Education Nation

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|Education Nation                                                                                                     |
|The Struggle to Improve the Philippine Public Education System for the Betterment of the Nation                     |
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Thesis Statement:

Unless the education budget of the Philippines is increased, the Philippine public education system will remain in its dismal state.

      In August 2010, President Noynoy Aquino announced that state universities and colleges (SUCs) will have so suffer a cut to their budget. To be more specific, universities like the budget of the University of the Philippines (UP) will be reduced by P1.3 billion to P5.5 million from the previous P6.9 billion in 2010. This resulted in a newsworthy protest by not only the students of UP but of other SUCs like Philippine Normal University, Bicol University, University of Southeastern Philippines, among others (Manotoc, 2010).
      The main reason for protest is simple: funding. The already current allocated funds for education are not enough to improve the quality of education, let alone provide free education for all. If the education budget was cut, this means that there are fewer funds allocated to the salaries of the faculty and staff, to the subsidy of the students’ tuition and to the maintenance of the school. SUCs depend on the education budget to provide education to those who cannot afford it. The government is their only source of funding. Cutting the budget would mean they would have to look for other resources. The immediate response would be increase the tuition of the students. SUCs cater to the masses. Some students do not even pay tuition. Increasing the tuition defeats the purpose of giving quality education to the masses.... [continues]

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