Education is the solution

As children flock to public schools, which opened last Monday, the usual complaint of congested classrooms or lack of them was heard. This is not surprising. The problem has bugged the education office for decades now. And no solution is forthcoming. Two factors can be singled out. One, the ever increasing number of children entering government schools; two, the continued refusal of Congress to adequately finance basic education.

The government's response to excessive number of school going kids seems to be the RH law. But the Church takes this as contrary to its teaching on the sanctity of marriage and its unitive and procreative nature as well as on the mystical worth of every individual person. That law mandates the use of public funds to support the program of artificially controlling birth. Billions are set aside for this purpose. But in a predominantly Catholic country it is doubtful if the expected effect can be gained. Those billions will then be wasted. How many classrooms would have been built with such money?

The second factor that causes this problem concerns both houses of Congress. Every budget season education officials knell before senators and congressman imploring for a generous outlay. But the accepted practice is to limit such outlay to not more than ten percent (more or less) over that of the previous year regardless of how much is actually needed. Thus from year to year there's a build up of shortages.

For example, in Central Visayas, the number of new classrooms needed is 7,207. But last year only 750 were built and this year there's money for only 1,000 more, hence, there's still a huge shortage. With dearth of rooms, education officials cannot help but schedule half-day sessions for certain curricular levels thus sheltering two classes for every classroom. This arrangement of course shortens teacher-pupil contact hours, a situation which delimits learning.

One consoling thing is the outlay of 61,510 teacher items this year of which 5,653 is programmed for Central Visayas. Is this sufficient for this region? With more teachers needed in pre-school classes most of which are handled by locally-financed teachers, plus the new classes for overflow students, the number is just enough. But three years from now when grades 11 and 12 start to operate the need for more teachers will be acutely felt.

With K to 12 approved as a law, there's hope that Congress will be more generous in funding education. The 20 percent increase this year in the budgetary outlay is a good sign. If this will continue in the next three or four years the shortages in basic education are likely to be overcome.

The big question is what will be the temper of Congress once PNoy exits in 2016? Will the lawmakers continue his thrust towards better public education? Or will they go back to their old habit of miserly funding the school system? Some say these honorable gentlemen will hold on to their PDAF as tightly as a crocodile holds on to its prey. Ok, let them have their PDAF, but please let there be enough money for the basic schooling of our kids.

With enough money, the more than six million children who can't go to school because of poverty will have their day in school. And those who are now in school will get sheltered in learning-friendly rooms and attended to by sufficient number of competent teachers. More than this, school leavers after finishing grade 12 will be employment ready because the add-on two curricular years will be generally techvoc-oriented courses.

Education, it is said, is expensive. But more expensive is ignorance. Look, how many billions are being spent for poverty alleviation programs. And how much do we spend to fend off criminality and insurgency, both by-products of lack of education?

Surely, education is the solution to almost all of our problems. But how many of our leaders realize this?