MARCH is a month that holds a special place in many Filipino families.  It marks the end of the school year and for many students, the end of the road in their academic journey.  The month of March is associated with graduation and this event is a milestone in the lives of many young people and their families.

Education is one of the cherished treasures of Filipinos and families who invest so much on the education of the children.  For most Filipinos, education is the ticket to success – the ladder that would help a person to reach his/her dreams and aspirations in life.  Many parents believe good education is the best gift if not the only fortune they can bequeath to their children.

Parents would make many supreme sacrifices to put their children to school.  Personal pleasures and desires even needs are foregone just to secure the education of the children.  Behind every child in school are heroic stories and noble sacrifices on the part of the parents.   All of them made for the sake of the child’s education.

Graduation is held in special esteem.  It symbolizes the bearing of fruit, the culmination of countless sacrifices, the ultimate outcome of the all efforts to secure education.  A diploma or a degree is priceless, for it is the sum total of hard work of both the graduates and their parents. 

Not just a ceremony, graduation signifies a passage rite.  It marks the end of a chapter in one’s life and the beginning of a new one.  The graduate leaves a comfortable and sheltered life and plunges into the perilous journey of new freedom, greater responsibility and higher calling. 

Are the graduates adequately prepared for this kind of life?  Did their education equip them with the necessary skills and training to face bigger challenges in life?  What kind of life and future do they have at present?

Sad to say, the answers to these questions are disheartening.  Quality education remains elusive in this country and graduates in many schools are barely functional and literate.  A diploma or a degree is no longer a guarantee of competence and professionalism. 

Most graduates of Philippine school are literate illiterates.  They cannot go beyond reading and writing.  Creativity and critical thinking, the most important qualities needed to land a good job are absent in many of those who receive their diplomas every year.

Many schools whose orientation is more towards profit than education do not care if their graduates posses the necessary and basic skills to become good professionals and responsible members of the work force.  Fattening their pockets is more important to most schools in the country than to provide their students good and quality education.  Neither do they care whether their graduates are competitive in the global market.  Graduates in the end get a worthless diploma.

If the quality of products of Philippine schools is wanting, so are their prospects when they leave the portals of their schools.  Every year, the country produces 500,000 graduates in various fields of profession.  Of them barely 200,000 can be accommodated in the job market.  Many of these jobs do not provide adequate and just compensation. 

While a diploma is needed to look for a job, it does not guarantee job.  Despite the boast of the present administration that the economy is booming, many graduates face a dark future.  There is not enough opening available in the job market.  They have to fight tooth and nail for the meager jobs on hand.  They have to claw their way to get to work.

Going abroad becomes a painful choice for most graduates.  They have to leave their families and love ones behind.  Abroad, Filipinos are forced to endure the loneliness and harsh life on foreign shores to secure their survival and that of their families.  Contrary to what most people think, Filipinos abroad do not pick up the dollars they send home.  Every dollar they send to their families is earned by their sweat and blood.

As this year’s graduates march down the aisle to receive their diplomas, the fruits of their long and hard academic labor, they have no choice but to finally confront the ruthless realities in this country.  Graduation is the dawning of a more difficult and challenging life.

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