The saying "don't give him fish, give him fish rod" is somewhat overused - but its truth is eternal.
The best gift one can give oneself is education - it is an investment that yields the highest return.

That is the reason, this budget-handicapped government allots (of course after debt payment) the highest allocation to the Department of Education.

The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - enshrined as a basic human right cannot be achieved, or will be enjoyed only partially, if the person is not educated. That is the reason why this Government has tried to make do with meager resources to provide inexpensive elementary and high school in over 42,000 public schools in the country. But what quality?

Let us remember that for Filipinos to compete abroad or to be efficient, effective labor component in this country, Juan de la Cruz must not be educated half-heartedly - as indeed he is today.

Consider that there is a shortage of 6,500 classrooms today - yes Department of Education secretary Fe Hidalgo was correct. It is only solved by the so-called two-shifts strategy of classroom use which effectively shortens the school hours of the students and fatigues the same teachers twice over. In Commonwealth elementary school 12,700 students share only 85 rooms (meriting a footnote in the Guiness Book of Records) while San Diego school in Quezon City has 5,400 students for 18 classrooms. In one Taguig school, students had to bring umbrellas and raincoats to school because the classrooms leaked while classes go on.

In some parts of the country, they hold classes under mango trees; others inside barangay halls.

There are 267 barangays without elementary schools and 5 municipalities without a high school. Add to that the woeful lack of books and materials to the 11,000 shortage in teachers (4,500 in the elementary and 6,500 in the high school level) and one has a recipe for an educational disaster of alarming proportion.

These alarming ratios were partly influenced by the exodus of transferees of children from the private to public schools since the tuition fees in the former have been escalating massively. This year 32% of private schools have mercilessly hiked their fees and the Department of Budget and Management had to release P238 million in "subsidy" in order to force state colleges and universities not to increase tuition fees.

When compared with our neighbors, the country is in a miserable state in terms of classroom to student ratio of 44 compared to only 31 in Malaysia and 22 in Thailand. This is documented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is easy to see how fewer students will allow teachers to allocate more time to draw out the skills and analytical prowess of individuals than when there are more students demanding teacher attention.

It is very clear that the state of education in the country has deteriorated in large measure as proven by the atrocious performance of those who go through college especially in the fields of Mathematics and the Sciences. When this malady translates even to the abhorrent use of the English language by even college students, then we are in for deep shit. The last remaining bastion of our supposed competitive edge - the facility of the use of the English language is no longer defensible.

In the past, we had hordes of construction workers, domestic helps and seamen exiting to shores abroad for greener pastures. Now, to our eternal chagrin, the "brain drain" is becoming more real with professionals like doctors, nurses, physical therapists, bankers, accountants, chemists, scientists and even teachers are leaving the country. The teachers are there not even as teachers in schools but nannies to teach the rich families' kids speak correct, grammatical English.

And guess who are left behind the country to represent the "best" there is in our labor force? The mediocre, half-educated students waving diplomas -some of them manufactured in Recto and Escolta - bringing to question our attraction as an investment haven in terms of manpower.

Professor Randy David had lamented that Filipinos, in dire straits, today have no choice but to put up coping mechanisms. If they can't have land, they become squatters. If no health care, they run to faith healers. If no rice, they eat instant noodles all day long.

Without an adequate educational system, we make do with producing graduates that hold diplomas that mean next to nothing. Or diplomas that have a little bit more value than the paper it is printed on.

Cry, Philippines, cry.