A country with a million squandered futures

IRENE MAE Alcobilla was born 27 years ago in the rural town of San Remigio, Antique, where her family struggled against poverty. She lost her mother and younger brother to the rampaging floodwaters of Typhoon “Frank” in 2008 (Metrocebunews). Last March 26, she topped one of the toughest bar exams in recent memory.

Aldrin Jeff Cudia is from Barangay (village) Gatiawin in Arayat, Pampanga. “He came from a poor family of former soldier parents who had a hard time raising finances for their children’s education. His parents had at one time sold their wedding rings and other household things to support their children’s schooling” (Headline, Gitnang Luzon). He went to the Philippine Military Academy, and just as when he was to graduate class salutatorian, he was dismissed for misreporting the reason he was two minutes late in class. After the Supreme Court upheld his dismissal from the PMA, he passed the entrance exams to the prestigious University of the Philippines College of Law last April 10.

Rusty Quintana is from Barangay Florida in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, with lineage from the indigenous Banwaon tribe. He was a street child exposed to drugs and crime at a young age. He did not finish high school, and was armed only with a diploma from the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education when he was admitted to Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro in 2010 under a scholarship. Last March 28 he marched on his graduation day, completing a degree in education communication. He is now considering working for a nongovernment organization where he can put his skills into action for a better community (Rappler).

They are heartwarming stories of personal triumphs over adversities. They are exemplary proof that with adequate education, millions of poor children can excel alongside their privileged counterparts. They are heartbreaking reminders of the squandered futures of the rest of our millions of destitute children.

In the most recent figures of 2011, there were 6.24 million out-of-school youth out of 39 million Filipinos in the school-age range of 6-24. If we add to that even a conservative number of children who receive education made deficient by poverty and the inadequacies of our public schools, we have no less than 10 million children destined to live a bleak future.

I attended public schools in grade school, high school and college. I have witnessed that whatever poor children lacked in the opportunities and resources (tutorials, books, travels) enjoyed by their rich counterparts, many made up for these with their higher degree of motivation or determination. They can learn so much out of meager resources.

I had classmates who wrote beautiful English compositions even if their learning resource was largely limited to the standard-issue public school textbooks, math wizards who learned unaided by parents or tutors, and outstanding athletes who lacked proper footwear and strength-boosting sustenance. I had classmates who worked eight hours daily and attended night classes, stealing time in between to study their lessons—and still performing at par with full-time students.

The literal hunger caused by poverty can produce a figurative hunger to succeed. This hunger to escape from poverty instills remarkable motivation or determination—a special trait which, when partnered with adequate education, provides an extraordinary formula to succeed.

In his article titled “What If The Secret To Success Is Failure?” (New York Times), Paul Tough writes “that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome.” That the character strengths—foremost of which is grit or determination—that enable one to succeed in life is built out of setbacks and struggles. That people who accomplished great things often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take. That for students to succeed, “they first need to learn how to fail.”

Children from poor families experience hardship and deprivation on a daily basis. They do not need to experience setbacks and struggles and “learn” failure because they live with these challenges on a daily basis. Grit or determination is, therefore, a character strength that is ingrained in many of our impoverished schoolchildren. Add a dash of adequate education and the country will have an army of highly motivated and extremely determined children who can be the future source of bold, novel and courageous ideas that can shake the lethargy out of our social, economic and political systems.

The denial of the right to an empowering education for our impoverished children is much lamented. It is time we also started talking about what the Philippines squanders when it deprives itself of the million chances many of our determined but poor children can provide to reshape the future of our nation.

Joel Ruiz Butuyan recently opened “Balay Segundo Museum” in Ramon, Isabela, a small town surrounded by rice fields. It features contemporary artworks of acclaimed Filipino artists and serves as a school-field-trip destination in Cagayan Valley.