A big game to play
Media
Part of The Philippine Educator
- Title
- A big game to play
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1947
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Q.:: · .. >;;;i;" r {.. L' .·· ~ ,. ·,· ·,. ~ ( , -A - BIG GAME - TO PLAy· ' . By VICTOR M. DE LEON Div. Superintendent of Schools fo~ Milsan~is Occidental There is a big game we have to play and a battle we have ·to win. If we must win and come out the victor, let us snap out of it-join now t~e PPSTA and participate actively in its fight for the improvement of our lot and that of our school system. And having joined up, how do we play the game? I Individually, there is a lot we can ' do on the matter of enlightening the people in our respective communities whenever an opportunity presents it. self during PTA meetings, co~vocations, or colllJ11unity assemblies. We must, of course, exercise due care not to mislead our hearers into believing that we are criticizing or condell}ning the public. school system of which we are a part. Rather, we should confine ourselves to the exposition of the bare facts or unfortunate truth, so to say, of the undesirable condition of our elementary schools ever since the passage of the Educational Act of 1940 and which has become more acute as -an immediate result of the last war. We must frankly unfold to them that the introduction of the double-single-session plan in the primary grades was and sj;ill is an economic necessity in order to make the limited funds· at the disposal of our government sufficient to :accommodate twice as many school children as can be accommodated in our equally limited number of school rooms, with the same number of teachet·s at the same salary 19 rates. In · other words,· these must be emphasized, that under the double-single-session plan, our government .actually saves much money at the expense of the thousands and thousands of teachers and sacrificing a more desirable teaching standard - all for the sake of economy of money but to the utter waste of human resources! The people must be likewise told that the main reason why the teaching .pr~fession is no longer attracting good teachers and that the enrollment in our teacher-training institutions have markedly declined is the low pay that teachers who have had college training receive as compa1-.ed with the wages of unskilled laborers and workers ranging from P120 to P150 a month. Lastly, we should conclude by reminding our audience that the public schools belong to the people and are the schools of the people. That these school, if they must be operated, maintained, and managed efficiently :according to desirable and accepted standards, the people must support them generously thru public taxation and other media. Dra. T. F. Halili Central Hotel, Room No. 217, Manila WOMEN'S DISEASES & CffiLDBIRTH Residence: 1430 Washi11gU:m, Sampaloc Manila