Major Challenges to the Attainment of EFA and MDG Goals: Politicians Bias Treatment to Education

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes

Four years to go and its 2015, the deadline set in the attainment of Education For All (EFA) Goals.  Still, DepEd is a long way to go and achieving the said target remains a big challenge without the support of various sectors particularly local government units.

While support in terms of material inputs are on the rise, capital investment to increase participation rates is incomparable compared to that being received by college students.  There are clear existing scholarships programs for college students being sponsored by local government executives and politicians but no concrete scholarships programs are in place for the basic education sector particularly for the highly marginalized and highly at-risked children.

There are so called voucher scholarship programs which subsidized tuitions fees of the college students which range from Php3,000 to Php7,000 and even more a year plus other scholarship programs being sponsored by different tertiary institutions, DOST, corporate organizations, foundations, NGO’s, private and philanthropic individuals but this is hardly felt in the basic education sector where support is much needed.  There is GASTPE or Government Ass…….istance to Private Education but it is part of DepEd or national government’s program.

It is a fact that individuals who have not finished primary schooling or elementary grades are prone to exploitation and could not function well with the demands of the society as compared to those lucky enough to graduate high school.  Thus, a low participation and drop-out rates in the basic education sector are un-healthier than the low participation rate in college and in the long run disadvantageous and liability on the part of the government.

Higher education is receiving an average of Php22,000 subsidy per students while basic education receives only around Php8,000.  These tertiary institutions particularly SCU’s are commonly in competition not only with private schools but with fellow SCU’s and are offering irrelevant courses inconsistent with the needs of the job market and of the place where these are located.  Thus, investments made by LGU’s for college students scholarships are a total gamble.  Very low return or none at all could be expected except a sure patronage votes every three years.

Looking at the concept of basic economics and the logic of which is more important, one will see the unfair treatment and bias from our political leaders when it comes to support being given to Basic Education who needs it the most given the already very meager resources it has through the years. 

If our political leaders really want to eradicate poverty as a main objective of the Millennium Development Goals, a holistic approach to education is needed and not the shallow approach towards it which is obviously populist and self-serving.

NOTE:  See also Meeting the Challenges of EFA 2015 and Usapin ng 'Access,' Dapat Maging Pokus ng mga Pulitiko sa Kani-kanilang Programang Pang-edukasyon

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

Of Being a Parent to Our Children: Parents, Are You?

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon, CALABARZON

Who are saying that the new generation is difficult to tame and discipline?

Actually, this is the common impression of parents, grand parents, guardians, teachers of the children and youth of today.  We used to hear the saying that “iba talaga ang singaw ng kabataan ngayon,” or they are of different in values and character.

They are hard to command, direct, teach.  They are at times arrogant, lazy and irresponsible.   But have we tried to ask our selves why it is so?

Queena N. Lee-Chua  in her book, Learning: What Parents, Students and Teachers Should Know made mention of Permissive Parenting.

Unlike before, during the time of our parents and grand parents where there are sets of standards to follow and limitations to remember, at present, there’s almost none.  The result, particularly now among Filipino families as I personally observed—dependence—putting the extended families into new heights.

It is sad to know that most intermediate grade school children and high school teenagers don’t even know how to cook for themselves or wash there own clothes, do the marketing at the nearest wet market or groceries just because they were pampered—yet parents want their children to become successful in the future.

Award winning writer Michael LeGault  explains the importance of setting limits.  “Children not only need standards and rules for healthy social, ethical, and intellectual development, they desire them.”  Standards lead to good work and study habits, nurturing an outlook that aspires toward excellence, and acquiring a wide, eclectic base of knowledge.

What happens when parents set limits?  “Kids may sulk and be visibly unhappy,” LeGault says.  “Parents can feel their pain but know its not going to kill them.  Authoritative parents may appear “stodgy and uptight,” but they take comfort in the fact that they are doing the right thing.”

Filipino parents tend to be permissive or lax because of the wrong notion of love.  They don’t want to track the path of the parenting styles of the older generation because they have forgotten to look back, reflect and ask themselves if the experiences they had from their olds made them a good person.  If the answer is yes, then there is nothing wrong to do the same.

As a teacher and school administrator, I had managed to recall how my parents brought me up and analyze which were wrong in their styles of being strict and being demanding when it comes to learning household chores and teaching us how to take care of ourselves and younger siblings.  In setting limits and standards and so far only one thing seem to be improper and that is to never answer back though when we are already at our legal ages, we could already answer back to them but in a very polite and respectful manner.  Of course, in our young minds then, we tend to rebel but at the end of the day, we always realize that it is for our own good and yes it was and still until now.

LeGault explains that the fear of growing up, or fear or loss of child’s love and respect, or maybe just the path of least resistance, has led many parents to choose to be their child’s friend rather than their guide and mentor.  “Such an approach focuses on providing kids with material pleasures and comfort rather than demanding that they meet high expectations and do the work required to do so.  The net result is a generation of adults who have transformed the traditional meaning of the child-parent relationship by adopting the most lax and permissive parenting practices in history.”

In my recent parenting sessions with the PTA in our school, I ask them to look back.  I ask them if the requirements of our parents, grand parents to learn to cook rice, simple viands and delicacies and wash our clothes helped us as a person?  “Does the kissing of the hands, learning to pray, and following curfew, taking care of the younger siblings, doing errands and household chores helped us become a better person?”  The answer is astoundingly loud and clear, YES.  And so I challenged them in return, so why not teach our children then and make them a better person like you?

Genuine or real love is not about pampering our children with the things we don't have before.  It's neither about pity for have we loved our husbands and wives just because we pity or found mercy on them?  Love is all about teaching them all important characters and virtues that they will carry on through life.

LeGault must be right when he gives parents a rallying cry:  “Dare to try to let your kids fail.  Dare to say no.  Dare to use punishment when your child misbehaves.  Dare to turn off the television.  Dare to make them do chores.  Dare to kick them off the computer.  Dare to turn their world upside down.  Dare to set the agenda.”

Reference:  Le-Chua, Queena N., Learning:  What Parents, Students and Teachers Should Know, pp. 5- 8.

You may also want to see and read If We Need Great Teachers, Better Parents Too, Research Says