No foresight

NO FORESIGHT: Another illustration of how slow officialdom thinks and acts is the recurring problem of lack of classrooms and teachers cropping up every start of the school year.

Everybody knows the national population, the number of children of school age, the annual increment (roughly 2 percent), the number of classrooms, desks, teachers, books needed, among other requirements.

The Department of Education can calculate in advance all requirements each year until 2016. So how come the government is always unprepared when millions of children show up for school in June?

Taxpayers and parents are entitled to an answer.

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PREDICTABLE DATA: With some 25.7 million students expected to show up yesterday, the DepEd knows IN ADVANCE that with 50 students per classroom, we are still short of 28,344 rooms for elementary and 25,532 rooms for high school.

The department also knows that although we already have 361,567 elementary and 146,255 high school teachers, we still lack 27,270 elementary and 46,490 high school teachers.

The numbers are that predictable! So why did the government not build the required classrooms and hire the teachers in advance?

We do not have the money? But there are billions upon billions for pork barrel, junkets, bloated allowances, political dole-outs (“cash transfers”), intelligence and social funds, et cetera.

Weeks ago, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda even boasted that the Aquino administration has accumulated a budget surplus of some P22 billion.

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FREE & COMPULSORY: Is the problem lack of priority or concern for the youth’s education? Or are our leaders simply unable to think in advance?

The Constitution (Article XIV, Section 2 [2]) mandates FREE public education in the elementary and high school levels. For elementary pupils, going to school is even COMPULSORY!

But it seems that free and compulsory public education is hindered by our leaders’ inability to prioritize properly and to think ahead.

In my youth in the old hometown, when a youngster of school age was seen in the street during class hours, a policeman would accost him and the parents had to explain why their child was not in school.

What ever happened to compulsory education and truancy ordinances? –Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)