In the area of education, one of the unfortunate statistics coming out of both the Duterte and Marcos administrations is the over 90% rate of entry-level high school students who can neither read nor write simple sentences in adequate and passable English. That this is characteristic of students transitioning from the elementary to the secondary levels and not between secondary and the tertiary collegiate stages where most of the educational reform seem to be focused raises the alarms by several decibels.

The inadequacy inflicted at the elementary level worsens at the secondary level since the inabilities to read and write deteriorate into a form of disability at the critical stage where mathematics takes over from the basic operations of arithmetic; where literature takes over from simply reading and writing; and where the demands of learning escalate in preparation for careers and livelihoods. Plainly speaking, if a student cannot read or write, how can he read a book? How can he learn?

Buried by bigger controversies and other malodorous garbage twirling around education officials where accusations range from the malversation of funds and the fattening of budgets, both secret or otherwise, to militarizing curricula or even just the lack of any relevant educational qualifications among our highest officials, the sum effectively parries critical attention and focuses on the political aspects of the aberration. 

The headlines quickly tackled other matters and the 90% statistic, despite its obvious weight and girth, simply became a fast-fading footnote. Unfortunately, the victimization inflicted by our pathetic educational system on the youth does not end there. The failure is dynamic. It worsens. It is an exponential multiplier.

Like cockroaches on a kitchen counter, one leads to two, and two, to three.

What is perhaps more shocking than the realization that the Department of Education is by law allocated the biggest share of the national budget and is thus the biggest per capita failure in terms of spending efficiency, is that such curse will worsen all-around.

This is neither theory nor hypothesis. Citing a case that impacts at the tertiary level where student populations are presumably smaller than the elementary or secondary level, and as such should logically be easier to manage, note a specific case in point. 

The controversy involves fiduciary responsibilities and the management of billions where the per capita cost of educating a college student, including the distributed cost to operate a college, is higher. 

The following illustrates a case of continuing disregard where what initially appears as bureaucratic negligence exacerbates exponentially and shows how simple albeit billion-peso administrative failures have rippling multiplier effects.

Covering the years 2021 to 2023, reports show the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) had a total unpaid dues amounting to P2.1 billion. While the CHED may not be the only government agency with accumulated debt in the billions, its dereliction extends beyond its offices as its negative multipliers impact on schools that rely on subsidies, on deserving students dependent on scholarships, as well as on the worsening learning poverty inflicted previously at the primary and secondary levels.

Under an education development fund carved out for specific purposes, Republic Act 10931 stipulates a mandatory and sufficient subsidy for free tuition and student living allowances – the former to assist schools cope with operating expenses and teacher compensation, while the latter ensures attendance for scholars who might otherwise have conflicting financial demands. 

As over P10 billion are budgeted for the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) which, in turn, is allocated to the CHED, the latter is accountable for those billions. While public outrage and partisan disunity and bloodlust might have quelled a warped desire for unaccountable confidential educational funds, diligence and prudence dictate a continuing need to audit what has been previously budgeted while payables in the billions must be reconciled.

We might have re-channeled those brazenly swiped secret funds to better uses, but what about unreleased budgetary allocations and payables?

The timely release of critical billions entrusted to the CHED cannot be over-emphasized as these impact on the institutional health and financial viability of colleges as well as on teaching quality and student welfare. 

After all, we all know the inconvenient truths. One, there is gross underemployment among teachers and educators. Two, children and young adults at the collegiate level are typically family wage-earners because of prevalent unfortunate necessities. 

Now allow us to cite the case of a technological college in Koronadal City in South Cotabato.

In a complaint filed last month against the CHED, school officials cited as “unfair and oppressive action, moral injury caused to hopeful students and educational institutions” CHED’s failure to remit payables under the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST). 

Under UniFAST, covered colleges are provided P30,000 per semester for tuition and a living allowance. Do the math. That’s a mere P5,000 per month to keep a college viable and its students, hopeful.

In both the Executive and Legislative branches of government we continue to witness the harmful effects of elected officials lacking adequate quality tertiary education. Like the 90% learning poverty at the primary level, bureaucratic dereliction and negligence at the tertiary level inflict negative and oppressive multiplier effects on colleges struggling to survive and be viable; on the prospective careers of students, our hope for the future, and ultimately, on the greater republic as it needs the intellectual wherewithal to elect its leaders. – Rappler.com

Dean de la Paz is a former investment banker and managing director of a New Jersey-based power company operating in the Philippines. He is the chairman of the board of a renewable energy company and is a retired Business Policy, Finance, and Mathematics professor. He collects Godzilla figures and antique tin robots.