'Fair hope of our native land'

Lately, we have been too preoccupied with the coming May elections, giving little attention to the graduation ceremonies happening these past weeks. According to IBON Foundation there are 848,000 new and old graduates who will need to be employed but there are only 256,000 job openings available.

With the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) estimating some 542,000 college graduates this year, IBON said an additional 325,000 degree-holding job-seekers will join the labor market. Those who are going to look for work will then be competing with about 523,000 other unemployed graduates as of January 2010, IBON added.

The new graduates are also set to join the 4.3 million jobless Filipinos as of 2009, based on the group’s own estimates. This is about a third higher than the government’s estimate of only 2.8 million jobless Filipinos as of January this year.

The government’s labor department however said unemployment is caused not by the lack of jobs but by the perceived mismatch between skills possessed by the applicants and the demands of employers. Perhaps it’s about time a review should be conducted on the schools’ curriculum, among other things, if what students are taking up matches the demands of the industries.

The presidential candidates should give more thought on education. They have not really made it a priority in their agenda nor have they offered concrete solutions to the decline in the quality of our educational system. In the campaign sorties, they all were unanimous in saying that another year should be added in grade school and high school and free kindergarten to prepare the students for regular schooling but offered no clear cut way of doing it. What about the issues on tuition fee hike many have been grumbling on?

Last week alone, we witnessed and read news reports of student protests over tuition hikes. Students used spray painting during an indignation rally in front of the CHED building in Quezon City and robbery raps were filed against 5 PUP students who allegedly took out 13 desks without the consent from university officials. The chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños also had to apologize for the unruly behavior of students protesting tuition fee hikes and the expulsion of student regent Charisse Bañez from the Board of Regents.

 Clearly, the students have the right to express concern about the issue. But what saddens many is their unwarranted behavior toward it. What has become of our youth? Are these the kind of students we have in the state universities and colleges? Why do they easily result to violence and rage? Have we developed more the intellect and allowed our youth to have false ideals, thus losing sight of what is right and wrong? What values have we taught our children?

In this modern era, it is a sad fact that many of our schools have not given much priority in inculcating ethics and values to the students. Here we are expecting our leaders to have some form of moral responsibility but only to find out that majority of the schools in the country have taken this lesson for granted.

Unfortunately, many educators believe that education consists merely in the imparting of a certain amount of information, a “pounding-in” process, as it were, into a natural vacuum, the mind of the child, of digested or undigested intellectual food. They forget that education is more a process of formation than of information.

To educate is, fundamentally, to draw out, lead forth and develop the faculties of the child, his innate powers of body, mind and soul, in order to train them to perform their functions effectively, to properly acquire, digest and use knowledge, in fine, to enable the child to enjoy this world and its opportunities, and to fulfill his manifold duties to himself and his family, to his fellowmen, to the Nation, and to God, thus successfully realizing his destiny on earth as a human being. Education is, therefore, the full and harmonious development of all the faculties of man, mental, physical and moral.

We would like to see that those charged with the high duty of planning and working out the system and determining the objectives of education in this country come out and clearly state them, describe their methods and technique in detail, define their policies and presents the reasons in their support. This is of paramount importance to the nation and to our future.

This country is sorely in need of a body of men and women who will consider and find a solution for our school problems in the light of the highest and soundest educational principles; who understand the nature and purpose of true education; who are neither faddists nor servile imitators of methods and systems, and yet know how to profit from the best experience of other countries; who will uphold the Constitution and maintain the democracy of education, and who will thus resist through all lawful means educational despotism and dictatorship; who will be progressive and scientific in their views; whose object will be to develop the whole man, physically, intellectually and spiritually, making him a good man and consequently, a good citizen.

In this modern world, in the Philippines of today, it is a lamentable fact that men are departing from the paths of morality. Men scoff at honesty and mock at religion. In their pride they think that it is a part of modern civilization and enlightenment to cast off as old-fashioned and tattered garments the old norms of moral conduct. Immorality, dishonesty, and impiety are contaminating our youths, have invaded all classes and rank, have corrupted government officials, who are the legal guardians of truth, equity and justice. Many consider virtue as effeminate and an unnecessary handicap to success. They are indeed sadly, fatally mistaken in their notion of civilization and progress. To be immoral, to be without scruples of conscience, might be called progress if they insist on calling it so, but surely it is progress in the wrong direction.

As for the cries of the youth, let me quote from Dr. Jose Rizal, the great patriot and martyr who fittingly has called our youth, “Fair hope of our Native Land”. He appealed to them, when he said:

“Where are you, youth, who will

Embody in yourselves the vigor of life that has fled

from our veins, the purity of ideas that has been

contaminated in our brains, the fire of enthusiasm

that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you,

O youth! Come, for we await you!”

And here again Rizal entreats our youth to keep that flame burning in their hearts, the fire of enthusiasm, the spur of noble ambitions, to acquire and possess that vigor so necessary to earnest and persevering endeavor, and finally to treasure in their souls that purity of ideas and ideals, which is the most precious element of true success.