Letters to the Editor
Letters to the
editor are welcome on this page. Only those with complete name,
signature, contact number and return address for verification
shall be considered for publication, subject to editing and space
limitation when necessary - Editor-in-Chief.
Sorry state of education
I
was shocked when I read your article about the crisis in
education. Of 1,000 elementary students, 994 are not qualified
(therefore flanked) to pursue high school. Of 100 high school
students, 98 are not qualified to pursue college. Of 100 public
school teachers, 81 are not qualified to teach English. What a
shame.
To put this in perspective, suppose I buy 1,000 bottles of San
Miguel beer, only 6 are worth drinking, the rest are nothing but
urine. If I buy 100 pieces of mangoes, only 2 are edible, 98 are
rotten. If I hire 100 college graduates, 81 can’t write and speak
English, 19 are good in Taglish or Binglish (Bicol English).
I was not surprised the sorry state of basic education and
specially the English proficiency of our students. Even private
schools are not even qualified to choose the right English
textbooks as your continuing expose of USI has shown.
The next time you pay your property tax, examine carefully how
much of your tax is earmarked for “education”. The next time you
read the national budget, find out how much is allocated to
“education”. Obviously, there is plenty of money “earmarked” for
education, but how much of this is really spent in educating our
children and ensuring we have qualified teachers.
Manny Ilao
Vancouver, BC, Canada
