On September 6, the results of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for 2011 were released. For the second year running, no Philippine university made it to the Top 300. With the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University placing 332nd and 360th respectively, the cream of our country’s intellectual crop have plummeted down a steep decline—as far as QS is concerned, that is.
Nevertheless, such an occurrence merits concern. True, these world rankings, like all of its kin, are based on criteria which oftentimes fail to match a university’s mission and vision. However, freefalling down the rankings isn’t solely a case of mismatched priorities.
Lawyer Julio Vitriolo, the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Executive Director, attributes this decline to the budget cuts universities around the country had to suffer this year. The Aquino administration allotted a minuscule portion of the country’s GDP—2.1% to be exact—to the sector of education. Compared to the 6% allocation recommended by the United Nations, which would promote genuine social development, this obviously does not match up to par with the given world standard.
How then does the Philippines seek for development when future generations are given so little to work with? With the imminent implementation of the K-12 program and the issue of scrapping tertiary education funding to a minimum, the government is sending the wrong message about education. While a college degree is what other nations strive to guarantee their youth, it looks like this is not a matter of priority and concern for the current administration.
The government’s envisioned K-12 program would supposedly provide the means necessary for students to obtain the skills for a career in the future, and it is marketed as an adequate replacement for a full-blown degree. With this mindset in the works, are we not on the way to merely producing generation upon generation of more workers for export, instead of scientists, engineers, artists and visionaries who would contribute to the development of our country here at home? Because that is exactly what the current administration’s platform for education is: emphasis on vocational expertise at the expense of academic excellence and holistic growth in the collegiate setting. Education is treated as a commodity, not as a right.
Recently, more and more students have mobilized to protest the budget cuts, and once again, it seems as though their voices are falling on deaf ears. It seems that the correlation between high educational attainment and genuine and sustainable economic development is not compelling enough for the government to set its priorities straight. And it is not even a matter of lack of funds, but of misplacement: while basic social services such as health and education are on the decline due to government scrimping, there is a disproportionately high amount allotted to an unsustainable dole-out program, the military, debt servicing, and pork barrel funds.
By reducing state funding for colleges and universities, the Filipino youth is slowly being stripped of its future. Clearly, to the multitudes of UPCAT passers who had to let go of their dreams just because tuition in UP is already too expensive, this is government cruelty at its finest.
