By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
The high cost of enrolment in schools is now again upon us. Before the pandemic, so many parents could not afford the cost of education. Now the situation is even worse as such cost has become a lot higher with the need for gadgets or equipment required by distance learning. There is of course a remedy to that. Send your kids to public schools where students would learn through printed modules.
As to effectivity though of the modules, there is one big requirement for these to be effective—assistance by an elder or parent. If parents have no time or they are illiterate or don’t have the competence to interpret the modules to a kid , then the learning process is greatly compromised.
During these difficult times, so many parents just leave the modules with the kids as they have to take care of family needs like food and other basic necessities. They go home at night already tired and might not have the patience to study the modules and interpret these to their kids.
So, dire is the educational future of the pandemic generation. Even before that, there were unmistakable indications that our educational system badly needed emergency measures for school kids to become qualified for higher education. Take for instance reading. We are at the bottom of the heap when compared to the rest of the world. Many school kids here are allowed to graduate from elementary without even knowing how to read.
The long term effect of this is the further widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. Economic opportunities are directly determined by the educational attainment of people and this will even become more pronounced as higher levels of technology become more and more a part of everyday life.
Another financial sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of parents are the costs of staying alive, more so recovering form covid-19 in case you get infected. Even assuming that Philhealth will shoulder a major part of hospital bills, a lot more cash would still be needed. That would not even include the lost time of relatives who would be taking care of the needs of a covid-19 patient.
And the bad weather of continuous rains which had been going on for about a month, is making things a lot worse.
Can’t we have a government that would take care of the costs of educating the kids and hospitalization and other medical needs which everyone have to contend with?
Such governments are what you see in socialized countries like Canada and some European countries. So if you could still migrate to such countries, what are you waiting for?
Or are you waiting for a better Philippines? Then you should be congratulated for being so positive minded.**
