Errma T. Porol Socio63-A EDUCATION I.

Important Details

March 7, 2012

What is the Purpose of Education? Well, first, Education makes us Noble. Education could be seen as wings for the progress of the human being. It helps the individual to attain intellectual, physical and spiritual or emotional progress. In some ways, it helps the individual to live a happier life. For people without education, living comfortably turns difficult, especially in the modern world where specific skills are often needed to work. Second, Education moves us forward. Education not only creates a better human being but also contributes to the transformation of society. We are summoned to take forward our community, village, city, State, world. But to get that we need tools. The tools to improve the world are not fighting ideologies, or weapons as many have tried thorough history- but knowledge, sciences, arts. Those tools empower the people who sincerely want to see a more just world. In the Philippines, there are two broad factors affecting the education acquisition among Filipinos. First factor is inadequate access to education. In the country, there is correlation between education participation rate and poverty. Poverty incidence is inverted to education participation rate. From income class perspectives, there is a large gap in access to education at all levels between poorest income deciles and riches income deciles and/or between poor and non-poor. Unlike in many other countries, where the reasons for large gaps in access to education between poor and non-poor is that the poor tend not go to school at all, in the Philippines the main reason is low survival rate or high dropout rate of poor children. Some causes of low survival rate in the Philippines are (1) lack of personal interest broadly due to inadequate curricular, unqualified teacher, lack of learning materials and widespread of education; (2) high cost of education. The second factor is low quality of education. In developing countries, it is quite common that the kind of education that its government provides its citizens is of poor quality. In the Philippines this is not always true. It would be incorrect to say that the Philippines education system provides low quality of education because a large number of Filipinos who were locally educated are working outsides of the country. An indication that the education they received is good enough for them to globally compete in the international labor market. Only globally competitive education system produces graduates who can qualify in the overseas labor market. However, in reality when closely examined, only a part of the education system can provide high quality education, which is administered mainly through private education institutions. And this quality education is very expensive even for the middle class Filipinos. Those that are provided through public education institutions maintain high standards thus they are very strict in their admission of students that more often than not only those who have

previously received high quality education could qualify. Other schools that do not fall under the category mentioned above offer cheap, low quality education which the poor Filipinos receive. These schools are either privately owned or run by the government. The poor have little choice but to receive this kind of education which is the only one available for them. Indeed, very few from the poor sector are fortunate enough to pass the screening exams of public schools offering high quality education. II. Learning In terms of education, either access or quality, there is really a great gap between those who are economically or financially stable compared to those who are not. Thus, there is inequality in the society. Education as a social problem relates to the conflict theory of society. According to Conflict Theory, society is: A struggle for dominance among competing social groups (classes, genders, races, religions, etc.). When conflict theorists look at society, they see the social domination of subordinate groups through the power, authority, and coercion of dominant groups. In the conflict view, the most powerful members of dominant groups create the rules for success and opportunity in society, often denying subordinate groups such success and opportunities; this ensures that the powerful continue to monopolize power, privilege, and authority. Thus, the lower income individuals are the oppressed. There is a big hindrance for them in acquiring education. Even if they can acquire education, they have a lesser opportunity to acquire the high quality one. Those who are part of the higher income society, they are the powerful party. They are able to have an access to high quality education. To minimize inequality regarding education in the Philippines, education that is provided by the government is not far behind the education provided by the private sectors. The government should ensure that strategies implemented by private institutions shall be implemented the same by the public institution in order to develop somewhat the same quality of education. Such strategies are but not limited to class size, equipment, teaching materials and competitive instructor. In order for the government to implement this, it should have enough funds. To generate funds, taxpayers should pay as to their liabilities to the government. However, if corruption exists, everything is of no good. Because of corruption, poverty exists. Because of poverty education problems occur. Because of low or lack of education, it resulted to unemployment. Unemployment results to poor economy. Therefore, the main solution for all of these is having an attitude. Corruption is highly because of greed. To have an attitude as not being selfish among all Filipinos, I believe social problems may not be eliminated but at least mitigated. Moreover, high self-interest among the Filipino people should be developed. III. References: http://www.teach-kids-attitude-1st.com/definition-of-education.html Philippine Institute for Development Studies www.unc.edu http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/9566.aspx