Education as a Framework for Development |
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Columns - Ike Señeres | |||
Written by Ike Señeres | |||
Friday, 07 January 2011 14:06 | |||
BANTAY GOBYERNO (Series 049) By Ike Señeres A Colonel, Two Filipino Religious Workers and a Filipino Cosmetic Surgeon Are Reinventing Education C ol. Rodolfo “Boy” Santiago, the Deputy Commander of the National Development Support Command (NADESCOM) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines ( Dr. John “Jancen” Cenica, a cosmetic surgeon wants to turn the proposed charity hospital project in The Foundation of Our Lady of Peace Mission, Inc. (FOLPMI) headed by Sister Eva Maamo employs the same approach of healing the poor and teaching them to start their own livelihood projects so that they could become financially independent. Sister Eva is a one of a kind holy person. She is not just a Catholic nun; she is also a doctor and a surgeon at that. If you are already impressed with that, let me tell you that she is also a winner of both the Mother Teresa Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Fr. Rocky Evangelista, a Salesian priest who is the founder of the Tuloy Foundation in Alabang has a similar approach. His foundation operates what is practically a boarding school where he houses and teaches former street children, turning them into productive citizens as they become employees or entrepreneurs. Fr. Rocky is a recipient of the Gusi Peace Prize and the Ten Outstanding Filipinos (TOFIL) Award. Last Chance to Become Productive Citizens T he Delancey Street Foundation in The common denominator of the approaches of Col. Santiago, Dr. Cenica, Sister Eva, Fr. Rocky and the Delancey Street Foundation is education, coupled with another social mission such as health, community development and personal transformation. I believe that there are many more possible interpretations and variations of this approach, and we should go out of our way to find out what these could be. In theory, prisons are supposed to be rehabilitation centers where inmates are supposed to be reformed before they are released back to society, except those who are serving life terms. In reality, however, the inmates turn out to be more-hardened criminals more often than not, because of the bad influences inside those walls. By comparison, the Delancey Street Foundation is doing exactly what the prisons here are supposed to be doing. There are many lessons that the local justice system here could learn from Delancey. First of all, the State of Ex-convicts, substance abusers and street children are not the only possible students of boarding schools. Even the children of poor families who could not afford to commute to and from the conventional schools could become residents of these boarding schools were they could have the right environment for learning. In the experience of Delancey, they found out that the rehabilitation and reform of students could happen more if they are in a farming environment where they are closer to nature. This is the reason why there centers have in effect become farm schools, so to speak. There are many vacant buildings and raw lands that could potentially be turned into boarding schools or farm schools as the case may be. These schools could actually be owned by the local government units (LGUs) but operated by private foundations, within the context of the public and private partnership (
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Last Updated on Friday, 07 January 2011 14:09 |
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