The reduction of state subsidy to state universities all over the country depicts the government’s views on education. It’s simply not in their list of things to fix in the coming year. While preaching about how important it is for people to see education as a way to bring themselves out of poverty, their move to lower the education sector’s budget is a stunning example of leading people to give up their dreams of earning a degree due their inability to afford the tuition fees state universities require despite being ‘for the ‘masa’ ’. Hypocrisy at its finest, I must say.
I am no activist. In fact, I spent 3 years of my university life reading books, and studying as much as I can to be able to survive the competitive environment, and hopefully, end up with a degree. I never joined walk-outs, rallies, talks, noise barrages, or any of those sorts. I was simply content, or possibly, apathetic.
I understand the predicament the university is facing. Their increase in tuition was too much for the students to handle, even though they meant well. As much as they want the students to gain knowledge without the expense of their parents’ salaries, they had to make a choice. And though many protested, most of the students kept mum about it and merely accepted it as part of the changing times.
However, what I don’t understand is how the government does not see the repercussions of their choices. I figured they just don’t know how hard it is to study in a state university. While other colleges have new equipment and new chemicals in the labs, we have recycled buffers, and old slides. Our pipettes are often broken, our fluorescent lights are busted, and our tools are oftentimes an improvised version of the real thing. Our solutions are often contaminated, our specimens are possibly as old as our professors, and our labs are as broken down as they can be. ‘Modest facilities’ is a very big understatement. We don’t have much left and yet, we still have you taking away more.
The government may be lucky now that the students are still opting to go to college to pursue their dreams rather than working as soon as they finish high school, but, it may not be case in the near future. With the loss of budget, the schools have no choice but to increase their tuition fees in order to stay open. More students will not be able to afford the high tuition and the phrase ‘para sa masa’ will cease to exist. Education becomes a privilege only for those who can afford.
XXXXXX
I went to the National Museum last week and I was amazed to see how dedicated people are. The building looks rundown, the specimen are stored in empty peanut butter bottles, labels are merely made of paper and string. Each department consists of only one person. Imagine that person collecting, preparing and sorting every specimen in his/her division. As sad as their situation may sound, their dedication to their fields is simply heartwarming.
While other countries continue to develop, we continue to scrape whatever’s left and try to make do with that. What keeps us from pursuing a career as a call center agent, or a nurse and work for international institutions instead of working for the country is the drive to learn. Despite the loss of fancy equipment and luxurious rooms, we continue our quest for knowledge, hoping that things would change for the better.
XXXXXX
The science and technology sector is really suffering right now. Most people rely on what celebrities and politicians say rather than what experts say. For example, while celebrities and politicians continue to talk about the issue on climate change and global warming and how it brought us ‘Ondoy’, they neglect to take into account the scientist’s point of view of how it happened. Effects of Ondoy were due to the fact that our flood control systems and sewers were filled with trash and were unable to reduce the amount of water accumulating in the rivers, and our mountains are unable to absorb water due to lack of trees as a result of illegal logging, and mining, and Marikina lies on a fault line, a very low area, and in a geological point of view, it resembles a basin.
I am not saying that climate change and global warming do not exist, in fact, it is an expected phenomena. What I want people to know is that while climate change and global warming are being marketed as the sole cause of our problems, exploitation of our resources, such as illegal logging, poaching, mining and the like continue to exist and are not being given much thought despite these being the direct cause.
The so-called conservation efforts of the government are not really well thought of. They assume that whatever we find at ground level is what we find in the mountain tops, or areas of high elevation. Sadly, most of the native flora and fauna are found in lower elevations, those places we turn into kaingin areas and subdivisions. I wonder how many of those we would have to sacrifice before the government realizes how stupid they have been.
XXXXXX
(To the government—good move on increasing the pork barrel (the one you put under ‘public works’), at the expense of the health and education sectors, surely, that is more important than the other two.)
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
bitchy
bored
high on sodium benzoate
bouncy