The Philippine Online Chronicles

October is National Children’s month. The aim is the "recognition of Filipino children as the most valuable assets of the nation and their vital role in nation-building."

In every society, there is much emphasis placed on the care and proper welfare of children. This is because children are obviously the hope of the future. Without them, the future of any society or nation would be questionable. After all, who would take over the reigns of leadership if not the very same children that we have today? They are the ones that will continue our traditions or start new ones. Hopefully, they will find solutions to problems that we have been unable to master.

Just as we took over from our parents, and they from the generation before them, today’s children will one day be the ones to develop, care for and rule the country. They literally will inherit the earth that we create for them. They will be the ones to pay for the national debt and suffer the consequences of the budget deficit as well as massive corruption.

It then becomes of vital importance that we not only ensure that we pass on a legacy that they can work with, but also ensure that we teach them the knowledge and skills to be able to continue the work our forefathers have created.

The situation

The intent of this awareness campaign is noble as it is meant to bring to attention the current situation of Filipino children in the country. It is apparent that the state of our children in the country is dire and depressing. Just take a look outside your window and see the number of street children begging on the street, selling sampaguita or sniffing rugby to tide over their hunger.

Poor health

Filipino children are born to unhealthy mothers and grow up undernourished and underfed. Filipino children are growing on the streets, becoming under-educated, unhealthy and unprepared for the fast approaching future. Even the oral health of our children is of concern. By the time they reach first grade, about 97 percent of these children have tooth decay.

Poor education

Compared to our Asian neighbors and to the rest of the world, our quality of education is sorely lacking. Juan Miguel Luz, DepEd Undersecretary, has been quoted saying that "the quality of Philippine education has been declining continuously for roughly 25 years." He continued to say that the public education system in the country has been “failing to teach the competence the average citizen needs to become responsible, productive and self-fulfilling. We are graduating people who are learning less and less."

Just every school year, it becomes standard to report the number of classrooms lacking in public schools. The bathrooms are filthy with no running water. The children don’t have enough books and school supplies. The teachers themselves are lacking in competency skills. We have lost our competitive edge.

Because 95 percent of the children in the country (about 17 million Filipino children) attend public school, it becomes of even greater concern knowing that we are not educating our children properly. This enrollment rate is also slipping. It is said that one out of every six children are not enrolled due to poverty.

The more affluent middle class families simply send their children to private schools, but what happens to those who can’t afford something better? With a population growth rate of 2.3 percent, that means that every year, our already overburdened public education system will have to accommodate more children.

K-12

As a solution, Pres. Aquino has started the pre-school level of education under his term. It is his goal that by the time he leaves office, he would have added more years to the education system with the hope of improving the overall quality of basic education.

Conditional cash transfer program (CCTP)

Also, the conditional cash transfer program of Pres. Aquino will be expanded. Working on a bribe or reward mentality, parents of the poorest families are given cash as long as they continue to send their children to school, get their kids immunized and get proper health care from health centers. This has been a very successful program in Mexico. While the intent may be ideal, it’s disheartening how some parents are unable to provide basic needs for their children, due to their own lack of education and opportunities and the need to be bribed in order to do the right thing.

Child abuse

In 2007, there were over 5,000 cases of child abuse reported in the country. Over 77 percent of these involved sexual abuse, mostly of children between the ages of 13 to 15 years old, although there were over 300 cases of child abuse of children under the age of 3.

These figures are quite low, because it is very likely that there are more unreported cases. Child abuse can range from sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect.

However, is it not also child abuse to bring a child into the world and not feed, clothe, shelter or educate him properly? The definition of child abuse should be expanded. If a child is made to work for his allowance or his jeepney fare just so he can go to school, that should be child abuse. If a child has to sniff rugby because he has nothing to eat, that’s child abuse. The Guadalupe boys taught to break into taxicabs stalled in traffic and steal from passengers are also victims of child abuse. If we don’t teach them the proper skills to survive and live as decent, moral, productive and creative citizens, we have failed in our duty as parents.

The very same children we claim to protect are falling through the cracks.

It’s everyone’s responsibility

The problem of the state of our children is everyone’s problem, even if you send your own kids to private schools or even if you don’t have a child yourself. It’s not up to the government or the parents alone. Everyone should take responsibility. This is because it is our own failure when the children of our country fail. This is because the failure of one Filipino child is the failure of all Filipinos. What happens to one Filipino child affects everyone because it is to the same child that we will pass the torch of leadership of the country.

Hilary Clinton has said that it takes a village to raise a child. This is truer now than ever.

Photo taken by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some rights reserved.