Philippines - Brains and brawn

‘An estimated 500,000 registered nurses who do not have jobs. The few who work outside of the hospital system are either in call centers, waitresses in big hotels, or caregivers.’

IF there is one institution that has not seen the necessity of ad­justing to the changing needs of the times, it is clearly the educational system.

The curricula is largely concentrated on degrees that students hope will get them a white collar job.

The best example is the oversupply of nurses. There are an es­timated 500,000 registered nurses who do not have jobs. The few who work outside of the hospital system are either in call centers, waitresses in big hotels, or caregivers here and in the Middle East.

There are still a few who pay small sums to owners of small hospi­tals to be able to get a certification that they have at least two years of clinical experience, a requirement by hospitals in the United States. Nursing jobs in the US are practically closed to foreigners.

There are probably more graduates of business administration who cannot find jobs. To eke out a living, they drive taxicabs, work as lowly clerks in small and big establishments.

In time, there will be an oversupply of computer programmers or graduates of computer science. The number of computer engineers is also growing.

Until about the early Seventies, the government was running a school of arts and trade where adeptness of hand was developed for lowly-looking but highly paid jobs.

There is no government school for carpentry, automotive mechan­ics and repair, basic electricity. Considering the fact that the Philip­pines is one of the largest assemblers of electronic parts, there should be some institution where women who did not even finish high school could be taught the basics of electronics assembly.

Again considering the fact that many Filipino women - married or single – work as household help in any country where a job is avail­able, there should likewise be some institution where these young people can be taught how to deal with prospective masters.

Government authorities should know that wives and husbands in the Middle East are difficult to work for compared to those in say, Europe and in the richer countries of Southeast Asia.

The government keeps its eyes closed to the fact that it is precisely the lack of institutions for “menial” jobs that the Meralco Founda­tion was organized. It makes a very deep selection of scholars it ac­cepts.

The “scholars” must “possess” two requirements. They must be extremely poor. They must have the brains to pass the rigid entrance exams.

If the Department of Labor could only check, it will discover that most of the graduates of Meralco Foundation are working abroad for bigger pay although there are lots of jobs for them in their coun­try. They are hired by foreigners who pay then higher salaries.

The nephew of my driver finished a basic electricity course in Mer­alco Foundation. He was immediately hired by a Canadian company based in the Middle East.

He was transferred to headquarters in Canada, earns about $3,000 a month, built himself a home after marrying an industrious Ilocana immigrant and petitioned his ag­ing mother to be with them in Canada.

Cases like these are few but are made even fewer by government indifference to the reality that even expensive private institu­tions of learning produce gradu­ates that the economy cannot all absorb.

The necessity of establish­ing schools for men and women who must learn “menial” jobs but with livable, if not exactly higher pay, comes from the fact that the state has not been able to control the expansion of the population which at present is almost two percent a year.

Two million babies are born every year.

The other fact facing regulators in the face but nothing is done about it is the necessity of giving public elementary school teachers authority to discipline their pupils. Today, a teacher cannot pinch the ears of a naughty pupil. The teach­er will be sued for child abuse.

Forgotten is the fact that their parents are working. They hardly have time to discipline their sib­lings who are in school half of the day, five days a week.

In my time in public elemen­tary school, we had industrial arts and gardening. For lack of land, we cannot teach gardening these days. But industrial arts should have stayed.

The girls are taught home eco­nomics.

We had a subject on character and conduct. We were taught to respect our parents and older peo­ple.

Those days are gone.

What we are raising is a nation of “monsters”. They hardly learned anything in primary school. Teachers are forced to sell food during recess. They have many children. Their salaries are low.

Most critical of all is the lack of classrooms. Again in my time there were fewer than 30 pupils in a classroom. Today, there are as many as 70. Many sit on the floor. There are fewer desks.

The lesson is this nation can im­prove itself with brawn. There are fewer rooms for brains. And we even lose the best brains to richer nations. We would prefer to lose brawns to foreigners so they get a better chance at life.

AMADO P. MACASAET

http://www.malaya.com.ph


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