I was amused at Eugenia D. Apostol’s idea that social reforms in our prevailing educational system are possible. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 5/31/08 and 6/7/08) They are not. Consider just two of the numerous recommendations of the Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom) in 1991: replacing English with Filipino or the home language in the teaching of basic education subjects, and the printing of textbooks and other teaching materials also in Filipino immediately. These were never done. That’s why to this day the miseducation—to quote that great nationalist Renato Constantino—of our youth continues.

Incidentally, you’ll find instructive reading the Current Journal of “Education Forum” (October to December 1991). The entire issue of the journal is devoted to the highlights of the EdCom report (“Assessment and Alternatives” by the late Dr. M. C. Doronila) and “A critique of the EdCom report” by Sr. Marie T. Bravo, SIFC. Her piece included a “General Scheme of a Nationalist Agenda for Philippine Education.” One of the questions she asked was: Education for what and for whom?

My own commentary on the subject of improving education to benefit the Filipinos and the Philippines: Regardless of the number of times we overhaul the present educational system in the Philippines, for as long as the entire country is caught in the claws of an eagle, and we ourselves, the Filipino people, remain indifferent to the quagmire we’re in, there can be no hope we can ever lift ourselves from poverty.

R. A. IBARBIA (via email)