Why we need science schools

I had long wanted to meet Laura Q. del Rosario. She is an accomplished diplomat. She was the undersecretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs during Secretary Alberto del Rosario’s time (no relation). My son, Eduardo Pedrosa, secretary general of PECC admired her work.

It was during a conversation in a reception of the embassy of India that she spoke of her “science school.” That stayed in my mind and although we did not meet again for some time, I marveled at her grit and ingenuity for creating such a school.

My column today is about her school. She has been struggling to keep it alive and going and deserved all the help. She was helping our country in an original and wonderful way. I thought I would rewrite her draft but decided to leave it as it is and do it in two parts to give it the importance due to it.

The title of her article is “A  Kinder to Gr 10 School for SCIENCE and MATH: The Role of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY in ECONOMIC, SOCIAL and PERSONAL Development.

“It should not have escaped our attention that the Industrial Revolution in Europe followed the period of Enlightenment which was marked by the blossoming of great thinkers and artists not only in the field of philosophy, politics, government, literature and the arts, but also in the field of sciences – chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, technology, and medicine.

Many decades later the Agriculture Revolution turned to science and technology to produce more food and better agriculture products, thus improving the health and well-being of the population who, in turn, made the Industrial Revolution possible. 

The Industrial Revolution was founded on machines or technology that made manufacturing, transportation, and communication more efficient. There were social costs, but these were subsequently studied and addressed by the political and economic systems in place.

One cannot help notice, while living abroad, how science and mathematics (the foundations of technology) are considered as primary subjects by advanced societies’ educational systems and there is considerable prestige in majoring and achieving in these fields. The Nobel Prizes themselves recognize achievements in chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine plus the economic sciences.

Some 30 years ago, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew announced the establishment of government scholarships for studies abroad in the field of sciences and technology. It was quite noticeable that the recipients of these scholarships were featured on the front page of the Strait Times while the top bar examiners would be relegated to the inside pages. PM Lee, who was a barrister himself, wanted to deliver the message that if Singapore had to become competitive within the next  20 years, it should give premium recognition to the scientists and technologists of the country. 

The Philippine government started its science high school system in 1964 through the establishment of the Philippine Science High School under the Department of Science and Technology. Now with 15 campuses beyond its Agham Road main campus in Quezon City,  it binds its graduates by law to major in the pure and applied sciences, mathematics, or engineering. My son, a graduate of the system, bemoans the fact that his group mates went into law, media or entertainment, sports, and medicine (which, in his understanding, was discouraged because there were more than enough students who could become doctors without having to go through the PSHS system).  And those he knew who did go into engineering and the sciences and who took up doctoral studies in the US stayed there. And these were in the top 5 of their graduating class. 

 Upon this son’s return from the US, he went into teaching first at Ateneo then in our own school.

My other son who went to a US high school for science and technology (one of three in the whole US) does not know of any classmate going into any field except what they were trained for.  He, too, returned with an engineering degree from the US to work in the Philippines.

There has been a practical reason why many Filipino high school or college science graduates do not pursue careers and become prime movers in science and technology needed for our development that their American counterparts do not face. While Western counterparts know that cutting edge products and technological processes would be innovated by them or replaced by them to make post-modern life more productive and meaningful – thus creating new products and technology to develop and sell locally and overseas – in the Philippines there is the perception that there are not enough good paying jobs or research institutions that could employ them. And the government is always blamed for lack of support, without seeing the role of the private sector in encouraging innovation.

I remember a lunch with local businessmen to which I brought my two sons who took courses in the sciences and technology.  One businessman asked them: “Is there money in what you studied?” One son replied, “Should that be the criterion for one’s choice of academic discipline?” Or during the second Orientation for Parents held in our new small school for science and math, a parent asked: “What jobs can our children have if they study more science and more math?”

Why did my family decide in 2008 to put up a K to 10 Science and Math School in Angeles City that we symbolically named Pax ( Peace) et (and) Lumen (Light) International Academy even if we knew that it would not be a popular choice?

In addition to creating jobs in our community,  the reasons mentioned above were compelling enough for us: to spur national economic and social  development through a population who can think logically and seek facts and truth, to raise the level of thinking of a community of students so that when they become adults they can go beyond custom and tradition, and to develop individuals whose discipline will come from an internal motivation and knowledge of what should be done rather than from an external source in the form of “social pressure (pakikisama)” or “fad and fashion (kung ano ang uso).” (to be continued)