Share

Yesterday’s Blog Action Day, in tandem with the National Day of Education, was a very fruitful one, as symbolized by the freeing of the “PUP 5″.

Not only did the PUP Administration drop the criminal charges against the five student leaders, the PUP Board of Regents also passed a resolution disapproving any tuition and other fee increases for the next school year.

Many also participated in the Blog Action Day by posting our official status message

Everyone has the right to a quality and accessible education. If you agree, please post this as your Status for the whole day on March 29

in their Facebook Statuses yesterday. A big thank you to everyone who did so.

Also, more than 300 Facebook users participated in our TEXT BLAST event to pressure the PUP Administration and the Manila Police District into freeing the student leaders. We also take our hats off for you.

And of course, the biggest thanks goes to those who blogged for yesterday’s B.A.D. Here are some of the participants:

earthling gorgeous tells us how some of her fellow moms are affected by the present state of our education system

For the coming school year, two of my closest mom and kid tandem at the special private school my daughter attends to will stop schooling because they could no longer afford the tuition fee. Right now they are hunting for schools that can at least accommodate their special child. I feel bad for the kids because they have improved so well after a couple of years of studying there, you can barely tell they have autism.

gail orduña shares the financial difficulties of a student in the University of the Philippines, as well as her views on the recent protests

Nais ko sanang subukan ang STFAP, pero base sa mga istoryang narinig ko sa ibang tao mukhang hindi nito maibaba ang aking bracket. Nanggaling kasi ako sa isang pribadong paaralan (pero ito ung panahon na nagtatrabaho pa ang aking ama). May celphone din ako at laptop. At dahil nga school bus service ang aming mini-negosyo, mayroon din kaming tatlong dalawang sasakyan.

Nais ko ring subukan ang mga scholarship na iniaalok ng ilang mga institusyon. Pero karamihan sa kanila ay tumatanggap lamang ng mga gradweyt ng mga pampublikong paaralan. Isa pa ay mahirap talagang maghanap ng isang scholarship na para sa kurso ko. Huli na rin marahil dahil nasa ikatlong taon na ako sa kolehiyo sa susunod na academic year.

ash lagon meanwhile tells us about the situation in the Ateneo de Davao University as well as his take on the education system

At syempre, hindi talaga nakuntento, dinagdagan pa ng No Permit No Exam Policy.

Ang polisiyang ito ang nagpabagsak sa daan-daang estudyante. Kung wala kang permit, hindi ka makakapagexam. Tapos, kinakailangan mong magbayad ng Special Exam Permit na P100.00. Magpapasign ka sa subject adviser, division chairperson, at saka magbayad ng P100.00 sa Finance, and bumalik ka sa specified date. Kaya minsan, hindi na nakakapagbakasyon ang mga estudyante.

si pia ay otes’s entry her very own struggle to overcome here poverty-stricken background through education

As a highschool undergraduate, construction work, messenger jobs among others were the only work available for my Tatay. Nanay, can never apply for work but, she’s fast with numbers and full of guts, and so she ventured into opening a small sari-sari store, which actually just started by as providing coffee and cigarettes to loitering drivers, waiting for their turns. (We were living in an estero space, at the corner of the then terminal of Roxas-Gastambide jeepney route).

The three of us (I was the youngest), were all brought up to study from elementary to secondary levels, in public state funded schools. As to how my parents could afford to pay us up to higher education, is a demeaning demanding question, we all had to include on our daily prayers. No amount of genius, no matter how much we tried, would have allowed me, and my brothers to finish our collegiate and post graduate studies without the existence of this state universities.

whipstitched, on the other hand, reflects on the education system through the experience of the parents of one of her preschool pupils, as well as that of her highschool batchmate

I’ve heard my co-teacher say more than once, “Eh kung alam pala nilang hindi nila kayang magbayad, eh di sana hindi na lang sila tumuloy.” The real problem, however, was not the family’s ability to pay. It’s not as though the parents of my student wanted to cheat their way into providing decent education to their child. It’s not as though they wanted to go through all that humiliation just to enroll their child in a good school.

eufems, a new high school graduate, suggests some reforms to the education system based on his high school experience

Ang problema rin sa Pilipinas, na kita sa Kisay, ay ang trend ngayon sa mga paaralan. Papangit ng papangit.

At iyan ang dapat nating baguhin.

Kailangan ang:

> Bawasan naman ang kurapsyon. Moderate thy Greed.

> Dagdagan ang pondo sa edukasyon upang
(1) bawasan ang tuition fee,
(2) dagdagan ang mga scholarships,
(3) ipaayos ang mga schoolbuilding, upuan at mesa sa lahat ng paaralan sa lahat

para
(a) hindi na sila lilipad
(b) hindi na sila babahain
(c) magamit na sila to the fullest
(d) mas mahikayat ang mga mag-aaral na mag-aral

karlo mongaya reposted the official statement of the student party in the UP Visayas-Miagao Campus

The March 24 protest action continues the militant tradition of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets for social transformation during the First Quarter Storm of the 70s. It is a tactical victory that successfully thwarted the railroading of anti-student and anti-people policies in the University.

floyd tiongson makes a scathing commentary on critics of the PUP & UP protests

The paintball hurling and the barricading were precise and surgical deployments of violence, enough only to bruise egos. They were symbolic acts intended to remind their targets of the students’ and faculty’s fury. They served to tell them, in the corporeal sense, that the students can touch them, that our discontent is thick enough to be cut by a knife, that there is no such thing as impunity and avoiding accountability. These are far from the mindless, destructive violence pervading the minds of haughty “educated” liberals.

queen paranoia, one of the five arrested Polytechnic University of the Philippines students, shares her thoughts

Mapangahas kami hindi dahil kami ay mga kabataan lamang. Mapangahas kami dahil nakita namin ang tunay na problema ng lipunan at ang solusyon dito. Mapangahas kami dahil alam naming ang linya naming ay wasto.

professor danny arao of the up journalism department writes about the ethics of protest

Gaano ba kawalang-pakundangan ang mga opisyal sa kasalukuyan? Ayon sa testimoniya ng ilang dati at kasalukuyang miyembro ng BOR, may isang matandang miyembro ng BOR na sinabihan noon ang isang abogado ng UP: “Don’t lecture us about the law. We can do whatever we want. We are the Board of Regents!“

Sa ganitong konteksto, wala tayong karapatang humiling sa mga nagpoprotesta na magpakahinahon. Umabot na sa sukdulan ang kultura ng walang-pakundangan sa pamantasan. Kung kahit ang mga lider ng unyon ay hinahamon ng Chancellor ng UPLB ng suntukan, malinaw na hahanap at hahanap ng iba pang porma ng protesta ang mga estudyante, guro at kawani.

professor roland tolentino, dean of the up college of mass communications, also writes about the Mar. 24 UP protest

At ito ang tunay na karahasan, ayon sa kritikong si Slavoj Zizek.  Ang wika ng panunumbat ay hindi aktwal na tumutugon sa obhetibong karahasan.  Totoong may reaksyon ang mga nagproprotestang estudyante, faculty at kawani ng SUCs (state colleges and universities).  Marahas dahil hindi umaakma sa inaasahang regularisasyon ng pagtanggap:  deadma lamang kundi man mabaon sa limot sa dami ng pinagkakaabalahan, o hayagang pag-aproba.

tonyo cruz meanwhile analyzes and points to the Education Act of 1982 as a major factor in the present situation of the educ. system

Many have made claims about what ails the educational system. Some say it is because tuition fees are too low or too cheap (thus justifying even more tuition fee increases even in state schools). Others say it is because of our nation’s teachers (who should have benefited immensely – theoretically at least – from the rampage of tuition fee increases since 1982 as well as state scholarships).  Still, others claim either corruption or lack of political will (!), with the latter referring to the inability to rein in on corruption in the Department of Education.

The common problem among these ideas is the refusal to assess the current and longstanding policy encapsulized in Batas Pambansa 232 or the Education Act of 1982, as well as other laws such as the Higher Education Modernization Act. That policy is the full deregulation of tuition fees as the ticket to attaining greatness in the education field. Of course, this has likewise infected the state education sector with similar misconceptions.

other participants of the Blog Action Day are:

ang aking espasyo: March 29 is Blog Action Day for Education

radulce: a tale of two campuses

barefoot scientist: tale of three students

scrutiny spectacle stance: ISKOLAR ng Bayan??? (chronicles of the tuition fee hike))

bikoy.net: our freedom and our rights were not won with diplomacy

the accidental teacher: my right, your right, our right: education for all

kai iskra: edukasyon ay karapatan!

jon magat: mag-aral ang dapat mag-aral

microeigangrau: civility cloak?

chantal’s doodles: pagbalik tanaw sa ilang alaala ng pagkilos sa hanay ng KABATAAN

delajoker: Naaalala ko ang ACAS

carlo cielo: torching the campus

project dennio: the story of educating myself and you

Again, a big thank you to everyone who participated in our Blog Action Day and in our National Day of Action for Education.

Check out this album for the pictures of the Day of Action in Metro Manila.