Health Care and Basic Education

Almost twenty years ago, a paper appeared in the journal Public Choice that cites the inevitable challenges of providing services such as health care and basic  education:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/w394372168713921/

There are indeed striking characteristics that both health care and basic education share. For one, universal education, and child and maternal health care are among the Millennium Goals of the United Nations. Second, as pointed out by Baumol's article, these services are quite distinct from other human enterprises, such as building automobiles. Production lines designed to perform precisely each step in making cars can be made. There is room for custom-made automobiles, but for the purposes of general production, uniform lines can surely take advantage of advances in technology to lower costs of production and increase efficiency. Health care and education do not quite easily lend to these innovations. Each patient requires individualized attention and whether this is accepted or not, education is more about learning than teaching, making basic education as personal as health care. Both basic education and health care have a strong influence on a society's well-being. For these services to benefit society, these must be of high quality. A health care program or a public school that is failing can even do harm to society.

There are differences between health care and education. With regard to evidence-based research, health care is miles ahead of education. Reforms in education continue to be implemented without supporting data and studies remain poorly designed, without proper controls. On the other hand, the practice of medicine has been faithful to clinical trials and data. Health care, however, does not do well in terms of equal access. A public option, for example, in the richest country in the world, the United States, does not exist. But public schools still do.

The question that Baumol asks in the article is: Should these services remain in the public sector or should they be privatized? Current situations perhaps can answer this question. Health care is privatized in so many places. Excellent health care is available, but surely, not for everyone. Similarly, there are excellent schools that are both private and exclusive. These schools are, of course, not for every child. Privatization always tends to provide excellence first before access. Thus, there is that tempting conclusion that if quality is desired, one should privatize. To take the other option, that is, to continue with the public sector or government to provide or run these services, is then equated to low quality and inefficiency. Finland shows clearly that this is not the case. There are no private schools in Finland. Finland emphasizes equality and yet, Finland is in the top in terms of quality basic education. Excellence therefore can come with equality. When basic education is not seen as a vehicle to get ahead in life, better learning outcomes are achieved. Providing health care and basic education, without doubt, are different from making automobiles. The health and education of the members of the society are comparable to security, peace and order. I do not think societies have ever explored on a large scale the privatization of its police force or firefighters. I wonder why....

"From Poverty to Power"

The following is an article posted in a blog by Duncan Green, author of "From Poverty to Power". It describes the "right to education" movement in India in the light of two primary schools, a teachers' group,  and a women's savings club. While thinking about the Philippine situation, I think Green's article is worth our attention:

India’s fight for the right to education

Originally posted on November 9, 2012
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=12458

Still processing my recent visit to see Oxfam India’s work – posts continue next week with the great debate on India’s middle classes.

Education is fine example of the strengths and weaknesses of judicial activism in India. The Right to Education (RTE) Act was passed in 2009, arising out of constitutional amendment in 1999 that redefined the right to life as including education (!). Private schools challenged the act, especially its requirement that they reserve 25% of places for lower castes, but the Supreme Court upheld it.

To see what all this means on the ground, I duck out of my boring conference and head for Madanpur,  a colony for slum dwellers ‘rehabilitated’ in 2000 – i.e. their previous homes were steamrollered and they were shunted to the margins of Delhi. Its current population of 145,000 earns income from construction, domestic work etc – almost entirely in the informal economy.

Oxfam India’s partner, the slightly ungrammatical EFRAH (Empowerment for Rehabilitation, Academic and Health) is an RTE activist NGO working with schools to implement the Act – part support, part watchdog (‘they like us, and they are afraid of us’). There is plenty to work on, as the gap between the Act and reality is great: it mandates school management committees with equal teacher/parent representation, but there are none to be seen in Madanpur.

We visit a primary school (up to grade 5, hundreds of kids milling in a tiled playground – right) and catch the headmaster trying to beat a retreat on his motorbike. He reluctantly returns for a few minutes before heading off again, pleading a meeting. We meet the teachers in a hot staffroom with stationary fans – the electric’s been off for 12 hours. They teach 2,500 kids in two shifts – girls in the morning, boys in the afternoon; the teachers claim 80-90% attendance rates, but today it’s more like 60% (they blame the upcoming festival season).

The teachers’ big beef is not wages, but the ‘PTR’ – pupil teacher ratio. There are no classes with less than 50 kids, and many are standing room only. But they acknowledge it was worse before – at least there are more notebooks now.

An aside on service delivery v Oxfam’s ‘rights-based approach’: ‘You keep coming and asking these questions but our lives don’t improve with all these foreign visitors’, say the teachers. ‘Plan India gives us water tanks – but what do you give us?’ But EFRAH says the local government promptly diverted money elsewhere when it heard about Plan’s plan. Service provision certainly makes rights-based work more difficult. ‘Fine, you can come and talk about rights, but what are you going to give us?’

A few streets away, we meet a women’s savings group (left), arrayed in their best saris in a tiny but tidy, sweltering one room house. Their main complaint is that they don’t teach their kids anything at the school. ‘Any time you go there, the teachers are not in the classrooms, they are ‘doing paperwork’. The kids are just wandering around. We know there’s not enough teachers, but the ones there are don’t even try to teach. We have to get private classes on top’. All the women are paying for at least some private tuition – $5 per month per subject, all in ‘unrecognized’ private schools which are often no better than the public ones. The women’s big complaint is on the lack of a school management committee or any other source of accountability: ‘they never call us, never call meetings. Teachers and parents need to work together.’ Some parents are filing Right to Information cases to find out how many PTA meetings have been called and who was invited. Another recent RTI case asked how many teachers had been budgeted for, after which the school hired an extra teacher.

Next stop is a group of fifty 13-18 year old girls, in grades 7-10. When we ask what they like about school, there is a resounding silence. Instead, they have complaints – on the lack of toilets, electricity, having to sit on floor. They do like the morning shift though, because it reduces risk of ‘eve teasing’ (sexual harassment). When we ask them how much actual teaching they receive in a 5 hour shift, the average is about 2 hours.

They all want to work (doctors, teachers, police inspectors ‘so I can hit the boys when they harass the girls!’, media) and aren’t under pressure to get married, but ‘We are getting educated, but we can’t work.’ Male relatives stop them going out to work because they’re ‘afraid our character will be put into question’. They insist it’s still better to be a girl ‘we can handle households, children and outside work – but maybe we need to learn karate!’

So it all comes down (doesn’t it always?) to governance and institutions. A combination of increased spending, accountability via school management committees and improved teacher training (it’s largely privatized and ineffectual – recently only 6% of trainee teachers were able to pass a basic test) could turn things around. But that approach is under challenge by contending ‘solutions’ in the shape of private public partnerships and the pulling in of the private sector, whose consequences could include increased inequality and exclusion.

Meanwhile the government looks set to kick the RTE can down the road by postponing the deadline for its implementation from 2013 to 2015, underlining the point that in India, getting the law passed is just the start. Implementation is the real battle. Still, the week after my visit, Shashi Tharoor (right), who helped launch the new Indian edition of From Poverty to Power, was made education minister, so let’s hope he takes matters in hand.

Basic Education: Is It Pre-College or Pre-Vocational

The following is a repost of an article in ThinkProgress. With the two additional years of high school in Deped's K to 12 as well as the major changes in the curriculum of the first ten years of education plus kindergarten, it is important to keep focus on what basic education really is.

"This material [article] was published by the Center for American Progress"

Math And Literacy Are Vocational Skills

By Matthew Yglesias on Jul 11, 2011 at 12:14 pm

There’s something very strange about the conversation around vocational education in the United States, well captured by the fact that Motoko Rich’s article on cuts in federal spending on vocational skills posits a disjoint between job training and reading:

In European countries like Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, vocational programs have long been viable choices for a significant portion of teenagers. Yet in the United States, technical courses have often been viewed as the ugly stepchildren of education, backwaters for underachieving or difficult students. In a speech to the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium in April, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that “at a time when local, state and federal governments are all facing tremendous budget pressure” advocates for vocationally oriented education “must make a compelling case for continued funding.” In his camp are those who say students need to concentrate on basics like math, literacy and history to prepare for college and the jobs of the future, rather than learning a narrow technical craft. In this view, bright students like Mr. Kelly, who have the potential to do college-level work, should be put on that path, or schools will have failed them.

It seems to me that there’s a gaping void out there between “students need to concentrate on basics like math and literacy” (forget history) and “students need to go to college.” Literacy is a very important life skill. It’s difficult for me to think of a job for which literacy wouldn’t be a useful skill to have, and of course it’s not like you see retired people sitting around saying, “Now that I’m out of the labor force, I never have occasion to read.” Students need to concentrate on literacy so that they know how to read. Math is similar. I visited a vocational school in Helsinki where they were training people to be stylists. They were learning about makeup and manicures and haircutting. But they were also learning some accounting. There’s no reason to think someone has to go to college to someday start her own hair salon, but it helps a lot to know something about how to keep the books. And, again, not only is math a vital skill here but literacy is going to help you a lot in terms of researching the market, what it takes to start a business, etc.

It seems at least plausible that a vocational setting of some kind might be the most compelling setting for some people to learn these basic academic skills. Certainly there’s something a bit odd about some of the aspirational “everyone must go to college” rhetoric out there. But we need to keep in mind that at the low end, the outputs from the American educational system are currently really really bad. It’s not about everyone needing to have basic reading and math competency so they can go to college; it’s about everyone needing to have basic reading and math skills so that they know who to read and do basic math.

The American Federation of Teachers

The Blue Ribbon Campaign

http://www.aft.org/about/world/democracy-humanrights/blueribbon.cfm

 "Access to free, quality education is both a human right and part of the essential foundation for economic growth in every nation," said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers. "With this toolkit, students and educators in the United States help give a voice—and hope—to the millions of children around the world who still seek access to quality education."
—Randi Weingarten, AFT president

 The American Federation of Teachers is a partner in the Global Campaign for Education, United States Chapter—the international coalition of faith groups, non-governmental organizations and trade unions supporting access to quality basic education for every child in the world by 2015. As we campaign in state capitals and school districts to protect quality education for children in the United States, we are mindful of the 72 million children in the world who do not have a classroom or teacher. With our partners in the GCE-US, the AFT is leading the Blue Ribbon Campaign in the United States, a grass-roots effort to build an understanding that education is the key to economic development, social stability and vibrant democratic governance.

Get Involved

Join the Blue Ribbon Campaign. Add to the national blue ribbon chain by mailing your links to: Global Campaign for Education, U.S., 750 First Street NE, Suite 1040, Washington, D.C. 20002. The chain will be included in a press event to mark the introduction of the Education For All Act.

Classroom Activities

AFT members across the nation are taking the campaign’s Lesson for All teaching activities into their classrooms and local community organizations, to focus attention on children in disadvantaged parts of the world who don’t have access to a quality education. Our teachers and students are creating links in the national blue ribbon chain (see Blue Ribbon Campaign classroom activity), and they are joining with others around the world, calling on politicians and policymakers to stand up for the right to a free and quality primary school education.

AFT members are integrating the Lesson for All activities into their classroom plans to help American children understand why education is so important, and what challenges disadvantaged students face when they lack access to quality schooling. This year’s Global Action Week theme focuses on the importance of education for girls and women in developing countries. The activities show students how they can bridge the gender gap and ensure girls have a fair chance at all life’s possibilities.

Take Action

Write to your U.S. representative and ask him or her to join with Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) in sponsoring the Education for All Act.

Episode 411: Why Preschool Can Save The World

The following is a link to an episode of the program "This American Life", one of the radio stories of Planet Money of National Public Radio in the United States.

"On today's show, we meet a self-described robber baron who decided to spend his billions on finger paint and changing tables. We revisit decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. And we talk to a Nobel prize-winning economist who says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/10/19/163256866/episode-411-why-preschool-can-save-the-world

A Teacher Writes to President Obama

"Living in Dialogue" of Education Week posted a series of letters addressed to the White House that were written by public school teachers. I would like to share in this blog one of those letters. I think the thoughts expressed in this letter are important to consider. A good majority of pupils in the Philippines would easily fit the description of students who have major concerns that are far beyond just learning in the classroom. Thus, it is a must that we listen to our teachers, who are the ones living closest to these poor children.

How Can One Teacher be Both the Best and the Worst? A Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,
I am a 7th grade writing teacher. I love my school, my job, and my students. Summers are torture to me because I'm out of the classroom. I truly feel I was put on this earth to teach middle school. My job is me and I am my job; the two cannot be separated. After twenty-five years of teaching, walking into my classroom each morning still produces little sparks of excitement within me. I am a lucky, lucky person.
I teach six classes a day in a former-rural-now-bedroom-community near Seattle. My students cross all socioeconomic lines. Some children in my school come from wealthy families and some children in my school are living in cars. Some kids have never known want or need. Some get two of their meals, their supplies, and their clothes, for free, at school.
When I teach my honors class, made up of kids who are gifted and talented, I am the most amazing teacher in the world! The kids hang on my every word. They laugh at my (pathetic) jokes. They pay close attention in lessons, apply their learning directly to their own writing, and ask writerly questions. They strike up conversations about books they've read or movies they've seen. When I ask them questions, like, "What did you do over the weekend?" they give answers about museums, stage productions, sporting events (both their own and professional), music recitals, restaurants, travel, family activities, and events within their well-connected and well-supported social stratum. My job as a teacher is easy and very natural.
In another class, I am the worst teacher on the planet. The kids from that hour are distracted and disengaged. It would appear they've never been in a classroom. They are rude to each other, profess no need for adults like me, and they do not complete their work. Attentions are short. Stories are only funny if it involves someone getting hurt or humiliated. Many have been in fights, been suspended, and have seen the inside of the principal's and counselor's offices many times already this year. If I ask about their weekends, they say they did, "nuthin'." If I refer to a piece of art or a musical or a book, I get blank stares in return. Many spend their lives outside of school unsupervised, so imagine their reactions when they enter a structured environment, like a school, or worse yet, Mrs. Barker's class. My job as a teacher is strained, difficult, and emotionally exhausting.
So what gives? Same teacher, same twenty-five years of teaching experience. Kids from the same town, attending the same school.
Obviously, the variable is the vast differences in my students' lives. We cannot ignore the fact that some kids come to us programmed to learn. They've had amazing experiences in their short lives. They have parents who support their endeavors, be they academic, artistic, or athletic. They do not come to school hungry and they do not go to bed scared. They travel during school breaks. Their houses are warm and their many pairs of shoes fit. My students who live in poverty do not have their basic needs met. In addition to lacking food, shelter, water, and clothing, many live in chaos. Violence, missing parents, low wages, drug use, loss of employment...the list goes on. How can a child focus on crafting a good title or writing an engaging lead when so many forces, out of her control, take center stage in her brain and her psyche? I'm positive you studied Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in your academic years. NOTHING that propels growth can happen in a person's life until those very basic needs are met.
Here's the kicker: none of this is ever an excuse and I'll continue to work one hundred times harder for my students who struggle and live in poverty. I'll go toe-to-toe with them to demand they finish their work, and finish it well. I'll call them in at lunchtime so they can work and eat at the same time. I'll stand strong as they unload the burdens of their brains and hearts, offer them hugs, and then keep pushing because I know education is their only way out. I'll continue to strive to be that adult who is the example, knowing that sometimes all it takes to pull a kid from the cycle is one single grownup who cares.
Truth told, I live for these kids. Most times, I never know where they end up because of the transient nature of their lives. But in those moments, when a 25 year old man knocks on my classroom door and tentatively says, "I'm sure you don't remember me..." and proceeds to apologize for being a little "s--t" in my class and then tells me that he's been accepted to the State Patrol Academy and that he's on his way to having his life in order, I am rewarded. I cry in those moments. I'm sure you understand why.
Ending poverty will end many problems in public education. We are by no means perfect, but when our mission is to take in anyone, no matter their conditions, how could we be? Our great nation has the wealth to make sure kids don't go hungry. We have the money to support struggling families. We put our resources and energy into the things that matter most to us. By today's standards, the United States does not value the well-being and education of all its children.
Proof is in actions, not words or plans to test the life out of children.
Please, be a democrat in the best possible definition. Please return to your idea of hope; it is why I voted for you. Your plan for education runs frighteningly close to that of Governor Romney's and does not allow me to cast my vote for you this time around. You still have time to turn this freighter. All it takes is some honesty and commitment from you, the only one who can reject Race to the Top, the testing culture, the privatization of public schools, and the eventual collapse of what makes our nation greater than any other: a free education for all.
With all the sincerity I can muster,
Shelley BarkerSnohomish, WA

Homework Or No Homework?

It seems a simple question. Yet, addressing it can clearly illustrate the difference between ideology and research. Answering this question adequately pushes the right approach to education reform. Where do we begin? The president of France recently announced his plan to ban homework. An article in the Wall Street Journal states:

François Hollande has a bold new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week at the Sorbonne, the French president declared that work "must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we want to support the children and re-establish equality." 

The rest of the article did not have kind words to describe the above plan:

Here we begin to wonder: Are the French losing their mind? Fortunately not. More than two-thirds of the country would oppose the ban, according to an Ifop poll, so there's hope that even in the land of égalité there's some recognition that state power cannot equalize everything.

One can browse through the comments on this article as well as recent conservative blogs and the overwhelming harsh remark seems to imply that banning homework as a means to re-establish equality is tantamount to making all children equally dumb. Banning or limiting the amount of homework is not new. It has been suggested as a pedagogical reform even in some schools in the United States. It should be no surprise then that there is research that has been done to address the benefits and harms of homework in schools. The Center for Public Education has compiled results from research on this topic. The following are the general highlights:

• The link between homework and student achievement is far from clear. 
• Homework appears to have more positive effects for certain groups of students:
• Homework may have nonacademic benefits. 
• Too much homework may diminish its effectiveness. 
• The amount of homework completed by students seems to be more positively associated with student achievement than the amount of homework assigned by teachers. 
• After-school programs that provide homework assistance may improve student behavior, motivation, and work habits but not necessarily academic achievement. 
• The effect of parent involvement in homework is unclear. 
• There is little research on connections between specific kinds of homework and student achievement.

From the above, it is evident that benefits of homework are far from being crystal clear. Homework, as with any additional tool to be used by schools for learning, requires a clear objective. What is the real purpose of assigning work to students outside classroom hours? With a stated goal in mind, the next step is to analyze the homework, its content and protocol. Are students supposed to work on their own? Are parents expected to assist their children when they do the homework? The answers to these questions are important as these may inadvertently introduce other factors into education. It is straightforward to demand that parents be involved in the education of their children. But in a society where the majority are poorly educated in the math and the sciences, this demand is completely unreasonable. In a society where there is a huge gap between the privileged and underprivileged, assigning homework can only exacerbate the socio-economic inequalities. This then defeats the purpose of education as a vehicle for social mobility. The following is a recent study, for example, by Marte Renning. These are results from schools in the Netherlands, but the findings could easily apply to other countries.

Downloaded from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571000083X#

Seeing this study makes the plan of the French president not look absurd after all. The French president was talking about social inequality and injustice. And if homework amplifies these social inequalities then it is counterproductive against the role of schools as possible social enablers or equalizers. The above study shows how homework affects the learning gap. However, it focuses mainly on how homework affects the "learning" side of education. It does not evaluate how homework can assist the "teaching" side. There are studies on this aspect as well. Below is one example.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v83465j6p823g053/fulltext.pdf

Part of their conclusions is as follows:

This study shows that to really understand students’ thinking at a deeper and internal level, teachers should grade students’ homework and analyze errors from homework. The most important contribution from this study was that it provided a sample of a new model of grading homework that is feasible and practical for US classroom teachers. This model of grading student homework helps to solve the dilemma in grading homework practice in the US. Considering US teachers do not have sufficient time to grade all students’ homework daily, this study suggests grouping students into three levels of low, middle, and high and selecting one or two students’ homework from each group to grade on a daily basis. In addition, teachers should engage in an error analysis process daily by identifying error patterns and analyzing the possible reasons for the misconception. To have students master the concepts and skills correctly and accurately, teachers must provide feedback immediately by making corrections for errors, which is also a key aspect to improving self-efficacy.

This short excursion through one specific aspect of education illustrates the complexity of how to draw education reforms. And in my opinion, at the end of the day, it is really only the teacher who could correctly answer the question on whether assigning homework is working or not. This is only about homework. Imagine adding two years to basic education. This is certainly a much bigger question yet....

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino decried the “railroaded” passage of House Bill No. 6643 or the K-12 Bill on second reading, saying that the rushed bill contains provisions “not grounded on solid evidence.”

Staying in School

"Most countries have only ten years of compulsory education. Compulsory education in the US varies from state to state, but the average requires anyone who is under 16 years of age to be either enrolled in a school or home-schooled. This means that on average, the US only has 10-11 (including kindergarten) years of compulsory education. The last two years in the US K-12 education already include courses in tertiary education. These are called advanced placement (AP) or international baccalaureate (IB) courses. Examples are calculus (up to multivariable) and AP chemistry. Students who take AP chemistry usually have already finished one year of basic chemistry and one year of advanced chemistry, so in sum, a student could have taken three years of chemistry while in high school. Some schools in the US can not offer these, and consequently, there is great heterogeneity among US schools."

-"First Things First: A Commentary on K+12" 

Compulsory education requires responsibility from two sides: the learner and the provider. Requiring a given number of years of basic education without providing the resources is plain wrong. In addition, compulsory means a strong and determined implementation of a requirement. In the Philippines, kindergarten is now compulsory. Unfortunately, all that this means is that a student can not be enrolled in Grade 1 without completing kindergarten first. Compulsory education in the United States means someone goes to prison if a child fails to attend school. Of course, a government is only justified to take such action if the government provides all the necessary resources to attend school. When my son reached 5 years of age, I received a phone call from our school county board asking why my son has not attended the public school in our neighborhood during the first week of the school year. I had to inform the authorities that I had already enrolled my son in a Catholic school. This is what compulsory education seriously means. 

In the past few weeks, the Hamilton project at the Brookings Institution hosted the following forum: Back to School: Promoting Attainment and Achievement in K-12 Education. One of the papers presented in this forum is from graduate student Derek Messacar and associate professor Philip Oreopoulos from the University of Toronto:

Downloaded from http://www.hamiltonproject.org/files/downloads_and_links/THP_MessacarOreopoulos_CompSchool_DiscPaper_1.pdf

Abstract

High school dropouts fare substantially worse than their peers on a wide variety of long-term economic outcomes. On average, a dropout earns less money, is more likely to be in jail, is less healthy, is less likely to be married, and is unhappier than a high school graduate. But despite this growing education gap, dropout rates have remained mostly unchanged over the past three decades. This problem disproportionately affects low-income and minority students: among these populations, nearly half of all individuals do not graduate with their class. This paper presents a plan to increase the high school graduation rate. A key element of the proposal is for all states to increase their minimum school-leaving age to eighteen. In many studies, this intervention has been found to have a significant positive impact on several long-term outcomes. The proposal also calls for more resources for enforcement of new and existing compulsory-schooling laws, to maximize the impact of the policy change. More effort is also needed to keep students engaged in school, even at an early age. If states invest in effective support programs, they can further increase graduation rates and reduce future costs of enforcing compulsory-schooling policies. All of these interventions should be implemented with the goal of strengthening America’s primary education system to promote college attendance and improve career outcomes among America’s youth. 

The paper begins with enumerating how school dropouts affect society as a whole.  School dropouts generally face higher unemployment and a significant fraction fall below the poverty line. In the United States, school dropouts by the age of fifty earn on the average $16.50 an hour, working in construction, food services, and truck transportation. Teenage birth rates are also high for school dropouts. The rate of school dropouts also strongly correlates with the crime rate in a neighborhood as well as the overall economic standing of the community. It is with this realization that it becomes apparent the true costs of school dropouts, reminding us of the old adage, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

The problem becomes more serious with the fact that remediation is almost an impossible task. Compulsory education does come with costs. Even with adequate resources for schooling, implementing compulsory education requires personnel, time and effort. The fact that I received a phone call on the year that my son was supposed to start schooling meant someone in the government was in fact paying attention. School dropouts do not happen overnight. Thus, compulsory education requires monitoring and keeping records.

Past grade school and across the mid teen years, as the child further develops his or her own decision making, compulsory education now has to deal directly with the student. At this stage, compulsory education not only requires schools to use "sticks" but also "carrots" to reengage students who may have the impulse to leave school without fully understanding the long lasting consequences of such action. 

To apply the above thoughts on the Philippine situation is very painful. First, peer-reviewed studies are required to find out why students stop attending school. The reasons maybe obvious but a careful study is still required. Poverty is expected to be the top reason. Child labor is widespread. Classrooms are overcrowded. The high pupil to teacher ratio prevents teachers from establishing a deeper one-on-one relationship with their students. The fact that public schools are not really free makes it difficult for poor parents to send their children to schools. 

To address the above problems, of course, there are costs. Providing free lunch to poor students, ensuring that public schools do not collect any fees (no exceptions), providing the poor with the necessary school supplies and learning materials, reducing the pupil to teacher ratio especially in schools where most students come from poor families - all of these measures require money. It is quite obvious that resources are not there for thirteen years of compulsory education. So we need to take baby steps, "first things first".  We should not overextend ourselves for this will only exacerbate the situation. Doing well in the early years of education will equip students with skills and interest to continue in their education. Resources in basic education can be focused on these early years.

The costs are actually very small compared to the costs of not taking these actions. School dropouts are correlated with crime rate, drug use, early pregnancy, and poor health. School dropouts lead to a less engaged citizenry. Democracy simply can not flourish in an uneducated society. The "straight path" cannot be achieved by simply removing the corrupt from the halls of power in the Philippine government. The "straight path" requires education for all, an education that equips each and every member of society. Thus, we end with the familiar saying: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

Group Raises ‘Red Alert’ Level over Worsening Child Poverty in the Philippines

MANILA – Child welfare group Akap-Bata Party-list launched on Oct 1, as kick-off for the National Children’s Month, a campaign dubbed ‘Red Alert vs Child Poverty.’ In a media forum in Quezon City, Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of the Diocese of Caloocan, Ronnie Quizon, son of the late comedian Dolphy, and top leaders of Akap-Bata Partylist sent a strong warning to the government to heed the “alarming trend” in child poverty. They also urged the general public to help resolve the basic issues of children.

Some pre-school children joined in the campaign to raise the ‘red alert’ level vs poverty, as they raised their demand for shelter, proper nutrition, education, health care, protection and other basic needs which the Philippine government had previously acknowledged as children’s rights.

“Issues plaguing the Filipino children trace their roots to poverty and exploitation of poverty,” Iñiguez told Bulatlat.com in Filipino. But, under the present administration of President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, child poverty in the country has been worsening, Akap-Bata noted in its 2012 report on the situation of Filipino children.

Latest data on Filipino children’s situation are disheartening based on the Akap-Bata report. As poverty worsens, so does the plight of the children, said Arlene Brosas, national secretary general of Akap-Bata. She also takes issue with the conflicting survey reports coming out supposedly saying there is less number of poor today, and yet the number of those who experience hunger has increased. Such statistics are illogical, Brosas said.

Akap-Bata warned that the numbers of uneducated, malnourished and homeless Filipino children is growing every day. Confounding that, it said in its report, are violations of the basic rights of our young citizens. The number of homeless children swells dramatically, it said, as demolitions of communities spread all over the country due to the Public-Private Partnership programs that are “framework economic policy” of the Aquino administration.

Akap-Bata blamed the continuing implementation of demolitions as responsible for the rise in number of street children, which now total 2.2 million.

As most member of Filipino families are children (17 years and younger), Akap-Bata also pointed to the tragic consequences of the recently reported rise in hunger incidences. Recent data reported that two in every three Filipino families are experiencing hunger; nearly three in every four families eat just once a day.

As a result of such pervasive hunger, nearly one in every three Filipino kids is stunted, and one in five is underweight, said Akap-Bata.

These alarming data increase further as our government and various local institutions continue to neglect and disregard the need to address the root causes of child poverty, the child welfare group said.

“We have to work for the welfare of the Filipino children, uplift their condition, in every venue we can, from Congress to (parliament of the) streets,” Brosas told Bulatlat.com.  She said it is sad that until now, the number of children five years and below dying of preventable causes is still unchanged.

On top of all these, rights abuses aggravate poverty of children. Child labor in the Philippines now involves 5.5m children. Cases of child abuse and exploitation increase year after year, Akap-Bata warned. From 2008-2011 alone, it noted that “a record-high 41 cases of child soldier recruitment for paramilitary groups (as guides and shields for military operations) were reported.”

Photos and texts by Marya D. Salamat 

http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/10/02/group-raises-%E2%80%98red-alert%E2%80%99-level-over-worsening-child-poverty-in-the-philippines/ 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ULAT SA KALAGAYAN NG BATANG PILIPINO 2012

Inihanda ng: Akap Bata Party-List Committee on Research and Education

October 01, 2012

http://www.facebook.com/notes/akap-bata-party-list/ulat-sa-kalagayan-ng-batang-pilipino-2012/10151179124551067

PAUNANG SALITA:

Ang mga bata ay may limitasyon sa kaalaman at pisikal na kakayahan upang ipagtanggol ang kanilang mga sarili mula sa iba’t ibang tipo ng paglabag sa  kanilang batayang karapatan. Dahil dito, masasabi natin na ang mga batang Pilipino ay isa sa pinaka-bulnerableng sektor sa isang lipunang laganap ang kahirapan at kawalan ng hustisya.

Batayang paniniwala ng Akap Bata Partylist (ABPL) na ang kalagayan ng batang Pilipino ay salamin ng lipunang Pilipino. Dahil dito, ang pagsusulong ng  kapakanan at pagkalinga sa mga bata ay isang panlipunang responsibilidad.

Kaya naman mahalaga ang papel ng mga organisasyong  masa at iba’t ibang tipunan ng mga child advocates o tagapagtanggol ng mga bata mula sa iba’t ibang saray ng lipunan upang maitaguyod ang karapatan ng mga batang Pilipino.  

Inilabas ang praymer na ito bilang gabay ng ating mga coordinators at lider upang maipalaganap sa malawak na masa sa mabilis na paraan ang ating linya't pagsusuri hinggil sa kalagayan ng mga bata at upang higit pang itaas ang antas ng kamulatan, sigasig at pagkilos ng ating mga kasapi, boluntir at mga kaibigan sa larangan ng children’s advocacy.

Akap Bata Party-List Research and Education Committee

BALANGKAS:

I. SINO ANG BATANG PILIPINO?

II. ANO ANG MGA TAMPOK NA ISYUNG PAMBATA? ANO ANG MGA NAGPAPAHIRAP SA BATANG PILIPINO?

III. ANG ATING PANAWAGAN AT PAGTUGON SA KALAGAYAN NG MGA BATA

1. SINO ANG BATANG PILIPINO?

Batay sa depinisyon ng United Nations (UN) ang mga bata ay kahit sinong tao na nasa edad 17 taon pababa. Ang kalagayan ng kalakhan ng Pilipino ay siya ring kalagayan ng mga bata.

a. Populasyon ng mga bata. Apat sa bawat sampung Pilipino ay nasa edad na 0 – 17. Malaking bahagi sa bilang na ito ay ang mga bata (42%).

b. Tantos ng kahirapan. Umaabot ng 70% ng populasyong Pilipino ay nakararanas ng kahirapan. Tinataya na bawat Pilipino ay nabubuhay sa isang dolyar (Php 42) kada araw.

c. Kawalan ng lupang sinasaka bilang pagkukunan ng  pagkain at kabuhayan.Walumpung porsyento (80%)  ng lupain ng buong bansa ang kinokontrol ng nasa 1% ng populasyon na binubuo ng malalaking panginoong maylupa at asendero.

d. Kawalan ng Trabaho. Ang pinakamalalang tantos ng kawalan ng trabaho ay naitala sa taong 2002 – 2011. Umabot sa 11.1% o 4.3 milyong mamamayan ang walang trabaho.

e. Overseas workers. Batay sa datos ng Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), nasa 9.5 milyong Pilipino o 10% ng buong populasyon ang nangingibang bansa upang magtrabaho habang 4,560 Pilipino ang umaalis sa bansa araw-araw (POEA).

f. Child Labor. Ayon sa quarterly labor surveys (BLES) nasa 4.2 million ang bilang ng mga child workers habang ang National Statistics Office (NSO) naman ay nagsasabing nasa 5.5 million ang mga child workers edad 5 – 17. Tatlong milyon sa mga batang ito ay nasa mapanganib na trabaho. 

g. Street Children. Sa taong 2010, nasa 250,000 (UNICEF) hanggang 2.2 milyon (Chilren’s Rehabilitation Center, CRC) ang bilang ng mga batang kalye. Sila ay nabubuhay sa delikadong sitwasyon, malnourished, salat sa pangangalaga at biktima ng iba’t ibang pang-aabuso.

h. Infant mortality. 40 sanggol ang namamatay kada 1,000 sanggol na ipinapanganak, at karamihan sa mga ito ay nagmula sa pinakamahihirap na saray ng lipunan.

i. Stunted and underweight children. 32% ng mga batang Pilipino edad limang taon pababa ay bansot (stunted) habang 21% naman sa kanila ay kulang sa timbang (underweight).

j. Nutrisyon. Umaabot sa 66.9% ng pamilyang Pilipino ay tinatayang nagugutom habang 73.3% naman ng pamilyang Pilipino ang kumakain nang isang beses lamang isang araw batay sa tala sa taong 2008.

k. Basic Education. Mataas ang antas ng enrollment  ngunit mababa ang antas ng nakatatapos sa pag-aaral. Ang 2012 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) ng NSO ay nagsasabing 15.5% o 6.0 milyong bata at kabataang Pilipino ay di nakakapag-aral o Out-of-School Youth (OSY).

I. Education Shortages.

Sa taong 2011, umabot lamang sa 2.7% ang kabuuang gastos ng pamahalaan para sa edukasyon. Kaya naman di na nakagugulat ang datos ng DepEd hinggil sa kakulangan sa mga pampublikong paaralan sa taong 2011-2012:

m. Child rights violations. Ayon sa pananaliksik ng CRC, sa taong 2008 – 2011 ay may 41 na bata ang binasagang Child Soldiers, 4 na batang nirekluta sa Paramilitary groups at 22 bata ang ginamit na giya at pananggalang sa mga operasyong militar. Marami sa mga batang ito ay dumanas ng ilegal na pag-aresto at detention habang ang iba naman ay pinaparada pa sa midya.

n. Child Abuse. Ayon sa Department of Social Welfare and Development, umabot sa 4,479 ang mga batang biktima ng pang-aabuso ang kanilang naasikaso para sa taong 2010. Ngunit hindi ito kumpletong datos ng aktwal na bilang ng mga biktima dahil hindi naman lahat ng biktima ay nagrereklamo at may limitasyon rin mismo ang mga serbisyo at program ng DSWD.

2. ANO ANG MGA TAMPOK NA ISYUNG PAMBATA? ANO ANG MGA NAGPAPAHIRAP SA MGA BATANG PILIPINO?

Ang mga sumusunod ay mga tampok na isyung pambata:

a. Edukasyon – Ang sistemang pang edukasyon sa bansa ay komersyalisado, kolonyal at may pasistang katangian. Tumatagos ang iba’t ibang katangian nito mula pre-school hanggang kolehiyo sa iba't ibang paraan. Komersyalisado ang sistemang pang-edukasyon dahil sa kalakhan ay hindi na ito serbisyong panlipunan na libre kundi negosyong edukasyon na pribilehiyo ng maykaya. Kolonyal ang sistemang edukasyon dahil hindi ito nakabalangkas at naglilingkod sa pangangailangan ng sambayanan, bagkus ito'y naglilingkod sa pampulitika at pang-ekonomyang interes ng dayuhan. Pasista ang oryentasyon ng sistemang edukasyon na makikita sa limitado o kawalan ng akademikong kalayaan, pagpigil sa mga mag-aaral at guro na maging bahagi  ng kilusan at panawagan sa pagbabago, at may layuning ihulma ang mamamayang maging kimi at sunud-sunuran.

Halimbawa ng mga ito ay ang pagdami ng pribadong Day Care Centers at Kinder schools habang pito sa sampung bata ang hindi nakaka-akses sa Early Childhood Care and Education. Dahil sa kawalan ng depinidong badyet para sa serbisyong pambata, maraming mga bata ang hindi nakakapag aral sa maagang yugto ng kanilang buhay. Mahahalintulad din ang katulad na problema sa mga pampublikong paaralan sa elementarya, hayskul at kolehiyo. Madalas binabandera ang ambisyong “global competitiveness” na repleksyon ng kolonyal na oryentasyon ng edukasyon.

b. Kalusugan at Nutrisyon – Tumaas ang bilang ng mamamayang nakaranas ng “involuntary hunger” o pagka gutom dahil sa kawalan ng makakain.  Ayon sa Social Weather Station (SWS) Survey, unang kwarto ng 2012 ay tumaas ng 23.8% o tinatayang 4.8 milyong pamilya ang nakaranas nito.

Diumano, ito ang pinakamataas na tantos ng kagutuman sa nakalipas na dekada. Karaniwan sa pamilyang Pilipino ay binubuo ng 2-3 na anak kaya kung titignan, malaking bahagi ng nakakaranas ng gutom ay mga bata. Ang malaganap, mabilisan at patuloy pagtataas ng presyo ng langis kasama ng presyo ng bilihin ay nagpapalalala sa kagutuman ng mga bata. Hindi kinakaya ng kakarampot na sweldo o kita ng kanilang mga magulang ang halaga ng bilihin. Nasasakripisyo ang kalusugan ng mga bata kapalit ng malaking tubo ng mga kumpanya ng langis at batayang bilihin. Ang karapatan sa pagkain ay kapantay ng karapatang mabuhay. Ito ay batayang karapatan ng lahat ng tao lalo na ang mga bata. Ang kagutuman at malnutrisyon ay mga problemang bunsod  ng kawalan ng pambansang industriyalisasyon, ng tunay na repormang agraryo, ng trabaho at nakabubuhay na sahod ng manggagawa.

c. Tahanan – Sa implementasyon ng Public Private Partnership (PPP), mas marami pang pamilyang Pilipino ang mawawalan ng tahanan. Bukod sa pagkain, ang tahanan ay isa sa pangunahing kailangan ng tao lalo na ng mga bata dahil ang tahanan ang kanilang unang paaralan. Bukod sa nagsisilbing proteksyon sa init at lamig, ang tahanan ay lugar ng pagkalinga ng pamilya at pamayanan. Dito hinuhubog ang pagkatao ng mga bata. Kung kaya't kapag pinagkait sa kanila ang tahanan, o kaya'y pinalayas o dinemolis ang kanilang bahay, hindi lamang pisikal na istruktura ang sinisira kundi ang buhay-pamilya at buhay-pamayanan ng mga bata. Ang mga relocation sites ay mas masahol pa ang kalagayan kumpara sa mga komunidad ng maralita dahil ito ay malayo sa trabaho o hanap-buhay, walang kuryente at malinis na tubig, hindi maayos ang daan, at malayo sa paaralan at ospital.

Sa pinakamalalayo at pinakamahihirap na lugar naman sa kanayunan, sapilitang nililikas ng mga residente ang kanilang mga tahanan dahil sa matinding operasyong militar ng gubyerno.  Ang mga operasyong militar na ito ay “counter-insurgency” operations ng gubyerno laban sa mga armadong grupo.

Karaniwang pinaghihinalaang suporter ng mga armadong grupo ang mga pamilya kaya't biktima ang mga pamilyang magsasaka ng intimidasyon, pananakot at malubhang paglabag sa karapatang pantao. Karaniwan ding ginagawang kampuhan ang mga paaralan at health centers kaya naman nakokompromiso ang pag aaral at kalusugan ng mga bata at ng buong pamilya. May matinding negatibong epekto sa edukasyon, pisikal at mental na kalusugan at kabuuang kabutihan ng mga bata sa mga lugar ng matinding militarisasyon.

d. Mga paglabag sa karapatan at kagalingan ng bata - Ayon sa UNICEF, isa ang Pilipinas sa may pinakamasahol na porma ng "child labor" sa anyo ng pagtatrabaho sa bukid, pagpapaalila bilang kasambahay at pagpapatrabaho sa mga kriminal na sindikato sa droga at prostitusyon. Nalalantad sila sa mga mapanganib sa sitwasyon, mga lihis na gawi, at lalo pang paglabag sa kanilang karapatan bilang bata at bilang tao :

• 2/3 ng mga batang biktima ng mga pang-aabuso ay mga batang babae;

• 55% ng mga batang biktima ng pang-aabuso ay nasa edad 10 – 17;

• Isa (1) sa limang (5) batang biktima ng pang-aabuso ay edad limang (5) taon pababa;

• 30% ng mga mga inireklamong pang-aabuso ay pag-aabandona (abandonment);

• 30% ng mga inireklamong pang aabuso ay sekswal napang-aabuso (rape, sexual harassment etc.)

• 23% ng mga mga inireklamong pang-aabuso ay pagpapabaya (neglect)

• 60,000 – 100,000 batang Pilipino ay biktima ng human trafficking (UNICEF)

• 50,000 batang Pilipino ang naitalang kinulong at  inaresto sa loob ng labing anim (16) na taon

(Amnesty International)

• 4,000 children ang nakakulong kasama ang mga “hardened criminals” (UNICEF)

• Nasa 20,000 ang kinukulong kada taon (Child Rights Information Network)

Ang mga nasabing tampok na isyung pambata ay nagmumula sa batayang katangian ng lipunang Pilipino na ang ekonomya ay atrasado, agrikultural, walang lokal na baseng industriyal; at ang pulitika ay pinaghaharian ng mga panginoong maylupa, malaking burgesya komprador at dinidiktahan ng imperyalista.  Sa ganitong lipunan, ang nakararaming pamilyang Pilipino ay dumaranas ng hirap at pagsasamantala. Ang mga batang anak ng magsasaka, manggagawa at maralita ay dumaranas ng kahirapan, kagutuman at kaapihan bilang bahagi ng pamilyang anakpawis. Ang mga batang Pilipino ay ekstensyon ng pagsasamantala sa kanilang mga magulang. Higit na apektado rin sila ng militarisasyon, pangangamkam ng lupa, kapiranggot na sweldo sa mga  pagawaan at biktima rin ng demolisyon sa lungsod. Apektado ang pangkalahatang pag-unlad nila bilang mga bata dahil sa ganitong kalagayan.

3. ANG ATING PANAWAGAN AT PAGTUGON SA KALAGAYAN NG MGA BATA

Ang komprehensibong pagtugon sa mga pangangailangan, kapakanan at karapatan ng mga bata ay nangangailangan ng malalimang pagbabagong panlipunan. Ang kahirapan at kaapihan ng pinakamaraming pamilyang magsasaka, manggagawa at maralita ay kailangang labanan, at itaguyod ang kanilang kahilingan para sa trabaho, paninirahan at katarungang panlipunan. Sa ganitong paraan lamang natin maisusulong ang proteksyon, karapatan at kapakanan ng pinakamaraming mga batang anak ng magsasaka, manggagawa at maralita.

Ang Akap Bata Partylist ay isang maliit na bahagi lamang ng buong sambayanang kumikilos para sa pagbabagong panlipunan at pulitika ng pagbabago. Sa abot ng makakaya nito, umaambag ang Akap Bata Partylist upang maibsan ang kasalukuyang kalagayan ng mga bata, habang tinatanaw at naglilingkod din ito para sa lipunang tunay na malaya, masagana at progresibo.

Mahalaga ang papel ng sama-samang pagkilos upang higit pang maisulong ang laban para sa kagalingan at karapatan ng mga bata. Ang mga sumusunod ang ating mga panawagan sa iba’t ibang isyung pambata:

a. Edukasyon

Kailangang itaas ang budget sa edukasyon at sundin ang international standard ng UN na 6%budget allocation mula sa Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ng bansa; Pigilan at ibasura ang K+12 implementation at bagkus ay punuan ang mga kakulangan sa klasrum, libro at iba pang pasilidad; Itaas ang sahod ng mga guro-kalinga at kaakibat nito ay isulong ang Magna Carta for Day Care Teachers; Higit sa lahat ay isulong ang makabayan, siyentipiko at makamasang sistema ng edukasyon. 

b. Kalusugan at Nutrisyon

Kailangang tutulan ang pribatisasyon ng mga ospital at dagdagan ang pondo para sa pampublikong ospital; Ibasura ang Oil Deregulation Law upang mapigilan ang pagtaas ng presyo ng langis at mga bilihin; Itaas ang sweldo ng mga manggagawa, ibaba ang presyo ng bilihin at tanggalin ang 12% vat sa mga pangunahing bilihin upang makayanan ng mga magulang at mga tagapangalaga na maghain ng mas masustansyang pagkain sa mga bata; Higit sa lahat ay kailangang isulong ang pambansang industriyalisasyon at ipatupad ang tunay na repormang agraryo upang umabante ang ekonomiya at magkaroon ng maayos na hanapbuhay ang mga pamilya .

c. Tahanan

Kailangang itigil ang demolisyon, ilantad at labanan ang PPP(Public Private Partnership); Ibasura ang Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) na lalong nagtulak sa mga demolisyon, nagpalala sa negosyong pabahay ng gobyerno, at nagsilbi sa interes ng malalaking negosyante sa halip na maralitang pamilya. Labanan ang mapanlinlang na Community Mortgage Program (CMP) na negosyong pabahay ng gobyerno. Kailangang itigil ang militarisasyon at sa halip ay tugunan ang mga ugat ng armadong labanan gaya ng kahirapan at pagsasamantala. Labanan ang mga paglabag sa karapatang pantao ng mga bata.

IPAGLABAN ANG PROTEKSYON, KARAPATAN AT KAGALINGAN NG MGA BATANG PILIPINO.

IPAGLABAN ANG EDUKASYON, PAGKAIN AT TAHANAN PARA SAMGA BATA.

ISULONG ANG LIPUNANG TUNAY NA MALAYA, MASAGANA AT PROGRESIBO NA KAKALINGA SA MGA

BATA.

THE 10 RIGHTS OF A CHILD  (SAMPUNG KARAPATAN NG MGA BATA)

1.Right to be born, to have a name and nationality

(Karapatang ipanganak, magkaroon ng pangalan at pambansang identidad)

2. Right to have a good shelter and a loving family that will care of them

(Karapatang magkaroon ng maayos na tahanan at pamilyang kakalinga sa kanila)

3. Right to eat nutritious food and to have a healthy and energetic body

(Karapatang makakain ng masustansyang pagkain upang maging malusog at aktibo ang pangangatawan)

4. Right to have enough education to develop their skills and talents

(Karapatang magkaroon ng sapat na edukasyon upang mapaunlad ang kanilang kakayahan at talento)

5. Right to play and have enjoyment with their friends

(Karapatang makapaglaro at maging masaya kasama ng kanilang mga kaibigan)

6. Right to be protected against all forms of abuses

(Karapatang maipagtanggol laban sa lahat ng tipo ng pang-aabuso)

7. Right to live in a peaceful and child-friendly community

(Karapatang mabuhay sa isang mapayapa at maka-bata na komunidad)

8. Right to be protected and helped by the government

(Karapatang mapangalagaan at matulungan ng gobyerno)

9. Right to express their own views, opinions and ideas

(Karapatang maipahayag ang kanilang mga saloobin, opinyon at ideya)

10. Right to participate in activities and social gatherings

(Karapatang maging bahagi ng mga aktibidad at panlipunang pagtitipon)  

SANGGUNIAN:

Profile of the Filipino Children, National Democratic Front (NDFP), June 17, 2012

The NDFP’s Defense of the Rights of the Child, Prof.Jose Ma. Sison, October 25, 2005

Uncounted Lives, UNICEF, 2007

SWS Data bank

NSO Data bank

Ibon Foundation Data bank

Children’s Rehabilitation Center Data bank 

Slogans on Honesty while Child Labor and School Dropouts Continue ....

The House of Representatives in the Philippines is extremely busy. And it has nothing to do with the new curriculum that DepEd has initiated. The House Committee on Basic Education and Culture has recently passed a resolution requiring DepEd to post the slogan "Honesty is the best policy" in all public schools. Philippine Star posted a link to the news item on its facebook and there was one comment on it:

House body orders DepEd to post honesty slogans - Home » Other Sections » Breaking News

With a House committee passing a resolution on Thursday, the Education Department is mandated to implement the posting of signages in all public schools
and DepEd offices which read "Honesty is the best policy."

Comment: I hope an order be issued to remove all tarpaulens of politicians that are sprouting almost all corners!

On the Philippine Star website, there were even comments suggesting that the slogans should be placed in all offices of congressmen and senators. Honestly, are there not other things more substantial than this resolution on slogans?

Here are some data to refresh our memory. These are further described in detail in a previous article, "Who Here Wants to Be a Teacher?":

"Preliminary results of the 2011 Survey on Children in the Philippines revealed that of the 29 million Filipino children, aged 5-17 years old, there were roughly about 5.5 million working children, of which almost 3 million were in hazardous child labour. The National Statistics Office conducted the survey with the support of the International Labour Organization and the US Department of Labor." -International Labour Organization 

Here is another set of data:

New Data on Out-of-School Children - UNESCO

New Data on Out-of-School Children Released by the UIS and the EFA Global Monitoring Report
12 June 2012 Data to Make a Difference According to new UIS data, an estimated 61 million children of primary school age are being denied their right to education. While the global out-of-school figure has declined over the past 15 years, falling from 102 million in 1990, the new data show that progress began to slow down in 2005 and has stagnated between 2008 and 2010 (at 61 million based on revised UN population estimates).At the same time, in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of out-of-school children of primary school age climbed from 29 million in 2008 to 31 million in 2010. Although enrolment in the region has risen, it has not kept pace with rapid population growth. To learn more, consult the following resources:-         UNESCO eAtlas of Out-of-School Children allows users to map and share the data;-         Fact sheet and interactive graphics presenting the new data; -         EFA blog post urging leaders to put out-of-school children on the Rio+20 agenda.

Schools are about to open in the United States. Parents who have a child five or six years of age will receive a phone call from the school board if the child does not show up in a school. This is what compulsory education means in the US. Teachers pay attention to their students. If a child has a visible bruise or injury, the parents are called to explain. Any hint of abuse gets reported. On the other hand, in the Philippines, teachers are probably going to be busy posting those signs that say "Honesty is the best policy".