village and we hope to see the day when television become one of the main media for education. Now, it is mainly for entertainment.