Suffrage and literacy

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XVII (Issue No.7) July 1965

Year

1965

Subject

Suffrage

Voting

Education and politics

Political participation

Literacy

Adult education

Adult learning

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

This article was published in the Philippines Herald on July 11, 1965, a day after Dr. Tan’s article appeared in Manila Times now reproduced at page 21 in this issue.

Fulltext

SUFFRAGE AND LITERACY The literacy work of the public primary schools has been going on during the last 65 years with a brief partial interruption for about three years dur ing the Japanese military occupation of our coun try. This task is expected to produce functional li teracy for the young who finish four years of school ing from age 7 to 11. On this basis, available sta tistics give us the following figures: In the aca demic year 1956-57. out of a total fourth grade en rollment of 552,641 children, 66.13 per cent succeed ed in finishing four years of primary education. In 1960-61, out of a total fourth grade enrollment of 635,190 children, 71.12 per cent managed to survive. This figure represent a record of improvement not, however, very impressive as it covers a period of three years. Retention of literacy after four years in primary school may perhaps be considered high if reading materials are made available to those who leave school after that grade. The problem then is to prevent dropouts as much as possible before' school children reach the fourth grade if we expect to produce a marked increase of the literacy rate through the work of our public primary schools. Adult education appears essential and even in dispensable to save dropouts from completely re verting to illiteracy. At the adult stage people ap parently need .less time and effort to train when they could undergo an effective system of adult instruction. The experience of principals of Den mark’s folk schools or people’s colleges shows that “the same amount of information which it takes the half-grown youth dozing on school forms (grades) three to five years to learn, can be acquired by 2 Panorama adults who are keen on learning and who have done practical work, in the space of three to five months.” Given the proper motivation and having properly trained teachers, I have no doubt that the same en couraging results could be expected with our own adults. In this connection instruction on how to or ganize and operate folk schools should receive serious attention. According to a recent estimate about 70 per cent of Filipino youth of school age are out of school. Many of them are dropouts who cannot re turn to the public primary school because they are overage for their grade level. They naturally need training in adult schools. But there are only 21 folk schools in all, scattered over 14 provinces in our country. These should be the type of schools that could give the literacy training they need. There might be others promoted by private agencies, both secular and religious. The successful record of similar schools in the Scandinavian countries in improving the lot of the masses and in the in telligent exercise of civic rights and duties has at tracted the admiration of many nations and has consequently influenced them in adopting a like sys tem. The establishment of many more folk schools in evqry Philippine municipality should be envi saged as an essential part of our literacy campaign. The existence of numerous private colleges in our country could be utilized for this purpose. With assistance of the Bureau of Private Schools, the cooperation of these private institutions could be invited and by permitting them to give credit to their students and teachers who reeeive the neces sary training for organizing folk schools and learn ing the proper methods of teaching literacy to adults, considerable progress may be expected in ad vancing literacy or adult education among our fast growing population. July 1965 3 In our search for motivation for adult educa tion in our country we should not overlook one high ly effective means, which should be tied up with the fantastic eagerness of the vast majority of our peo ple in politics. For almost every elective office there are five or twenty five candidates for the po sition. They are all searching eagerly for voters, appealing to them, recruiting them, and even ma nufacturing them. In fact, some candidates and parties have gone to the extent of transforming bees, birds, and fishes into qualified voters. Let us stop for a moment and look up the law which defines the qualifications of voters. We find it in our National Constitution which says: “Suf frage may be exercised by male citizens of the Phil ippines not otherwise disqualified by law, who are twenty-one years of age or over and are able to read and write, and who shall have resided in the Philippines for one year and in the municipality wherein they propose to vote for at least six months preceding the election.” This right was later ex tended by a plebiscite to women as provided in the Constitution. These qualifications have definite purposes. Citizenship places in the hands of the Filipino the sole power to decide how his country and his people should be governed. The age of twenty-one is chosen as the starting point of maturity when a per son could be relied upon to exercise his judgment and discretion in deciding who should be instrusted to run the government ably and responsibly. The residence requirement enables the voter to ac quaint himself with the conditions and needs of his country and his community. And the required abi lity “to read and write” envisages a voter who has that degree of education which would enable him to personally inform himself about the issues and 4 Panorama problems involved in elections. For he is expected to cast his vote wisely and prudently in the light of what he understands from what he reads about the candidates and the election issues published in their propaganda sheets or in the newspapers. Hence the constitutional requirement that a voter must know how to read and write implies very much more than mere ability to identify words and figures, It implies the possession of at least a basic education embodied in the concept of func tional literacy, for which the Constitution provides he should have when it says in mandatory terms that the Government “shall provide at least free public primary education and citizenship training to adult citizens.’' How to vote does not merely involve the mechanical act of filling a ballot. It requires the use of personal judgment on election issues and the merits of candidates. When a voter does not have that ability, there can be no free and clean elections. One does not need to be a keen and perceptive observer of Philippine elections to notice that this educational qualification is neither strictly fulfilled nor faithfully required by our election officials. It is erroneously taken for granted. The constitutional mandate is clear and its purpose is obvious. The neglect it has suffered has lowered the quality of the government of the country. This condition could be changed and improved if the registration of voters is used as an occasion for an honest exami nation of the educational qualification of every per son who wishes to exercise the sovereign right of deciding who should be intrusted with the serious and difficult power to govern his country and people. July 1965 5 The popular inclination towards political parti cipation is a healthy sign of our people’s interest in and love for democracy and democratic practices. But it has to be sublimated by an intelligent inter pretation and strict enforcement of the educational qualification prescribed by our Constitution. If this is done, we will undoubtedly experience a develop ment of literacy and adult education which would place our nation on the same cultural, political, and social level as that of the more progressive nations on earth. Schools, teachers, volunteer workers, study groups, and reading and other materials are essen tial in the work of advancing literacy in this Coun try or any other country. But the successful im plementation of a major program of this nature can only take place under an adequate and effective oganization. Assuming the availability of sufficient funds for this indispensable enterprise, its careful utilization depends upon a competent and responsi ble direction. It is the factor greatly needed to en list the sympathetic cooperation of all civic-minded rtien and women of the nation without which the task becomes doubly difficult. — V. G. S. 6 Panorama

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