In response to education summit

'Blame it on yourself,' students say to education chief

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2008


"Blame it on yourself, Mr. Lapus, and on the others like you whose expensive but worthless projects make the fiscal position of the country weak, incurring huge debts the burden of which shall be carried by the taxpayers,"

This was the reaction of League of Filipino Students (LFS) Chairperson Vencer Crisostomo in response to the presentation of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus in the first day of the Education Summit, yesterday at the Manila Hotel.

"It is ironic that the the man behind the costly, and unnecessary Cyber-Education Project is now recognizing the insufficiency of the budget allocated by the government for the education sector," said Crisostomo, in response to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus' presentation at the summit yesterday.

Besides the controversial CyberEd project, which the group earlier criticized for being unpractical apart from being costly, Crisostomo also cited the textbook scam and computer scam last year as proof of how the education department was wasting its resources.

The student group also criticized the government's solution to the "mismatch" between our graduates and the job skills that are in demand.

"The government plans to solve this problem through the National Career Assessment Examination, forcing those who fail to take up vocational courses instead of aiming for diplomas," said Crisostomo.

The youth leader argued that the 'job skills demand' being claimed by the government is actually the needs of foreign corporations who would prefer Filipino semi-skilled workers that they can underpay.

In response to President Arroyo's keynote address at the summit, Crisostomo said "the 15,000 classrooms being boasted by Arroyo that her government built last year barely scratches the surface of the infrastructure and facility shortage in the country."

According to the a report of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, there is a shortage of over 57,000 classrooms, 3.48 million seats and 49,000 teachers.

Despite yesterday's violent police dispersal, members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), along with other youth groups held another rally today at the Manila Hotel to continue there campaign at exposing the education summit which they denounced as 'anti-student.'

Six students from various schools were forcibly arrested while 23 others were injured after police elements from the Western Police District violently dispersed a student rally during the opening of the Malacanang-initiated Education Summit.

Other than Alvin Cerrano, of the LFS-Polytechnic University of the Philippines Chapter, the other students, identified as Joanna Rose Adenit and Emman Montado of the Philippine Normal University, Crimson Laglera of Anakbayan-PUP, Arlo Cervantes of University of the Philippines-Diliman, and Vic del Rosario from Caloocan City are yet to be released from police custody.

"We cannot allow the threat of another violent dispersal stop us from exposing the sham education summit. We know that whatever new policy they develop shall worsen the state of Philippine education instead of solving its problems as Arroyo claims," said Crisostomo. ###


Reference:

Ron Villegas, LFS Information Officer, ronvil@gmail.com, 09154943120

Vencer Crisostomo, National Chairperson, venzie@gmail.com, 09157991059, 09228262606