Prioritizing education

NEWS about the 2010 election, candidates, political parties, and loyalties take up plenty of media space nowadays even with months still to go before the filing of certificates of candidacy, the campaign period and the actual polls.

This is all well and good in so far as it serves as an opportunity for voters to have a longer and more meaningful assessment of whom they will choose when the day comes to cast the ballot.

One of the most important issues that we should be watching out for in the midst of all the talks, discourses, grandstanding and overall information hodgepodge is the subject of education.

Education must be placed at a prominent spot on the discussion table, both as a national and local issue.

Prioritizing education means committing to make significant improvements in our public school system. That means, among other things, (1) recognizing and finding solutions to the multi-layered corruption in the education bureaucracy, (2) investing in infrastructure from the most basic of classrooms, (3) empowering our educators through continued training and giving appropriate pay scales, (4) keeping the curriculum up to date with scientific, technological and other global developments, and (5) reviewing the values component in the education program to ensure that we are molding young minds to become good and productive citizens.

Education is the first step in the war against poverty. Giving quality education to the people — which includes not just academic and technical knowhow but also the values of industriousness and work ethics — means empowering them towards possible economic advancements.

This is a particularly burning issue for Pangasinan, which is the biggest province in terms of population and land area but also the poorest in economic terms within the Ilocos Region.

Our local government officials — and those aspiring to be — must focus on education if they sincerely hope to address the poverty in the province.

Our congressmen in the six districts, for example, must allocate more of their pork barrel for classrooms, chairs, books, computers, and scholarship grants. Please, enough of basketball courts and waiting sheds.

There is plenty of work that needs to be done in the education sector. And there are many innovative ways to meet those tasks. But first we need leaders who will put education at the top of their agenda.

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