How the State of Education Has Changed Over Time in

the Philippines

By Arturo P. Garcia

June 2, 2006

During the early 1960’s, as far as I could remember, public elementary and high schools in the Philippines were filled to the brim.

Schools had fifty sections and more or less one hundred students in each class. The high school that Iwent to had more than 5,000 students! I was

astonished to learn that even after more than 40 years, that ratio is still the same!

There are big differences with how it is today. The education budget was considerably bigger than the defense budget because the government did not have the peace and order problem then. Our teachers were

graduates of the normal schools and from the University of the Philippines (UP) and were very dedicated.

The labor export policy that we know today was not yet around and hundreds of teachers were not yet going abroad to accept deskilling as domestic helpers abroad. Thus, students of yesteryear could write and speak better English, do arithmetic and were trained to be civic-minded.

Our buildings, some of which survived the Second World War (the Gabaldon Type schools) were being replaced by new buildings. The government then built several science high schools at the national level and in the Metro Manila area.

Now, the Philippine government – ever subservient to cater to the needs of the US and other capitalist countries at the expense of the country’s own needs – is content in training students for call centers or to become entertainers abroad. More attention is now being spent in sending tens of thousands of overseas Filipino workers abroad than building the nation to

sustain it. Many cultural shows are being produced for foreign tourists when during our time we had cultural shows that celebrated our being Filipinos.

Yes, the colonial education was much in place but our generation also learned the positive side of American education and used some of it to dream of a better Philippines.

We debated, argued and fought over the prospect of whether or not we would be better off as a state of the U.S., or whether or not North Borneo or Sabah is

really part of the Philippines; whether or not the Philippines would be “great” again and which way the Philippines would become “greater” than America,

without America or under America.

The wider access to education bred a generation of critical-thinking youth and students and inspired patriotism among them. Our generation would take the

center stage of Philippine politics and wage demonstrations and rallies that rocked the nation. That series of events is now known as the First

Quarter Storm of 1970.

Today, the Philippine government in compliance with dictates from the US-dominated International Monetary Fund and the World Bank allots the bulk of the budget to military spending and to service foreign debts that, if we really think about it, have already been paid several times over. After all of that, only a pittance remains for education, health and other social services -- all of which have long since deteriorated to the state that it is today.

Looking back, away from the homeland, I am saddened by the fact that on the opening of the classes, the children of our compatriots will still have their

classes in the corridors, in the stairs, under the trees and in makeshift classes with the shortage of class room that the arrogant president won’t accept.

We also did our share of doing makeshift classes under the hot G.I sheets while they were constructing our high schools. But we were happy to learn upon graduation that the next batch was able to use the newly constructed five-story building in our district in Manila.

When we visited our high school alma mater, the five-story building could no longer accommodate the overflowing population of students. How things have changed! And how things have remained the same. But can we really call this change?

While the government spends money in the “war against terrorism,” builds the armed forces that implements its state of emergency with zeal, why can it not build schools and pay its teachers more decently so that hundreds of them would not have to go abroad?

Why blame the people in not being well-versed in English and say it’s the cause of our economic collapse?

I think, when the school opens this June, it’s high time to send our officials back to school so that they would learn first hand the real sad state of our schools.