Don’t like school

IT is bad enough that the enrollment rate in the province is declining due to economic reasons. Even public schools, which charge minimal fees, are no longer an option for poor families because they cannot afford the other costs that go with providing children a proper education: school supplies, books, uniforms, class projects, transportation fare, snacks, and baon (pocket money).

But what is more alarming is when our young themselves no longer want a school-based education.

According to Dr. William Macob, Dagupan City schools supervisor, education officials have observed that a lot of children are no longer “willing” to go to school.

He did not elaborate why but it could easily be deduced that the lack of motivation arises from the family’s financial inability to support the children’s education needs, forcing children to help earn for the family, public schools – with inadequate facilities – that are not conducive to learning, and teachers who themselves are not motivated to give students quality education.

The Philippines, for all its flaws, can pride itself in having one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

Looking at Pangasinan’s case alone, that could easily change in the near future unless initiatives are undertaken to address poverty and the public school system is allocated more funds for improvement. And more importantly, we need to save our youth from the budding attitude of indifference to the value of education.

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Why is China bullying us?

AS of last count, China’s incursions into our clearly-established territories at Spratlys in Palawan had totaled six already. Is China really bent on provoking us?

But we will ignore the bullying with resolved resiliency for obvious reasons. And we should not even unleash a counter-punch a la Pacquiao left cross – as in boycotting China’s products, as one misguided genius had suggested.  We maintain an annual $6-billion export trade to China, and a $7-billion import business with China.

We’ve already sought the help of the United Nations and that should do it for now, although the spin for P-Noy to assemble an Asean Summit to discuss the issue would also be a welcome move.  Aside from us, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and, yes, China also claims ownership of some islands at Spratlys.

Why China had chosen ours to trespass, though, is a question really begging for answers.

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