By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
At my age I have grown tired of all the corruption in our beloved country. More so that my legal work often gets me face to face with the actual corrupt practices and those perpetrating these. .
So for those who have promising young children, the best inheritance you can give them is to get them out of the country and send them to the best schools in the whole world. While the average Filipino can only dream of being able to afford a US$55,000.00 tuition fee for one term, there are always scholarships available if one is really determined and has the brains to match the determination.
The latest ranking by a UK based outfit of universities in the world have only two Philippines universities making it to the list. University of the Philippines (UP) improved its ranking by about 100 ranks. It now belongs to the top 400 to 500 while the other university that made it in the list is De La Salle University which found itself ranked in the 1,100+ group.
The top 10 is dominated by UK and US universities. For the 4th consecutive year the University of Oxford (UK) is the 1st, followed by the California Institute of Technology (US); third is the University of Cambridge (UK); followed by US-based institutions Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University and University of Chicago. Bringing up the rear as the 10th is the Imperial College of London (UK).
I learned of the rankings from the Philippine Star and CNN Philippines.
In Asia the top universities are in China and Singapore– China’s Tsinghua University is 23rd overall, Peking University is 24th and the National University of Singapore (NUS) is 25th.
The Philippine government should be sending our best and brightest students to these universities but our money is going down a black hole called corruption.
Filipino parents with promising children who can have a shot at entering the hallowed portals of the top 10 institutions have to make the ultimate sacrifice of immigrating.
`The best choice would be Canada. There is a lot of opportunities there and is race-friendly. Moreover there are a lot of Filipinos (including Cordillerans) there who can lend a helping hand while a family is trying to establish a foothold.
I did some click clicking and found out that three of Canada’s universities belong to the top 50 in the world. And 18 made it to the top 500.
Another choice also would be California. The second top in the ranking, California Institute of Technology, is found in Pasadena which is just about 15 kilometers from the melting pot Los Angeles where there are many Filipinos. Presumably the state is relatively Filipino-tolerant although the deadliest African American riots in recent history happened there.
That institute is just a stone throw from a NASA campus specializing on robotics.
Back to the Philippines. While only the UP made it to the top 500, its budget was slashed by about P2 billion. This was viewed as caused by the so called recruitment of leftists there.
Yet, this needs to be pointed out,, the attraction of students to the left or the NPA is because of what appears to be a good ideology. It is based on an idea. Thus, it should be countered through a better ideology or idea. This should be the main ingredient of counter-insurgency measures. If our counter-intelligence or our counter-insurgency people are only relying on the barrel of the gun, this will not effectively overturn the idea being offered by the left.
Some brain is necessary.
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