Arao, D. A. (2007, August 1-7). UP at “iba pa”. Pinoy Weekly, 6 (29), p. 5. This may be retrieved from http://www.pinoyweekly.org/pw6-29/op_ed/ed-6_29_3.htm.

If you think this article is a tribute to the University of the Philippines (UP) where I studied and currently teach, think again. My objective in writing about the premier state university is to contextualize the high regard for UP in terms of academic excellence and to stress the need for graduates of so-called reputable universities like UP to participate in the struggle for change.

This is not just an issue of taxpayers actually paying for one’s tuition in a state college or university. More important, this has to do with one’s sense of equity and justice.

Even government statistics show that only a segment of today’s youth can enter college, given the high cost of sustaining one’s education. The need to survive prompts the already limited number of college students to choose courses that can more or less ensure them of employment, instead of deepening one’s knowledge and developing one’s skills not for profit but for personal and social development.

Indeed, there is something wrong with an educational system that generally seeks to produce graduates to fulfill the demands of economic industries and sectors.

On a personal note (which I did not anymore include in my article due to space constraints), some well-meaning friends criticized me in the past for pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Philippine Studies, instead of a graduate degree in a “professional” course like journalism and business administration. They asked probing questions like “How can you profit from your chosen course?” and “How will it increase your market value?” When I said that I want to know how to better analyze issues, they quipped, “You can’t get rich that way!”

In a sense, my friends are right. I am, however, inclined to think that I am more right than they are, notwithstanding the fact that there are some who think of me as “more left than right.” Ha ha.