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Opinion On Ambisyon Natin 2040
Opinion On Ambisyon Natin 2040
According NCCA Chairman Virgilio S. Almario, our “core value” is magandang kalooban that makes one’s
good life. To be maginhawa or prosperous we must be able to reach the height of well being, relieving us of
headaches, illness and heartaches (sakit ng ulo, ng puso etc.). Therefore, we must learn to fly, to reach the
heights. Our choice is either to fly high like the Philippine Eagle or remain a chicken just pecking the ground.
Have you ever wondered why teenage kids run away, get married, and then expect to “move in” with mother
and father? Or why subordinates quit after one “scolding” from the boss, even if they don’t have another job
waiting for them? We approach work, responsibility, and duty on “one more chance” basis. If we’re late for
work, we expect the boss to forgive us, to give us “one more chance” (isa pa nga). We have been conditioned
by our family experience to expect somebody to pick us up when we fail. But the boss is not our itay or inay.
We are no longer children.
In the past fifty years, as the enrollment of our five schools increase, we have been recruiting teachers
annually. Of the 500 to 600 college graduate applicants, only 15% pass the battery of tests (I.Q., Teaching
Aptitude and Temperament) required before we could train them as Montessori teachers. Majority already fail
in the initial interview conducted in English and the rest fall short in the Temperament Test for maturity. We
have concluded that owing to the family system, the maturation of a Filipino is delayed by four to six years. So
many Filipinos never grow up.
Dottoressa Maria Montessori set up the first Montessori preschool at Via Marsi in Rome around 1906. By
1946 she was recognized as a great social reformer and became a member of the Italian Delegation to
UNESCO, just founded then. She acquainted its members with two unfamiliar aspects of education: Early
Childhood Education and Adult Literacy programs as the basis for the eradication of poverty. She believed
therefore in the need for a revolution in education. The UN General Assembly summed them all up in the
declaration of the UN Millennium Development Goal (2000-2015) assigning UNESCO to reinforce this with
the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). Now extending the UNMDG, which
failed to meet all goals, is the UN AGENDA 2030 for Sustainable Development. I believe that the Philippines
must first fulfill the UN AGENDA 2030 to be able to attain AMBISYON NATIN 2040. How can this be
done?
During my 25-year stint with UNESCO starting as an elected member of the Executive Board in Paris, I was
privileged to intervene in the Education Committee. At the time OB Montessori schools were already 20-
years-old. They welcomed my comments regarding the radical new departure in education – the big shift to
eradicate global poverty.