Politics of Education

‘TIS the season of graduation rites as schools end another academic year.

The end of the school year, more than the beginning of classes every June, must bring to the fore not only what the future holds for new graduates but what ails our educational system, a basic foundation for the country’s economic development, as well.

Here at the Pangasinan scene, one recent issue in the education department has once again shown the pettiness of some of our bureaucrats in national agencies, which obstructs their view towards the greater good.

The province’s two schools superintendents are now reportedly facing a supposed “punishment” from the head of the Department of Education himself, Secretary Jesli Lapus, in the form of a post re-assignment.

Their offense? Pioneering a project on guidebooks for teachers that the administration of Governor Amado Espino Jr. actually found to be innovative that the provincial government funded the books’ reproduction, distribution and use throughout all the public schools in the province. In his state of the province address earlier this year, Espino listed that project as one of the most important accomplishments of his government, a big step forward in the development of the province’s educational system.

Lapus reportedly felt snubbed having been kept out of the loop. Why wasn’t he consulted in this pursuit, he appears to be crying out. If one follows the chain of command, Lapus is buffered by a string of undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, so one wonders if it was Lapus himself who felt slighted or was it a plain bureaucrat functionary in the agency who feels he deserves more importance than he deserves? Hence, we would not be surprised if, indeed, those other DepEd officials under Lapus, most likely those involved in the books development section, and those on a higher rank than the two superintendents either played a part in fanning the flames of his anger or fed a fat lie to the agency.

And for that, the two superintendents, Dr. Armando Aquino and Dr. Alma Ruby Torio, for all their good intentions and clever work, will have to take the brunt of supposedly Lapus’ annoyance.

But fortunately, our good ol’ governor is not leaving them out in the cold. He, along with the rest of the province’s local officials, are standing by them and appealing to President Arroyo that the two be allowed to stay in their current positions in Pangasinan.

We are definitely seeing here a tension between the independence of a local government unit from the national administration at the expense of good programs in the local level.

Several lessons are waiting to be learned here.

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