According to Benjamin Netanyahu,” The right combination is between a free economy and social policy that addresses the needs of society and creates equal opportunity”, but why rural places encounter various problems in terms of everything especially in education. As far as I know, education creates greater opportunities for the youth who go on to work decent jobs in cities. Unfortunately, 7 out of 10 youths are lack of education because of poverty. We all know that there is a very strong link between education and poverty. This problem is very common but fixing the problem presents a challenge for several reasons. According to some observers, the Department of Education is one of the most corrupt government entities in the country. It is one of the biggest allocated budget but it is riddled with graft from procurement, grease money, and bribes for just about any sort of movement within the bureaucracy. This corruption leads to poor allocation of resources. Teachers are underpaid and treated poorly. But graft and corruption are not the only issues.
Poverty is a vicious cycle that leads traps generation of families. About 80% of the Filipino poor live in the rural areas of the country. These are towns created deep in the mountains and rice fields. The population density in the rural parts of the country is low, and there is a corresponding deficiency in schools and classrooms. Public school is free but families still cannot afford to send their children for a complicated network of reasons. How can they afford all the expenditures like school uniforms, transportation fees, school supplies and many more if they are trying to endure with 95 pesos or less per day? More than this, with the diminution unemployment problem, poverty situation, each member of the family are expected to contribute to the income including children. These children are on the streets, selling candies and cigarettes, assorted foods just like the emblematic scenario you mostly seen on the television.
Transportation is another big problem. Children walk 3 kilometers or more to and from school everyday. They have to cross rivers, climb hills with their book bags, ride on the balsa and cross the river with the bridge that made on “baging” to achieve their aspirations in life. Schools are excessively far for the remote communities wherein it is unenviable to access. That is why most of of families cannot afford to send their children in school. According to the President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte, he will make the education accessible to all.
The above-mentioned problems seems like an unmanageable problems. “Corruption in the education bureaucracy and a deficiency of resources make delivering a high-quality education to all Filipino is a challenge”, according to Josh Weinstein, perspectively, he is right, as long as corruption and bureaucracy paralyzes the system, the goal of delivering a decent education to children will remain out of reach but I believe, change is coming!
By: Mario E. Dojillo Jr.
