Wretched

By Dennard D. Dacumos

Camila can hardly wait another year to finish her undergraduate degree program in a state-run university. She stopped going to school for six months to work as a full-time customer service representative in a call center. Both her parents were laid out from work so she had no other choice but to find a job and earn big money. She has plans to go abroad and settle with her family there eventually.

Is Camila being selfish or has she been a victim of an education that conditions the mind of its recipients to apply their knowledge somewhere else but here? ‘Education for the masses’ is what the government aims in allotting a huge chunk of budget to the country’s education sector. But let us not forget that ‘education for the masses’ should be rooted into a system of ‘quality education’. ‘Quality education’ must not only pertain to teaching the best theories, practices and skills to the students. Inculcating the value of nationalism must go along with it too. No wonder the Philippines is suffering from brain drain because we can’t convince our professionals to come back and help our ailing motherland. It is a pity that we are always relying on OFW remittances when what we really need are their advanced abilities and knowledge to help rebuild this nation. RP education prepares its youth to become exports for the world market. At the end of the day, we end up losing more than gaining more.

Will there be more Camilas in the coming years? The answer is probably yes especially when you have a national leader who thinks that a 1:100 teacher-student ratio is the proper way to address the shortage of classrooms. Planning to work in a call center? If you are willing to be employed in a company that doesn’t really need what you studied for four years in college, why not?