Recalling photos

While the whole of the country is still fumbling over what to do with the oil price hike, I turn my attention to one of my favorite hosts, Vice Ganda, who was holding a contest on a noontime show. The gist was to identify a photo of Malacañang Palace. However, the contestant failed twice despite the host giving obvious clues. It included saying it’s where the president resides, where meetings are held, and that the image is printed on our currency. Still, the contestant was clueless. It’s low-key signaling to us that something is indeed wrong with how the youth are being educated.

When I was in elementary, we were forced to purchase postcards of many subjects in relation to Philippine History and Geography. I recall having a compilation of the faces of all our national heroes and top landmarks. This was done not with a search button on the internet but by literally scouring Colon Street for bookstores that sold these postcards. We would arrange them, label them, and memorize the details that came with them. That somehow helped me remember their faces and a part of their role in history.

In that same episode, Vice Ganda remarked about being chronically online watching makeup tutorials and whatnot. While the internet is a very vast tool, it’s also leading some of our young users in the wrong direction. The algorithm plays a game based on their interests and not on what they should learn. This sways them away from what should be known and introduces them into a different dimension --one free from conflict and chaos. It’s but timely for the education sector to step in and rethink how to enter the world of their students with the advent of technology.

It’s unclear yet how the education sector will pan out in our country. The department is once again facing many debates such as shifting the calendar to a trimester option or removing general education courses in senior high. There’s so much focus on administrative tasks but forgetting the core of it all --the content and quality of teaching education. Among the schools, the complaint remains that there are too many students and too few teachers on top of a pile of work to do. Whoever sits as secretary will always be in a rut trying to address these problems.

I don't know how many more teenagers will have to endure public humiliation for not knowing basic landmarks and information about our country. If assessments were created to allow retention in the learners' minds of the lessons, then there must be a way to make things right. My fear is that the education budget will also be affected by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East or by any other matter that arises. When that happens, education once again becomes the easiest item to trim, even if it should be the last. Because in the end, a nation that forgets how to recall its own images may also begin to forget its own story.