Big men's problems

Media

Part of The Philippine Educator

Title: Big men's problems
Language: English
Year: 1947
Rights
Fulltext: Beloved Boss (And Hope) ESTEBAN R. ABADA Philippine Educator I I • of 57,000 Teachers Under his control and supervision, as of July, 1946, are 11 normal and technical schools, 188 secondary schools (including general, secondary trade, secondary agricultural, and rural), and 11,904 elementary schools, with their force of 56,851 teachers and their enrolment of 3,257,868 pupils. He was born in the town of Saravia, yt:ar afterwards he was promoted as an Negros Occidental, on March 15, 1896, elementary school principal, and in still or abo1,1t two years before Commodore another year rose to be a supervising Dewey battered the Spanish fleet at M.~- teachet·. nila Bay. He received his early schooling He arrived in the United States tn at the public school of Kabankalan, the fall of 1919 as a pensionado of the Negros Occidental. Later he came to Philippine Government. He obtained Manila to enroll as a student pensio- a Teacher's Life Certificate besides an nado at the Philippine Normal School. academic degree (A.B. with distinction, He was president of his class. University of Michigan), and was electHe became an elementary classroom ed to Phi Beta Kappa. Like many teacher ~oon after graduation from the othet s of his countrymen who have normal school in 1915. A little over a been to America, he developed a genFOR MODERN OPTICAL NEEDS-SEE KEEPSAKE OPTICAL-80 Escolta 5 P.HILIPPINE EDUCATOR """'-; ~-· ·uifle faith in democracy an9. an abiding ' !e• 1 t' -admiration for the American way of '~ . .l life. After 'his return to the Philippines in 1922, he was assigned as a secondary school teacher. Two years later he be·· came a high school principal, in 1927 a 'division superintendent of schools, and in 1939 the administrative officer of 41 the Bureau of Educatiolt. By this tmte he had seen service in various pans vf his country. During much of the J;wanese occupation he stayed on his farm in 'Mindoro. He is a member of the National Council of Education, the Board of Regellts of the University of the Philippines, and th e Government Radio Broadc.asting Committee. He has likewise something to do with the preparation of regulations governing the sdection of Filipino pensionados for the United States and other foreign countries. In his book A Decade of American Government in the Philippines, Dr. David P. Barrows of the University of BIG MEN'S ESTEBAN Director This convention has been called in order , that superintendents can exchange ideas and opinions ~n our educational pr~blems and agree upon spe·cific and workable proposals for meeting them. I will not impose upon your patience and i?telligence by a needless .oral recital of our common problems. They are suggested on your copy of the convention agenda. Neither is there any necessity for a ' long exposition of the magnitu.cie of your task. For the circumst:anc~s hav .. made our problems inherently big-big beyond words. The heavy hand of war California · said: _ "American .claims ;"of <.:outributing to the world's experience in the governance of empire lie in the per!!onal and political liberty guarantt!cd ·to the Filipinos and in the success of popular education." Unfortunately, because of the war, lhe cause of popular education in the Philippines suff€.red a treiJiendotis setback. At the tlme of liberatio.n approximately 85 per cent of the school buildings in the country were · found ·~to have been destroyed or damaged. In many places :!SChool equipment, materials and supplies, let alone textbooks and supplementary readers, had virtually disappeared. And on top of all these diffi- r c.ulties, school children by the thousands sought desperately to gain admisSion in the publi.c schools. These were ,among the problems that faced Esteban R. Abada when ht assumed office as Director of Education on June 27, 1946. They are. his problems still. PROBLEMS R. ABADA of Education struck at our schools and left them in ruins. School equipment and supplies which it had taken us years to acquir+'' 00'1 stock were wantonly destroyed or looted; books and records were nut tn the torch. Other complicating factors added to our difficulty. When the inevitable wave of inflation came, teachers who survived the struggle and rejoined our ranks were again harassed by economic insecurity on account of abn<ll'mally high living costs which they had to meet with sta~iona:ry, inadequate in· !!' . ;;;: -.A-'r' oomes. As a result many . have left th& seivice for more remunerative work I . ' . elsewhere·. Such turnover in our teache~ .personnel h~s b~come alarmingly frequent and large, and we have been compellt:d to •·ecruit inadequately ·trained pe;rsons to carry on educational work. Realizing th~ seriousness of the si. · tuation, . the government has.' taken ' steps ~ t~ all~viate the lot of public school teachers. New elementary teaching pusitions-8,380 in all, each at a basic ~ ': monthly salary of f80 - have bet>.n r ' creatP.d for .additional classes. Qualified .. and deserving teachers may now Le . . .r· promoted .to these items . . , Two . hundred new national positions for s~pcr visors have been provided for at !'1,800 each. per am:mm. Bonuses for secondaTy school teachers on the ·provincia.! rolls have .also been allowed. B.~.E. gt·aduates who are only junior teacher eligibles .may now be extended regular ap'JlOintments in the secondary schools. Other plans to give teachers frP-edo.u from fear and want are now under seri~us study· Among those are (1) tho restoration rof the teachers' pension sy .. - tem, (2) the establishment of a Tea<'h"· ers National Cooperative Association and of a Teachers Building and Loan Association. It is hoped that these mea· sures will help bolster up teacher m.t .. rale which is reeling under the impact of the hard times. Instructional, administrative, and sh pervil':ory problems have become very acute. On top of the inadequacy of teacher preparation there is the prob !em of overageness among 1nany of ou· pupils and students, accentuated by t.he lack of textbooks and other teachin!!' materials. Because of the difficult.iP< 7 an1 the prohibitive costs of transpori tatjon, some of the functions of ad.min:= istration and su.pervision have not ri: ceived so much attention as the~ should. There may also have been ·noted- a ~ I disturbing slack in thl! morals of uur people and, in' a few cases, a consequei).t . d.isto'Ition of thos~ .age-old concepts of public duty and official integrity which have hitherto k'ept our service upon .a high moral plane. Another significant factor that has mcreased the magnitude of our current educational problems is our new-found :1ationa1 freedom. The birth of a na-' tlon brings in its t~airi new prohteuu; rmd new demands. It is only natural that the agencies of public education, NIT bure.au among them, should ass~m~> Its due share of the responsibility of met>.ting the requirements of . our ne~ national life. Ours is the obligation to fm<1 out in what new directions lies the mJ,.I\JOn of the schouls under our charge, and tv perform the added functiOn!! with undiminished zeal. As a jl'roup, we are thus faced with one of thP greatest challenges of our time. The odds are, on the surface, against ';lS· But superintendents are tried, experienced men. You have ample l'eserves of resourcefulness and you have not been known to shirk responsibilit.y. You shall not fail our count.ry in her hour of need. I am, therefore, confident ihat we shall be able to solv" many of our problems in the same giv~ and-take, democratic fashion that characterized our pre-war conventions and conferences. Thus may we hope to .:ontribute our share to the common welfare and to the success of our young Republic. FOR :UODERN OPTICAL NEEDS-SEE KEEPSAKE OPTICAL-SO Escolt'l