This is how we are robbed of our future.
In one year, the BBM administration managed to build only 22 classrooms this year. The classroom backlog runs into the hundreds of thousands.
Vince Dizon made this frank admission. Only 22 classrooms. The target was to build 1,700 classrooms – a modest goal considering the previous administration was able to build tens of thousands every year.
In his State of the Nation Address, Marcos boasted of an incredible number of classrooms built. That is as empty as his previous boast about 5,500 flood control projects being completed.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara attributes the severe underperformance to the preoccupation of DPWH personnel for other projects. Which is not to say that building classrooms is not profitable for the looters. It is just not profitable enough during a time when ghost flood control projects and kickbacks are delivered in cartons.
Private foundations helping to build classrooms say the typical DPWH-built classroom was over three times more costly that what private sector groups build. A typical DPWH classroom costs about P8.8 million each. A better one built by private charities typically costs P2.7 million.
At the rate the DPWH is building classrooms, it will take forever to close the classroom gap. The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids at Giza at a much shorter time – and with no kickbacks.
By the time the DPWH closes the classroom gap, the demographics have changed. Our population growth rate will have dropped from the current high. There will be less pupils to enjoy the facilities the current generation of students direly need.
Pity the children. Many of them have to wade in floodwaters to make it to school. A good number of them go to school hungry as child malnutrition rates rocket in the face of food price inflation. Some of them sit in water-logged classrooms or hold classes in the open.
Even if they have an actual classroom, they listen to the lessons in congested conditions and in unbearable heat. Contact time in the classroom is reduced by the sheer number of holidays we observe, by frequent suspensions of classes due to rains and by other causes such as when our schools are used as evacuation centers.
All these compound the inferior content of our current education process, the lack of equipment and the shortage of teachers. The syndicates of corruption have not spared our education institutions. Among other things, Zaldy Co is accused of selling inferior laptops to the Department of Education.
Compare our basic education system with those of our neighbors and weep. All of our neighbors are investing heavily in their young. They are producing highly trained warriors ready to thrive in the new technological economy.
By contrast, our functional literacy rates are deteriorating. A typical high school graduate may be able to read but not comprehend – much less analyze. It is as if we hope that training on the job will somehow help our young survive in a competitive world.
Business associations are trying their best to help solve the severe classroom shortages. It is a heroic crusade. But there is only so much they can do.
Sen. Bam Aquino has introduced a bill titled Classroom-building Acceleration Program (CAP) that will, among others, encourage local governments to join in building education facilities. He is urging the President to certify this bill as urgent to ensure swift passage.
But the bill adds little to what is already there. Classroom construction has been swiftly decentralized in the wake of this administration’s utter failure to deliver. Local governments and non-government organizations may now enter the classroom construction game provided they follow design guidelines.
But government remains the single biggest entity with the resources to close the classroom gap – if the funds are not intercepted by legislators to other things where the kickback rates are higher. It is government that must throw its full force behind providing the facilities young Filipinos so desperately need.
But will this administration do it?
The President has been burned once more when he boasted about how many classrooms his administration built. He was burned previously when he boasted about the thousands of flood control projects completed. He tends to stop mentioning things that got him burned.
If our educational system is weakened, it is because of the rampant corruption that does not spare our young.
The signs of a worsening crisis brought about by unchecked corruption are flashing before our eyes. The peso is sinking rapidly. Investments are fleeing our stock market. According to businessmen, some 600 business projects were shelved in the aftermath of the flood control scandal.
In the recent opinion polls, the problem of corruption has shot up the rankings among the top-of-mind concerns of our citizens. It is second only to anxieties over rising food prices. Both are urgent concerns that do not seem to merit a more determined and strategic response from those who govern us.
Our business community has become even more outspoken over the past few weeks. The distress will not be relieved by mere public relations offensives. These are people with a better grasp pf what is happening on the ground.
Our people are rapidly losing trust in those who lead us. The erosion of trust will continue until our people feel that government is grabbing the situation by the horns.