OPERATION: O.G.C.T.
Apolinariang Binibini, Blogs
May our compatriots…devote the precious time of their youth
to something great, which is worthy of them.
We have over us a duty: To redeem our mother[land]
from her captivity…”
–Rizal’s letter to MH Del Pilar, June 11, 1890
Yes, I believe that the time is approaching
when I can return to the Philippines…
I shall devote myself to the sciences,
I shall read and write history,
I shall establish a school…”
–Rizal’s letter to Blumentritt, Brussels, March 31, 1890
University of the Philippines in Diliman QC
If you’re looking for a yardstick of any country’s future, you can’t get a better one than the state and direction of the country’s education. Recently, the Philippine Business for Education put up an event called “Chefs for the Future,” which raised funds to encourage the best Pinoy students to enter the teaching profession. Dinner tables in the event fetched PhP 100,000 each. It may have been a great gastronomic treat but as to affecting even an iota of the education issues, well it is at best irrelevant. Uplifting education can be the best cause but often times, our chosen remedies—from lavish fund raisings to lowering the number of schools hours to address overcrowding in schools—sadly miss the birthday piñata.
“O.G.C.T. (ONLY GOD CAN TELL)”
When I went to Cagayan de Oro weeks ago, I had a conversation with a public school teacher. Gusto niyang tumulong sa bansa pero ano ang gagawin niya kung kaliwa’t kanan ang katiwalian. When her students fail, she gets asked by the school administration to change the grades of the kids. Low school scores imply lower ratings and in turn, lower government budget. But the problem is not only in public schools.
Someone working in a private school related a pervading culture. When exam time comes and grades have to be prepared, teachers begin to utter an expression. “Only God Can Tell!” It sounds like a secret code like “The Eagles Have Landed.” It simply means, one does not know the final grades of the students until they have been doctored! Talking about the gory details of an appendectomy would have been a better thought exercise. But NO, this is a different kind of doctoring! It is uncanny to hear this anecdote in the wake of an issue about the DepEd lowering the passing grade in the National Achievement Test. It’s not a problem as long as we rename it as National Non-Achievement Test. Or better yet, National Mediocrity Test. Apt labeling will always get my vote. The DepEd ofcourse denies to high heavens but you only need to look at the entire culture towards education to know that you don’t need an expose to ascertain that we are indeed providing schools to seal the future of the Filipinos as slaves.
As if I have not had a generous helping of torture from these stories, here’s another one. Some years back, I visited my old school, which is a private school. I was so shocked to hear from the principal that the school discouraged certain students to take the UPCAT because if they fail, it will pull down the passing rate of the school. The whole view towards taking entrance exams is just plain defeatist!!! In short, hindi ilalaban ang studyante para manalo sa buhay dahil masmahalaga ang reputasyon ng eskwelahan.
“WALANG BUDGET EH”
Ask any Filipino teacher the question, “How can schools be improved?” The teacher will tell you that the answer will always be about the budget. No matter how many fund raising dinners you come up with or how many schools you set up, or if you put up a million IRRIs and agricultural research centers, or if in the greatest fantasy sequence of all—the DepEd is abolished, things will not change unless education is borne of a vision for the country’s future.
Poverty or lack of budget will always be the convenient excuse. But it becomes more difficult to use as a cop out, knowing that there are such schools as the Ramanujan School of Mathematics in Bihar, India which was established by visionary citizens to teach the poorest of the poor in India (Kishore Mahbubani, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, 2008). The students of the school were called the SUPER 30 because two years after the school was established in 2004, all 30 students passed the prestigious entrance exam in the Indian Institute of Technology—the Indian version of MIT.
Ramanujan School of Mathematics
The students are not only academically excellent, but they are also extremely patriotic! One of the students, Santosh Kumar, got in IIT and set his sights on a doctorate in chemistry and become an inventor. His hero is former President Kalam (president until July 2007), a newspaper boy who became an aeronautical engineer. President Kalam made it his mission to raise his country to glory through science. He traveled from school to school, telling students to bury themselves in books and excel at science. If they do, he promised, India will be a fully developed nation by 2020. His motto was simple but powerful: dream, dream, dream (August 21/28, 2006 Newseek issue).
“A PATH TO A DREAM”
Tuskegee Institute was built around a dream for the Negroes in America. Booker T. Washington established the school to improve the conditions of the Negro and took on the challenges of a statesman (Monroe N. Work, Tuskegee Institute More Than an Educational Institute, Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 7, No.3, November 1933). He wanted education to first teach his people how to be human beings then equip his people to be contributors to society. That was what being “free” meant. Education meant the passing on of civilization to the individuals who shall not progress by waiting for dole outs. They were taught to till the land as if writing poetry!
Tuskegee Institute in 1916, 35 years after it’s founding.
Singapore’s first university was put up because the people agreed upon themselves to sacrifice a day’s wage—it did not matter if their wage was 1 Singaporean dollar or 10,000 Singaporean dollars. The point is each person must have a stake in building something great. Budget did not become the driving force. It was and is about a personal stake and a great vision.
In contrast, our students do not study to build a dream that matters. You don’t have to memorize the statistics from the UN, ADB and PHDR. Just ask where our students go for field trips. There you have it—Wowowee and other noontime television drivel, which form the epitome of the curriculum of slaves. Stupidity is an everyday celebration.
The University Hall of NUS.
Schools are important but only as a result of a vision of a race that wants to equip its next generation to bring the country into the hall of nations. This is why poverty is not the problem and neither is prosperity the answer. Rizal only saw liberty in the context of right education that taught the essence of being free. Free people are contributions to the world, they have the ability to invent and re-invent new paths, and most of all, they have the power to live excellent lives.
Education must be a path to a dream.
~Apolinariang Binibini
Yes, I believe that the time is approaching
when I can return to the Philippines…
I shall devote myself to the sciences,
I shall read and write history,
I shall establish a school…”
–Rizal’s letter to Blumentritt, Brussels, March 31, 1890
October 6th, 2009 at 01:19 PM
kahit saan tayo magpunta, mahalaga talaga ang edukasyon..
ang edukasyon ang masasabing magiging bridge para maabot natin ang tagumpay..
kung wala nito ay di tayo makakapag invent ng mga produktong may tatak ng kasaysayan natin.
mali naman kasi talaga ang depED..ang babaw din ng tingin ng mga ibang teachers sa mga estudyante nila
kaysa iinspire nilang paghirapan ang test ay inu-una nga naman nila ang pangalan ng eskwelahan.
nakakainis ang systema nila…
balang araw ay makakapaginvent tayo ng mga out of this world na products na mas mahusay ang kalidad at inuuna ang kalusugan ng mga pililipino! na maikakaangat ng bansa natin…
I’M PROUD TO BE PINOY!
October 6th, 2009 at 10:09 PM
ang sa akin lang, gawin na natin ngayon na.
October 7th, 2009 at 02:01 AM
“Education must be a path to a dream.”
Ang tindi po ano. Naiyak po ako kasi totoo po eh.. hindi po tinuro sa atin ang mangarap. Masakit mang aminin pero hindi lang po ang mga eskwelahan, maging ang mga magulang ko ay sumablay din sa pagbibigay kahulugan at pangarapin sa aking buhay. Ngayon pinapasa nila ang kinalakihang negosyo ng pamilya namin sa’kin. Wala naman pong masama ho dun – subalit ito’y itinatak sa akin bilang isang responsibilitad at utang na loob. Dito sa negosyong ito kasi kami na buhay at dahil din dito nakapagaral ako at ang aking mga kapatid.
Ito na nga lang po ang sa akin. Sabi po ng isang old Chinese poem:
Go to the people
Live among the people
Learn from them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have
But of the best leaders,
When their task is accomplished
Their work is done,
The people will say,
We have done it ourselves.
Sana maging daan po ang aking pagyakap sa negosyong ito upang maimulat ang kaisipan ng aming mga kasamahan sa concept ng – strong nation means strong people. Ito po ang pangarap ko ang maging kasangkapan sa tagumpay ng kapwa tao.
October 7th, 2009 at 04:28 PM
Salamat Apolinariang Binibini sa sinulat mo, isang koryenteng nagbibigay tibok sa pusong lito’t gulo.Di ko makakalimutan ang Brown Raise, isa na syang bahagi ng aking pang araw-araw na buhay at kasama ng aking pamilya, salamat po sa inyo, pagpalain nawa kayo lagi ng Makapangyarihang Diyos.
October 7th, 2009 at 06:45 PM
“a free people are contributions to the world, they have the ability to invent and reinvent new paths,and most of all, they have the power to live excellent lives”
- wala na akong masabi kundi napaka-uplifting ng mga kataga sa itaas. but what does it mean to be really free? i too long to be a contribution to the world
October 8th, 2009 at 10:14 AM
“Poverty or lack of budget will always be the convenient excuse. But it becomes more difficult to use as a cop out, knowing that there are such schools as the Ramanujan School of Mathematics in Bihar, India which was established by visionary citizens to teach the poorest of the poor in India (Kishore Mahbubani, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, 2008). The students of the school were called the SUPER 30 because two years after the school was established in 2004, all 30 students passed the prestigious entrance exam in the Indian Institute of Technology—the Indian version of MIT.”
From what Kishore Mahbubani said, those two existing circumstances of a country are not an excuse but in our country it is always an excuse. Honestly, since I am in the Student Council, I have to find ways on how to turn the tables differently. This is my way on how to uplift and energize a race that is in the midst of uncertainty and mediocrity that are rampant and celebrated by the majority.
For the majority, an excellent idea that had been analyzed, researched, and studied thoroughly is just a trash for everyone but an idea that is completely mediocre and idle are gold for everyone. What is the difference between those two situations? Filipinos yearn for an idea that is 100% crammed rather than assessed.
“Someone working in a private school related a pervading culture. When exam time comes and grades have to be prepared, teachers begin to utter an expression. “Only God Can Tell!” It sounds like a secret code like “The Eagles Have Landed.””
This second statement hits me a lot since I have seen many students aiming for high grades but it is just rushed in order to pass something mediocre and not to study well prior to the exams.
October 8th, 2009 at 06:24 PM
We all know that education is important to our society to make it better than the past!!!
Sana makapag-aral ang lahat ng mga pinoy!!
October 9th, 2009 at 12:10 PM
“For the majority, an excellent idea that had been analyzed, researched, and studied thoroughly is just a trash for everyone but an idea that is completely mediocre and idle are gold for everyone.” -Hansen Wordsmart
very true in our Universities. kaya minsan sa mga proyekto na ginagwa namin mas mabuti ng mag-isa ka kaysa naman may mga kagrupo kang tamad at walang nakikitang BIG sa vision na pinapasa mo…
haaay…
pero magbabago din yan… someday magboboom din ang big visions sa bansa…and it takes one life at a time of sacrifices in threading down greater but harder paths.
Go BRYORG youths!
October 9th, 2009 at 11:44 PM
I guess this is why most professional and parents would require their people to study abroad. Though being raised in this kind of studying practices how do they tend to compete or even thrive with their foreign classmates abroad?
If I could only ask a foreign student who studies here about his/her study ethics and how studying works in their countries and their opinion about the education system here.
What about a student who does do better in all aspects and since he got all this from this country how does the world, even his own country, treat him? It’s no wonder why students like this would end up sacrificing his dream to get anything that would pay the bills.
Making a Filipino love studying would mean a lot of inspiration from the right people and knowing what kind of information should he take in and out. It’s not impossible to see nationalistic pilipino scholars it’s just very difficult to keep them hoping and working for the country rather than for their own needs.
October 10th, 2009 at 02:35 AM
Ahh, the education problem.. Filipinos tend to limit their true capabilities. It is sad coming from a nation with so much potential. What we should focus on is not to redeem our education system but to instill a sense of passion in the people, most especially the youth.
What we need are opportunities for people to dream big. To not reduce our country to a bunch of Wowowee shows and Western trends. We need a new generation willing to take risks for the sake of excelling beyond what is expected of them.
This was the real Filipino before and is still in the hearts of the Filipinos today, only dormant. The people are strong. The people are more than their leaders, more than what other people say about them. If we are a weak people, we still have a strong God who perfects His power in weakness.
Besides..
Emilio Jacinto said.. “The Filipino people have always proved themselves bigger than their leaders… Filipino leaders may come and Filipino leaders may go, but not the Filipino people who will continue treading on towards the one destiny the God of Nation has designated for them.”
Spoken like a true hero. =]
October 17th, 2009 at 08:59 PM
Hay naku!!! grabe talaga tayo noh. Kahit pala ang pinaka pinagmamalaki ng ating bansa na eskwelahan ay wala narin sapat para edukasyonin ang ating mga kapwa pilipino. Grabe po talaga ang ibang bansa pinapahalagahan talga nila ang edukasyon, grabe talaga ang Singapore, sobrang mahal talaga nila ang mga kabataan na mamumuno sa kanilang bansa. Sana maitayo na kaagad ang ating pinapangarap na eskwelahan, sulong laban lahing kayumanggi. ANGLAHI ay matayo na sana kaagad para sa ating mga kabataang Pilipino.
October 25th, 2009 at 02:25 AM
O.G.C.T. po ang sitwasyon ng iba kong mga kaklase sa Values Education subject namin sa college.. nung final exam namin, ay hinayaann ng instructor namin na mag kopyahan ang mga kaklase ko dahil halos sa buong klase namin sa Val.Ed bagsak!!!wow..Values Education pa naman ang subject namin….nasaan na ang Values na itinuturo nila?!? titser pa naman…. talagang bagsak na ang moralidad ng mga Pilipino.. sila ang dapat nagtuturo ng tamang pag-uugali ay sila pa ang gumagawa ng kalokohann..
October 27th, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Even in our small city, laganap ang bayaran, para lang maipasa ng isang estudyante ang mga subjects na dapat nyang i-retake. Mayroon akong kakilala na imbes na 2nd year high school palang siya, nagbayad lang ang ang mga magulang niya sa isang private na insttusyon (7000php), at JARAN… naging 4th year highschool na siya. Nakakalungkot isipin. If this is what’s happening to the education of the youth who are supposedly the hope of the future, what future do we have?
November 3rd, 2009 at 08:58 AM
Grabe! I’ve heard of field trips to an amusement park, but to Wowowee?! That’s what we call an outbound educational trip?!
I was amazed when the Singaporeans sacrificed their wage to build a school. If that will be done in the Philippines, there would be a revolution….kidding aside… That would never be done in the Philippines. What a sad government depEd, people we have.
November 12th, 2009 at 01:33 PM
“Education must be a path to a dream.”
- I thoroughly agree.
May 17th, 2010 at 08:33 AM
“The heavy fetters that bind your genius down are merely the chains of ignorance, timdity, enterprise…!” -Jose Rizal
Tunay nga po, karumaldumal ang sistema ng edukasyon sa ating bansa, ngunit huwag ho natin itong gawing dahilan upang di pagbutihin ang ating mga sarili! Noong panahon ni Rizal, it was also the time of dark ages, but Rizal and his companions sought for ways! Wala pong dahi-dahilan kung gusto niyo talaga! It is a matter of where can your dreams, hopes, aspirations, prayers can bring you! Ang Panginoon na po ang bahala sa lahat, hilingin lang po natin ito sa kanya at gawin ang ating dapat gawin. Yung lamang po, pagpalain po tayo ng ating Mabuting Panginoong Hesus!