Mental dishonesty among our educators

HERE is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the public education in the country is in dire straits. We don’t only desperately need more classrooms and chairs but sufficient quality books, modern communication tools and teaching aids.

But as our national policymakers grapple with the obvious concerns, there is a core issue and value that our educators appear oblivious to – the value of mental honesty, transparency and accountability.

This particular lack became evident when a number of the province’s school principals accompanied their designated spokespersons to the provincial board to deny that they had anything to do with the reported recent unauthorized collection of fees in schools ostensibly to cover the costs of test papers for the recent diagnostic test prepared by the Department of Education.

They came in full force with the intent of getting themselves absolved of any part in any irregularity involving unauthorized collections. No school principal in the province authorized or effected the collection of any fee for the aforementioned test, they said.

Then came the mind-boggling clarification. But yes, collections were effected but that these were done not by them but by the Parent-Teachers’ Community Associations. They even pointed out that since it was the PTCA that collected the fees, they maintained that no parent could have possibly complained about it and so they made it appear that the complaint was all a fabrication of the local media.

But when asked how the monies collected were handled and dispensed with, it turned out that the monies were turned over to the school principals, who in turn went about the business of selecting a printing press to produce the test papers! And here’s the rub: no principal who received the monies collected in the past was ever asked by the PTCA or DepED to account for these. And, in a vain attempt to completely absolve themselves of any wrongdoing, they maintained this has been going on for the past 35 years!

Why was the collection through the PTCAs made permanent knowing fully well that there is no transparency and accountability? If there are these collections, then who are spending the fund allocations provided by local and provincial school boards?   

This is akin to the case of thief who was allowed by the building-owner to steal from shops in the premises provided the loot was turned over to the latter to keep. The building-owner turns around and tells the police that there is nothing wrong with him keeping the loot since it wasn’t he who stole it.

These school officials are mentally dishonest at the very least, and are no better than our corrupt politicians who refuse to account for monies illegally collected from parents.

But even more worrisome today is the disposition of the board members who conducted the probe, not even to make the principals account even for the monies they received recently, or will receive. Instead of making some heads roll, the anomalous situation became the motivation for the provincial government to allocate more funds for the schools.

With a damaged culture such as this, what can we expect of our next generation?

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