Election time is here again. It is the time that some Filipinos view as the perfect opportunity to give the presidency to the one they view as educated as qualified, and not just to a person whose candidacy is sustained by plain popularity. The said scenario particularly apply to those who were "traumatized" by Erap's presidency.
And nowadays, administration candidate Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro has emerged as the "thinking voter's choice", or rather apparently. At the very least, Gibo now finds himself in the similar situation to that of Raul Roco in 2004. Gibo is now considered as the "most intelligent" among the ten presidential candidates for 2010.
However, Gibo's intellectual luster is overshadowed by the current anti-adminsistration sentiments of the society. It's not that I am anti-Gloria (and I am not pro-Gloria either) but let's face it, GMA right now is the biggest liability Gibo got on his back.
As I have said, I am neither anti- or pro-Gloria. I would say that as far as my view to the current administration is concerned, it is a mixture of both exceptionally bad (well, I don't have to mention those) and exceptionally good (c'mon, Philippines became a newly industrialized country under the Arroyo regime, and that's something that not even my fave prexy Fidel Ramos was able to do!). But despite my softer-than-expected ire towards the current administration, I would say that I still won't vote for Gibo!
I know you can see that I have a different take on the issue of not voting for Gibo. Again, you can see me wearing the hat of the differently educated sector.
A big number of his supporters often cite his colorful academic records as their primary reason for supporting him. I know my readers know me well enough by now. Academic excellence never impresses me! Educational excellence does.
But again, I would like to clarify that I do not necessarily take good academic records as a fault to a person's character, or a candidate's qualification in this case.
But let's take the academic elitists' stubborn arguments for the sake of discussion. Granted that academic excellence can indeed be translated to capability to govern, let's take a look at this academically excellent candidate's program in nurturing the intellect of the Filipino students.
The Carlos P. Romulo Foundation and ANC Channel sponsored the event "Presidential Policy Forum: Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World" in Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on 15 January 2010. The presidential candidates present were Richard "Dick" Gordon, Manuel "Manny" Villar, and of course Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro.
In the said forum, Gibo made a statement that clearly revealed his program for the Philippine education system. He said, "In pre-school level, we must start standardizing how we teach pre-school children - computer literacy, English speaking skills and other formative skills. Basic education reform, the road map is already there."
He further added, "We have to realign our basic education with international standards, with additional years perhaps. In tertiary education, we must rationalize scholarships and we should have more legitimate PhD and master’s degree holders."
Gibo, the so-called "intelligent candidate", did not hit a single note correctly as far as the problem of the Philippine educational system is concerned. He sang way out of tune.
What Gibo failed to realize, or at least mention, is that the current crisis encountered by the Philippine educational system can be summed up into two problems: access and quality.
First is access. Please, please, please... academic elitists may call me dumb for being a college dropout, but I am smart enough to know this reality and the urgent need to address this problem first and foremost. I don't know how a lawyer like Gibo can miss this very important point, and instead choose to worry about the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders! Let's get logical about it. How can you expect your people to pursue graduate studies if they cannot even afford the financial cost of a bachelor's degree? Even the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a known school for the intellectually gifted yet financially challenged students, recently attempted to increase their tuition fee by 2,000 percent!
And the sad thing is we now have a corporate world that is already very discriminative to people who got the skills but do not have a bachelor's degree. In stressing the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders, Gibo is actually creating an even more discriminative system in the local job market! Nowadays, the discriminated sector in the local job market are the "non-bachelor's degree holders". In the system that Gibo is aspiring to create, the discriminated sector will be the "non-master's degree holders".
Second is quality. And when we say quality, we do not mean additional years. I am sure everyone here has watched the new TV commercials of Bossing Vic Sotto for Tide detergent powder. Bossing boasted that a spoon of Tide can beat two spoons of other detergent powder brands in terms of cleanliness. Now that's quality! When we say quality, we are embracing the "more in less" principle, meaning it's the school's obligation to make sure to it that students learn a lot in the least time possible. Adding additional years to either elementary, secondary, or tertiary education cannot be readily translated to quality education.
Contrary to Gibo's "additional year perhaps" principle, we must actually REDUCE the years of tertiary education. Why is that so? Have you noticed that in a four-year bachelor's degree curriculum, up to two years of it are dedicated for general education subjects that have already been taken up in elementary and high school? Aren't we wasting too much time for allotting half of the curriculum's time table for subjects that students should have already mastered before entering college? This means that immediate reforms in the basic (elementary and secondary) educational system must be done. The basic educational system must be strengthened in such a way that before entering college, students already have enough competence in core skills like language, sciences, and logic-mathematics. And when they enter college, they will be taking major subjects right away. This strategy saves time, and this produces more professionals in less time!
And also, when we say quality education, we mean that the bachelor's degree curriculum should already be comprehensive enough to catapult the student to the career related to his/her course. Sure, academic elitists can stick to their four-year formula for bachelor's degree, but they need to make sure to it that engineering students end up as engineers! We don't need more nursing graduates who end up as call center agents.
By stressing the need for additional years and graduate studies, what Gibo is actually giving the Filipino people is additional expenses for formal education. We Filipinos are already suffering the unholy cost of formal education way too much. Gibo's program will just make things worse.
What Gibo does not know is that his program for the Philippine educational system sounds good only to pedants like him, decorated with all the academic credentials that make him look smart, and blessed with all the money that made him capable of pursuing such credentials. He, after all, is a Cojuangco.
But for the typical Filipino workers who feed their families on a minimum wage, Gibo's educational program is a total nonsense.
And unfortunately, I do not support candidates who talk nonsense, especially on very important issues like education.
(Click here to view photo source)
However, Gibo's intellectual luster is overshadowed by the current anti-adminsistration sentiments of the society. It's not that I am anti-Gloria (and I am not pro-Gloria either) but let's face it, GMA right now is the biggest liability Gibo got on his back.
As I have said, I am neither anti- or pro-Gloria. I would say that as far as my view to the current administration is concerned, it is a mixture of both exceptionally bad (well, I don't have to mention those) and exceptionally good (c'mon, Philippines became a newly industrialized country under the Arroyo regime, and that's something that not even my fave prexy Fidel Ramos was able to do!). But despite my softer-than-expected ire towards the current administration, I would say that I still won't vote for Gibo!
I know you can see that I have a different take on the issue of not voting for Gibo. Again, you can see me wearing the hat of the differently educated sector.
A big number of his supporters often cite his colorful academic records as their primary reason for supporting him. I know my readers know me well enough by now. Academic excellence never impresses me! Educational excellence does.
But again, I would like to clarify that I do not necessarily take good academic records as a fault to a person's character, or a candidate's qualification in this case.
But let's take the academic elitists' stubborn arguments for the sake of discussion. Granted that academic excellence can indeed be translated to capability to govern, let's take a look at this academically excellent candidate's program in nurturing the intellect of the Filipino students.
The Carlos P. Romulo Foundation and ANC Channel sponsored the event "Presidential Policy Forum: Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World" in Asian Institute of Management Conference Center on 15 January 2010. The presidential candidates present were Richard "Dick" Gordon, Manuel "Manny" Villar, and of course Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro.
In the said forum, Gibo made a statement that clearly revealed his program for the Philippine education system. He said, "In pre-school level, we must start standardizing how we teach pre-school children - computer literacy, English speaking skills and other formative skills. Basic education reform, the road map is already there."
He further added, "We have to realign our basic education with international standards, with additional years perhaps. In tertiary education, we must rationalize scholarships and we should have more legitimate PhD and master’s degree holders."
Gibo, the so-called "intelligent candidate", did not hit a single note correctly as far as the problem of the Philippine educational system is concerned. He sang way out of tune.
What Gibo failed to realize, or at least mention, is that the current crisis encountered by the Philippine educational system can be summed up into two problems: access and quality.
First is access. Please, please, please... academic elitists may call me dumb for being a college dropout, but I am smart enough to know this reality and the urgent need to address this problem first and foremost. I don't know how a lawyer like Gibo can miss this very important point, and instead choose to worry about the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders! Let's get logical about it. How can you expect your people to pursue graduate studies if they cannot even afford the financial cost of a bachelor's degree? Even the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, a known school for the intellectually gifted yet financially challenged students, recently attempted to increase their tuition fee by 2,000 percent!
And the sad thing is we now have a corporate world that is already very discriminative to people who got the skills but do not have a bachelor's degree. In stressing the "need" for more PhD and master's degree holders, Gibo is actually creating an even more discriminative system in the local job market! Nowadays, the discriminated sector in the local job market are the "non-bachelor's degree holders". In the system that Gibo is aspiring to create, the discriminated sector will be the "non-master's degree holders".
Second is quality. And when we say quality, we do not mean additional years. I am sure everyone here has watched the new TV commercials of Bossing Vic Sotto for Tide detergent powder. Bossing boasted that a spoon of Tide can beat two spoons of other detergent powder brands in terms of cleanliness. Now that's quality! When we say quality, we are embracing the "more in less" principle, meaning it's the school's obligation to make sure to it that students learn a lot in the least time possible. Adding additional years to either elementary, secondary, or tertiary education cannot be readily translated to quality education.
Contrary to Gibo's "additional year perhaps" principle, we must actually REDUCE the years of tertiary education. Why is that so? Have you noticed that in a four-year bachelor's degree curriculum, up to two years of it are dedicated for general education subjects that have already been taken up in elementary and high school? Aren't we wasting too much time for allotting half of the curriculum's time table for subjects that students should have already mastered before entering college? This means that immediate reforms in the basic (elementary and secondary) educational system must be done. The basic educational system must be strengthened in such a way that before entering college, students already have enough competence in core skills like language, sciences, and logic-mathematics. And when they enter college, they will be taking major subjects right away. This strategy saves time, and this produces more professionals in less time!
And also, when we say quality education, we mean that the bachelor's degree curriculum should already be comprehensive enough to catapult the student to the career related to his/her course. Sure, academic elitists can stick to their four-year formula for bachelor's degree, but they need to make sure to it that engineering students end up as engineers! We don't need more nursing graduates who end up as call center agents.
By stressing the need for additional years and graduate studies, what Gibo is actually giving the Filipino people is additional expenses for formal education. We Filipinos are already suffering the unholy cost of formal education way too much. Gibo's program will just make things worse.
What Gibo does not know is that his program for the Philippine educational system sounds good only to pedants like him, decorated with all the academic credentials that make him look smart, and blessed with all the money that made him capable of pursuing such credentials. He, after all, is a Cojuangco.
But for the typical Filipino workers who feed their families on a minimum wage, Gibo's educational program is a total nonsense.
And unfortunately, I do not support candidates who talk nonsense, especially on very important issues like education.
(Click here to view photo source)
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