NUSP: The State of Philippine Education Synthesis

The second day of the 39th National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) National Student Leaders Congress was held at Cebu Provincial Capitol Social Hall today, December 8, 2013. This general assembly of all student leaders from different organizations, councils, governments, and federations is held every two years to unite the student representatives and discuss about the promotion of the rights and welfare of the students, as well as of the youth and of the people.

The program started with a short animated film by MTV EXIT to address two of the most common violated rights of the people – human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

King Anthony of TV 5 gave his welcome remarks. Then the roll call of the schools of the delegates followed, bringing with them their own cheers. Towards the opening of the forum, there was a cultural performance by the UP Performing Arts Group.

 The open forum discussion was started by Victor Villanueva, a University of Santo Tomas Law Government president, with his discussion about the current education system of the Philippines. He presented the statistics found about the system under the Aquino regime.

The discussion was mainly about how the recent issues in the government affected the rights of the students to a better quality education. Take for example the controversial tagline: “Education, not fun in the Philippines”. It was asserted that education is not an individual’s right anymore these days, but a privilege. However, through this congress, the significant function of the student leaders was made aware for them to embody the principles of an honest leadership.

Among the tackled discussion as well is the education policy of Noynoy Aquino, which is the Roadmap to Public Higher Education Reforms. Based on the statistics found on Villanueva’s presentation, most of the government’s allocation for education is directed to the payments of debts in the country, instead of making the facilities in schools better. It showed that education is not an act of service anymore, but a sort of business for the moneymakers to pay their debts.  As how it goes, “Education is a market, where everything has its price to gain profit. It is a business, not a social service.”

For now, the education system of the Philippines stands as being commercialized, because it is made as a business of huge profit-makers instead of a social service; colonial, because the current academic system is training us for foreign market instead of training us to serve the country better; and fascist, because as it seems, the violation to the students’ rights has become prominent.

Due to this, many movements were created to put a stop into this. “Education must be based on the needs of the nation and the goals of the nation”, thus, an alternative education is to be promoted. The commercialized, colonial, and fascist education system must be replaced by a nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented system of education.

After the discussions, the delegates voiced out their questions and further tackled different insights and more in-depth information. Lastly, it ended with yet another presentation from the University of Cebu Students’ Theater Arts Guild.