Punchline
Racketeering in public schools
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
Dagupan City Mayor Benjie Lim finally broke his silence on the published dismal financial performance of the city by the Commission on audit two weeks ago.
In the spirit of fair play, I will not comment on his statements in this issue and instead allow our readers to fully digest what he has claimed as his outstanding performance. Read our headline story.
We’ll have our rebuttal next week. Have a good week ahead of you, Mr. Mayor!
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CORRUPTION AMONG SCHOOL PRINCIPALS. Our editorial this week trained its guns on the mental dishonesty long perpetuated in the educational system, prompted by malfeasance in governance and motivated by corruption.
I refer to the public school officials’ “indignant and vehement” denial of the collection of miscellaneous fees in public schools. That they have the gall to tell the public that they have not been collecting miscellaneous fees when they have in fact been doing just that, is distressing. No, they don’t collect but they conveniently use the hapless Parent-Teachers Community Associations as their unwitting and unwilling “bagmen”.
Am certain the school superintendents and the principals have fully justified in their minds the continuance of this highly irregular practice over the years by citing public interest as their sole motive. They say today as they have repeatedly chorused in the past, “if we don’t collect the fees, the children will not be able to get the quality education promised them by the government.”
With a template argument like this, I can almost hear some of our educators actually silently pray – “Let the government continue to fail in its policy so this racket can continue.”
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SHADES OF MAFIA. The racket that we speak of is the compulsory collection of miscellaneous fees imposed on parents by public schools (elementary and high school) annually ostensibly to cover costs of test papers of “diagnostic tests”, etc. that the national and local governments have failed to provide for year after year after year. If the teachers were not involved, one can mistake it to be another form of protection racket of the mafia.
The collections are promptly turned over to the principal to ensure that the pupils and students are not barred from taking their final exams.
And what does the school principal do in return as a “matter of duty”? The principal contacts a favorite printer that will produce the test papers at a cost that only the principal determines. But of course, the principal “accounts” for the “voluntary contributions” received by giving the PTCA an “official receipt” from the printer. One can only wonder how much is reflected as cost of printing since no parent would dare question the integrity of the school principal in handling the transaction.
No wonder, the phalanx of school principals who trooped to the provincial board were cheering lustily each time their spokespersons described to the board members the “sacrifices” of the principals. It was a nervous defense mechanism on their part to cover-up their continued manipulation of the vulnerable PTCAs.
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FIGHTING BACK FOR DECENCY. Lest I be misunderstood, I have nothing but the highest admiration for all present and past public school teachers for theirs is a vocation for a seemingly thankless job. I know of how our public school teachers’ dedication has been abused over the decades by our national leaders and their cronies.
While the teachers crave for well-deserved higher salaries, more training and more facilities, hundreds of unscrupulous contractor-cronies of politicians pocket millions of funds due the teachers daily by shamelessly overpricing every contract they can lay their hands on.
Yes, I am also aware that many of our public school teachers have already humbled themselves taking on menial jobs overseas as domestic helpers. They had earned their diplomas with high hopes of making a difference for our youth, only to find themselves miserable, despondent and desperate all because of unabated corruption and bad governance.
This brings me to my concern.
The school principals don’t have to lie about the system because this is not of their doing. There is nothing wrong in admitting to the collections because our policy makers failed them. The national, provincial and town school boards are much to blame for the highly irregular system that has been perpetuated over the past 3 decades.
But in admitting to this difficult situation, the school principals and superintendents must come clean.
By perpetuating this “collection system” via the PTCA without any form of accountability, they are abetting the same corrupt system that they themselves despise. Worse, they do the country a great disservice by lying to the people about their “secret” collections, “secret” transactions and utter disregard for plain transparency and accountability.
I enjoin our teachers and parents to empower themselves, break out from their “denial shell” and lay the problems on the doors of our policy-makers as they keep the fight for decency and good governance alive at all times.
The failure of our leaders to respond appropriately is no excuse to make themselves even bigger victims of injustice by turning into corrupt educators.
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