By TONY LOPEZ
Two disturbing reports I learned about recently: 1) the Philippine economy has slowed down considerably and has consistently missed annual growth targets of 6.5 to 8%, since 2022; and 2) The Year 2 report of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom II) which said that the Philippine education system, already failing, failed even more or worsened, in 2024.
We have two major crises, both probably beyond solution, with our generation of politicians. An economic crisis. And an education crisis.
Malnourished
A quarter of our kids aged 3-5 are malnourished. Just 3 of every 100 parents believe their 5-year-olds should be in school. The government spends only P44 of every P100 required to properly educate our kids. Nearly all students who are in Grade 4 now should only be in Grade 1, in terms of knowledge.
The government delivered only 35 of the 90 textbooks needed in Grades 4 and 7. More than half of required school days are lost due to suspensions and holidays. In three years, 5,807 very bright students, our future, were turned away at the Philippine Science High School—for lack of money.
Classroom shortage
The classroom shortage is 165,000. Yet, in the whole of 2024, the government built exactly 847 classrooms, meaning, if you needed 100 classrooms, the government built—in all 365 days– only one-third of a classroom, not even one.
Only 30% of public school buildings are in good condition. So 70 of every 100 school buildings need to be renovated massively or demolished.
The Philippines has the world’s most bullies; 65 of every 100 Grade 10 students are bullied, the highest ratio in the world. We passed an Anti-Bullying Law in 2013, three years before Digong Duterte became president.
Confidential funds
In 2023, the Education secretary, Sara Duterte, spent only P125 million of confidential funds, mostly on food, food for her retinue and 400 bodyguards, in 11 days. She has now been impeached, for spending abuse.
There are 4.9 million kids out of school. The government tried to reach out to 600,000 of them (12%) to teach them something. Half did not finish the course.
Outrageous is the state of Philippine education, per the EdCom II Year Two Report. And we are not outraged at all. Patawa tawa lang tayo.
Economic growth
The Philippine economy has weakened considerably, per the Philippine Statistics Authority. Economic growth was only 5.6% in 2024, down from a high of 7.1% in 2016 but up from a 40-year low of 9.5% negative growth in 2020 due to COVID.
Quarterly economic growth as measured by the value of goods and services produced was the slowest in 18 months, during the fourth quarter (October-December) of 2024—5.23%, from 5.24% in third quarter, 6.4% in the second, and 5.8% in the first.
Whole year 2024 GDP growth was 5.6%, almost the same as the 5.5% of 2023, which was the lowest in three years, after the 5.7% of 2021 and 7.6% of 2022.
Agriculture
Agriculture is the poorest performing sector of the economy. Its contribution to economic production is now only 8%, the lowest in 100 years; from 30% during the Marcos I presidency which launched the Green Revolution.
Instead of growing by 2% per year, to match the annual population growth, agriculture shrank by 1.8% in 2024. If two million more mouths had to be fed each year, the ideal target, the economy failed to produce the food for them.
If that was not bad enough, the economy added two million more mouths on top, so four million more mouths needed to be fed last year and the economy did not produce the food for them.
Food shortage
The country does not produce enough food. There is a severe food shortage. I estimate the shortage to be 25% of our needs. If we need 20 million tons of rice a year, we are short by up to five million tons.
And five million tons if imported is $2.6 billion or P153.4 billion, money that could build 153,400 classrooms. Five million elementary school kids, out of 24 million, do not have classrooms. So every time the government spends P30,680 to import a ton of rice, it denies our kids one classroom.
Our young therefore are hit with a double whammy. With hunger and with bad education. Gutom na, tanga pa.
Our 15 year-olds cannot read, cannot write, cannot count beyond 20. And 65 of every 100 Filipinos who should be in college are not in college. Our human capital, our so-called demographic dividend, is deteriorating in quality. They are hungry, they are badly educated in elementary and high school, and they do not go to college.
In the meantime, our privileged clans, our political dynasties (they control 80% of congress seats) plunder up to half of the budget every year—that’s P3 trillion a year.
P3 trillion stolen
The P3 trillion stolen YEARLY is money could that deliver food cheap if it were invested in food production, solve our classroom shortage, and send ALL our college-age kids to college.
The P3 trillion could build all the classrooms we need now, in one year.
Good for our political dynasties, our young have been cultured to be hungry and stupid. Since they are hungry, they become beggars, dependent on acronyms like AYUDA and AKAP. They have no sense of outrage. They don’t know BS. From our politicians.
The classroom shortage can be solved in 20 years, statistics say. But illiteracy and mass stupidity, how long do you solve that? Generations. EdCom II calls the education crisis “A Matter of National Survival”. NEDA calls our economic crisis “Resilience”.