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2012-24624
BC 100
a lot of students dont want to pursue courses in science, that they associate math and sciences to nose
bleeding. This is true especially for poor Filipinos, they would opt to take shorter courses (2-3 years) or
courses with high return on investments (engineering, nursing, architecture, accountancy, medicine, law
etc.)
What was lacking in her discussion is that education in the country is not even accessible to the
majority. Tuition fees are higher every year, and jobs and income are harder and harder to come by. For
the farmers which make up 75% of our society, they dont even have the option to send their children to
tertiary education because the academic calendar shift coincides with their harvest season. Thats even
beyond the point that they dont have the money for education, only earning 9.50 pesos a day. Adding to
that is the implementation of K12, extending basic and secondary education to 12 years, thats 12 years
worth of high tuition fees. K12 also pushes high school graduates to become semi skilled workers.
Tertiary education would be regarded as a privilege.
Shaira Panela also talked about how she did not want to dumb down science concepts in her
journalism, that it was a trend that she did not approve to. I think the alternative to dumbing down
concepts is to actually educate the majority of the Filipino, through an accessible educational system.
Although this sounds like an ideal solution, education plays a major role in the development of a nation.
Education is a basic human right, the country should be putting it in priority.
Media Business
A recurring topic that was discussed is how science does not sell. At first I was shocked when I
heard this, because I thought that media coverage on natural disasters is of utmost importance. Although I
agreed that generally science does not sell, as compared to entertainment and politics, I thought that the
profitability would not be so much of a concern in disasters. During the forum I was reminded that first of
all the media industry is a business first. Its priority is not to educate people, but to earn profit.
Government Responsibility
I think that the lecture stretched out the responsibility of media too much. Some questions in the
open forum went on to blame media for its shortcomings in mobilizing the people to evacuate during
disasters. People confuse the responsibility of the government, especially in natural disasters, to the
responsibility of the government. Generally I think that media should work together with government
efforts in the context of natural disasters, media should not be isolated as the main actor disaster risk
reduction.
Being born and raised in Bicol, I very much appreciate efforts like this lecture to educate people
about natural disasters. But one thing I learned from years worth of storms is that the government is the
crucial player in disaster risk reduction. Bicol could not have achieved zero casualties during natural
disasters had it not been for the effort of the local government.