#SAVETHEEDUCATIONLESSCHILDREN

When the former Miss Universe Philippines Catriona Gray brought pride to our country after she
won the Miss Universe 2018, everyone rejoiced but did everyone know her advocacy? It seemed like
some only cared about the crown she gained and not the reason behind her winning the title. While
some of us here are given the gift of education, have we ever thought about the children in slums who
don’t have the chance to go to school? The society we live today faces a lot of problems and one of its
major problems is the lack of education for children. We, Filipinos believe that education is our ticket to
get out from poverty and that the lack of it as a sure way to failure. But majority of the Filipino families’
budget isn’t enough to send their children to college. Now, where are we going to address this problem
and to whom?

The Department of Education or also known as DepEd is the main agency tasked to manage and
govern the Philippine system of basic education. In addition, this agency has the biggest chunk of the
national budget. Despite the annual increase in the budget for basic education, fewer children are
enrolling in schools. The reason: poverty. A study has proven that poverty is one of the main causes of
the country’s poor education record and has affected participation in education in more ways than one.
Moreover, the lack of interest among children indicates a weakness on the part of the school system to
make education interesting for the students. This may be due to poor teaching quality, inadequate
facilities and supplies and poor infrastructure. Therefore, no matter how high the budget increases, it
will not help because the real challenge in here is how to make the school interesting and encouraging
rather than intimidating; how to make it inclusive, non-discriminatory and poor-sensitive rather than
exclusive and elite-oriented and lastly, how to make it accommodating rather than restricting. A child’s
educational journey starts not from the first day they enter primary school, but from the moment they
learn to observe their surroundings and make conclusions from the world around them. Definitely and
finally, the government, in spite of its failure of providing some basic services to its people, is doing its
best to provide the fundamentals of basic education for free.

Let us think of this situation in a bigger scale of picture. Let us all be a Catriona Gray of our own:
to see situations with a silver lining. The children should not be deprived of their dreams because who
knows they will learn and grow up to be one of the world’s best professionals; that they’re actually the
bold and courageous beings we never thought would be. Hopefully, with much further improvement
from the country’s economy and involvement, education in the Philippines could be drastically changed
for the better.