EDITORIAL — Rizal’s advocacy

While Dr. Jose Rizal did not endorse armed uprising against Spain, he became a symbol of the Philippine revolution and lost his life for it on Dec. 30, 1896. As his death is commemorated today, it is also timely to remember Rizal’s main advocacy for the advancement of his fellow Filipinos: education.

Over a century after his death, the country faces a crisis in education, which was worsened by two years of pandemic lockdowns and a forced shift to distance learning. Two tests of the capabilities of the country’s 15-year-old students have shown the Filipinos in the bottom 10 among their peers in about 80 countries and economies that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment.

The PISA tests, conducted in 2018 and 2022 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, showed the Filipino 15-year-old students performing badly in mathematics, science and reading comprehension, with scores lower than OECD averages. Among the Southeast Asian countries that took the PISA, the Philippines ranked ahead only of Cambodia; Laos and Myanmar did not participate in the assessment.

Rizal must be turning over in his grave. The ophthalmologist was a member of the ilustrado class in his time who was able to obtain formal education in the Philippines and abroad. He saw education as the path to liberation for his compatriots, even as he supported autonomy for the Philippines.

In his time, however, quality education was not for the masses. And even those like Rizal who could afford to pay for their schooling found it necessary to obtain world-class education in other countries. In his case, he took a course in medicine in Spain.

Today the situation has barely changed; families belonging to the tiny segment of the Philippine population that controls power and wealth send their children to the most prestigious and expensive schools abroad. Only a handful of Philippine universities make it to the annual list of the world’s best.

Free universal education is now available nationwide, from kindergarten to college. This, however, has not translated into quality education for the majority. Except for the state-run University of the Philippines, the best-run schools are still those that charge premium tuition rates and other fees. Rizal’s death anniversary today should strengthen the resolve of stakeholders to end the national crisis in education.