How Shall We Face It?
In an ideal world, we imagine schools as an environment with classrooms complete with the materials and equipment needed for an optimised learning experience. We visualise teachers and students arriving in their crisp uniforms, carrying a bag full of textbooks and tools to be used for an exciting day of learning ahead. Sadly, this is not the reality of the education situation in the Philippines.
Many schools across the country, an archipelago and a developing nation, face chronic problems of access and infrastructure. “In urban cities, the problem is [the lack of] buildable space. In remote areas, many students must cross rivers or hike mountains to go to school,” explains Representative Roman Romulo, chairman of the Philippine House of Representatives Higher and Technical Education Committee. And it’s true. Over the last ten years, I have been involved in school outreach programmes both in rural and urban areas and in many instances, I have witnessed the deplorable state of
