“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela
How can education will change the world if there a global economic meltdown? In between 2007-2009 we experienced global economic recession even the United States was not excluded. According to recession.org, the Great Depression was recorded in the 1929 and lasted 10 years. The impact of recessions situated in our employment, business and social effects. Causes of recessions are crisis theory, tendency of the rate of profit to fall, currency crisis, and energy crisis, war, under consumption, overproduction and financial crisis. And the effects of recessions are bankruptcies, credit crunches, deflation or disinflation, foreclosures and unemployment. Education is the key to individual and national development (Fabunmi, 2004&2006), what will happened if the education is in the critical condition. How can us coup up to this problem.
Martins Fabunmi and Emmanuel Aileonakhuoya Isah from Department of Education Management, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria conducted research about how to manage the school system in a period of economic meltdown. Through their experienced on what happened in Nigeria they come out with a different strategies and plans to run-over the crises without affecting the education.
In this problem the major issue in school management is funding. How the school support and subsidize the financial problem in school. Fabunmi and Aileonakhuoya Isah stated the possible sources of school revenue, the general expenditure patterns in school management in times of economic crises and suggestion to overcoming the economic meltdown in schools. For instance they mentioned internally generated revenue which includes running venture programmes, like poultry, farming, hospitality business, transportation etc rather than depending solely on government allocation and subvention. They explained the ways how to spend their financial resources. Aside from sources of school revenue and expenditure patterns they gave us suggestion to overcome the economic meltdown in schools by reviewing all plans. A plan is any course of action, today with future consequences whether positive or negative (Longe, 2003). We need to analyze what is the best solution to the problem. In their conclusion they reminded us to be prepared in the future and to take precautionary steps against possible effect of the current global economic meltdown on the school system.
To conclude the school management lies in the economy of the country and worldwide. The solution to overcome the economic meltdown in education is to help hand in hand. Like what the authors specify in the sources of school revenue, it was not concentrated in the school fees, government grants but also the community was involved.
I think in our country, recession is not nor a big deal because we are always in recession. And what they stated in their papers we had already known and practiced them in our country. For instance the following sources of school revenue mentioned were the same in our system.
I also agree what they said that most private schools were more affected than the public school when economic meltdown strikes. Considering I’m a public school teacher when the recession hit the country the project of the DepEd became lesser but still it had not large effect in the school.
This paper is more helpful to the owner or managing private schools rather than in the public school. Since the problem and suggestion was encounter by the privates’
I still believed in education is the most powerful weapon which you can used to change the world. As long as the educators, Fabunmi and Aileonakhuoya Isah, find a way to defeat the obstacles and hindrances in education.
By: Pheobe Hazzlee I. Valeroso | Teacher III | Sisiman Elementary School | Sisiman Mariveles, Bataan
