Diploma from the Philippines.

The speech delivered by DepEd secretary E. de Jesus to the graduating students of the Ateneo should be enough to awaken the aestivating senses of our government officials and to stretch their indolent muscles to do some action to alleviate the current state of education in the Philippines. It is alarming that every year, the number of unemployed fresh graduates is increasing and Filipinos shamefully eat the dust of their asian counterparts that have zoomed thousands of miles ahead, leaving the Philippine educational system wretched and bleeding to death. This is not an exaggeration.

Having lived abroad for quite some time now, I have realized how poor and obsolete our educational system is. While other countries increase or modify the academic requirements for their students every year to cope with the challenges and to deal with the changes brought by modernization and globalization, the Philippines seems to do exactly the opposite. Everytime I go back for vacation, I notice that there are fewer facilities, more dilapidated classrooms, and less teachers around. This must have an impact on the quality of graduates that our schools produce.

As Sec. de Jesus has said, a diploma from the Ateneo will not ensure a place for graduate education abroad. I also know that a graduate from a regular university is not guaranteed of a minimum wage job in the Philippines. What about those from small colleges in remote provinces? Philosophers have lectured time and again that education is the ultimate weapon against poverty. But if you are already educated and still cannot escape from the clutches of poverty, what else could you do?

The government always boasts of our high literacy rate. But in these times of stiff competition, knowing how to read and write only is not enough to keep our head above the water. Before it's too late, our government has to do something or we could be content seeing our smart young graduates settle for a call center job or our professionals leaving the country to work as unskilled workers abroad.