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Parents with school-age children are again wracking their brains how to send their children to school especially those entering tertiary level. But even those with children entering lower levels are faced with similar problems of increasing cost of education together with other basic commodities. This at a time when the earning capacity of many parents have been drastically reduced due to the impact of the world-wide financial and economic crisis.

According to one report, eight of ten high school graduates in the country today won’t be able to pursue higher education because of financial reasons. For many parents whose hope of getting out poverty is through a college degree for their children, this practically shuts the door to any future hope of economic amelioration and social mobility.
But even those who manage to finish a college degree, the prospects of employment remains bleak in the country because the economy remains underdeveloped and thus cannot accommodate the tens of thousands of graduates that the Philippine school system produces every year.

Those who are lucky to land a job do not earn enough to sustain themselves much less a family. Thus, there is strong pressure for them to seek employment abroad which in turn deprives the country of their talents and skills which could have helped in developing the country.

It becomes a vicious cycle from which there seems to be no escape for our struggling countrymen trying their very best to carve out a humane existence in this part of the planet. This crisis in the Philippine educational system actually reflects the deeper crisis affecting Philippine society.

This crisis is largely due to the underdevelopment or, maldevelopment if you wish, of the Philippine economy which consigns millions of our countrymen to deepening poverty so much so that their hope of escaping poverty remains beyond their reach because college education has become an expensive commodity which many parents cannot afford to provide for their children. And, even those who manage to get a college education ends up disillusioned by the meager pay they receive or the absence of security in their work.

This crisis is hitting hard Filipino families during enrollment period every year. If there is one issue the incoming administration must quickly address to the strongest resolve and clearest direction is the problem of education and the hope of employment that is created among our graduates and their parents.

And to be able to do that, the new administration will have to take a deep look at how the economy has been faring poorly compared to our neighbors in Southeast Asia where corruption is as rampant as they are in this country. # nordis.net