I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on the state of education both here in the United States and in the Philippines. On one hand we have our continued assault on education with constant cutting services and rising fees and on the other we seem to have a commitment to educating tomorrows youth with actual job skills they can use to move their country forward.
Maybe I shouldn’t have just watched the amazingly depressing documentary “Waiting for Superman” (http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Waiting_for_Superman/70129364?trkid=2361637), but I don’t have a lot of faith in the near term success of our public school system. Combine that with the fact that when I was in college 20 years ago it cost $300 a semester to go to a Cal State. Tuition now is 10x that. Then you add the insane idea of deporting bright, promising leaders of tomorrow because their parents broke a law and brought them to the US when they were kids and they are now illegal. The Dream Act is a solution to a problem, yet its demonized by misinformation and racism. And the final piece I’ll mention is that sad state of my son’s middle school. Without parent donations they wouldn’t be able to have materials for art or science. The school library is only open one day a week because they share a librarian with 4 other schools. I know a lot of teachers and I am amazed how they are able to go on everyday with all the odds stacked against them.
And the on the other hand we have a consistent message coming from the Aquino Administration (http://miniphilippines.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/tesda-launch-7-new-programs-2012/) that for the Philippines to develop as a nation and move forward they need to invest in education. They seem to understand the problem and have a plan to solve it. How is it that the most powerful nation in the world, with the best education system every created is falling so far behind? How asleep are we that we have allowed this to happen? If you haven’t watched it yet, watch “Waiting for Superman”… its available in the instant queue on Netflix. And then decide what you can do to help. Me? I’ve stated and internship program to train college students with analytics skills to help them get some hands on training. We all need to do something because unlike the Philippines, our government is not only incapable of fixing the problem, but they don’t even know how to address it.
Decision-Making, Analytics & Intelligence > Philippines 