Potshots from Manila
By Sonny Pucio
Mirasol
Last week,
before he resigned, DepEd Sec. Abad announced the following
statistics:
• in 2004-05, senior high school students scored an average of
only 48.8%, while grade six pupils averaged 58.73% in aptitude
tests.
• public high school teachers averaged only 54.2% in English
“written expression” and only 67.74% in “reading comprehension”
tests
• 80% of teachers themselves believe they have inadequate
proficiency in English.
• high school students in the Philippines ranked 41st in math
proficiency and 42nd in science, out of 45 countries
• grade schoolers ranked 23rd out of 25 countries in both math and
science
• the public school population is increasing by 4.7% a year
because of the high cost of public education
These are very dismal statistics indeed. On the tertiary level, in
a survey of 78 universities worldwide, UP was 24th, while La Salle
and Ateneo de Manila were 42nd and 43rd. So, what does that make
of our other colleges and universities?
Our government allocates only 12% of the national budget for
education - and a whopping 88.1% goes to DepEd personnel services
(salaries, allowances, benefits, etc). For every peso that goes to
DepEd, 88 centavos goes to employees and only less than 12
centavos for actual educational expenses like classrooms, books,
teacher training (if ever), desks, teaching materials and
equipment (if any). That’s why our public education stinks, a
crying shame... and what’s worse, private education, despite it’s
high cost, is also not so hot.
Education is our country is going to the dogs, producing
half-literate graduates who can’t express themselves properly and
can’t find good jobs - wasting the effort, time and expense of the
exasperating process. What are YOU, as a parent and a citizen,
going to do about it?
***
It now turns out that Kit Tatad was the source of the Gloriagate
tapes. What also seems apparent is that the Palace attempted to
fool the public with Bunye’s presentation to reporters of an
allegedly genuine CD and a fake one; the fake one now appearing to
the genuine and vice-versa.
It appears that the Palace knew all along that the recordings were
incriminating and attempted a cover up. When this failed, a bigger
cover up was attempted until Glory bee was forced to say “I’m
sorry” on national television.
It’s really time for Glory bee to fly away. She has lost all moral
hold on the presidency and, according to lawyers cited by Malaya’s
Ducky Paredes, is liable for breaking three different laws and the
Constitution itself - all impeachable offenses.
So, let the Constitution and the rule of law take its course. When
Gloria goes, let Noli take over, despite all the misgivings. He
has the right, unless unseated by the Supreme Court. If, by golly,
Noli turns our well, well and good. If not, then lets hope that
the masses who elected him learn their lesson that popularity is
not qualification for office.
Unless we let the law take its course, this banas na republic will
become a real banana republic. If we have to suffer under Noli, so
be it. Nobody is to blame but the electorate. Better to suffer and
learn a lasting lesson under a system of laws than to euphorically
depose a president illegally and send the nation to the pits
politically, where it already is, as far as education, corruption
and the economy are concerned.
The simultaneous resignation of 10 officials of Gloria’s
administration is the biggest blow to her presidency. However, I
agree with The Philippine Star’s Max Soliven that they erred in
calling for her resignation. They should just have let their mass
resignation speak for itself and left the call for resignation for
others to make. That was a lapse in judgement which opened them to
charges or suspicions of partisanship, disloyalty, questionable
motives or breach of ethics.
Will the lapse bring on the collapse?
