EDITORIAL – A gift for workers

With the world just starting to emerge from the financial crisis, most workers, including those in the Philippines, are not demanding a wage increase as part of celebrations marking Labor Day. Instead the Philippine government has put together a package of non-wage benefits to ease the impact of slower global growth on workers. Benefits are also being readied for the millions of Filipinos who are working overseas, a number of whom have been forced to accept pay cuts or find other jobs as a result of the financial meltdown.

Beyond those short-term measures, the next administration must give priority to improving the competitiveness of the country’s workforce. This is best done by improving the quality of education, with special focus on early education particularly in public schools. Most of the presidential aspirants have solid plans on improving education. They appear to agree with studies showing that English proficiency can be improved by starting the education of children in their native tongue, and then gradually introducing them to English in the early stages of grade school. Several of the aspirants want universal kindergarten or additional years in elementary and high school.

For those already in the workforce, more facilities for continuing education and skills upgrading can be set up, with qualified instructors. Incentives can be offered to encourage students to learn skills that are not only in big demand overseas but, more importantly, are badly needed by the country.

At the height of the financial crisis, among the measures undertaken by several governments was to invest in public education to improve national competitiveness. Those governments recognize that a nation’s greatest treasure is its people. Boosting a worker’s market value through knowledge and better skills is the best assurance of steady employment with satisfactory pay. This is a valuable gift for workers on Labor Day. –(The Philippine Star)