The Real ‘Cost’ of Education

Article by Kristan Gile – Beyond the Norms

Truth be told, many want a diploma but not an education.

In the Philippines where ‘credentialism’ seeps in the fabric of our culture, education is seen as an economic ticket. It became a social status that marks one’s achievement on the ladder of social hierarchy. As a by-product, education became a system that contradicted its supposed purpose: to liberate and to enlighten.

If you go out in the streets of Manila and ask a common Filipino on ‘why education is important?’, they would probably say that ‘it is a key out of poverty’ and ‘it is a path to success.’ Certainly, education enables and empowers individuals. Well, that is one. To contextualize, it just gives you a title, pretty much like a passport, so that you can participate in the workforce and earn a living.

All, if not most, will agree that education is vital to one’s actualization. This is not limited to financial but includes intellectual prosperity. Afterall, it teaches us patience, discipline, wisdom, waking up at seven in the morning, sitting in a three-hour long lecture where the professor narrates his mid-life crises, and of course, pursuit of knowledge. All of these things, let us call them “training”, prepare us for the real deal. For the real life requires patience, discipline, wisdom, waking up at seven in the morning for a job you just do for money, sitting in a three-hour long meeting where the boss narrates his mid-life crises while you are also busy dealing with your own, and of course, pursuit of 13th month pay and Christmas bonus. At 3 A.M. existential dread, is education really worth it?

Perhaps, it will stem from how we define education. How do we see education really in a naked perspective without all the bed of roses? For instance, do we see it as a pursuit to liberate ourselves? How many people have been liberated with education? Look at our several political leaders who have law degrees and are graduates of prestigious universities but remain caged in their greed and insatiable plunderous tendencies. Their credentials, diplomas, and educational background made them respectable and trustworthy. Education put them at the zenith of their success; but their success is the demise of the populace. They were not liberated from the system. They were formed to fit in the system. Do we call them educated?

Then there are people who use their education to free themselves. After freeing themselves, they liberate others from their own cage. They tell them that the cast shadows are mere reflections of the real things outside the cave. With education as a tool for enlightenment, they were not able to capitalize it because it is not fit for the system. A system that only wants education to make people function enough to preserve the status quo but never challenge or change it. And if this education is useless in the system and cannot be used for liberation and the achievement of enlightenment; then, they will be forced to fit in. Again, do we call them educated?

In the polarized political sphere of Philippine Facebook, there is this ongoing question on why college students, especially those from progressive universities, are ‘climbing the mountains’ to conduct research. A student from Pamantasan ng Lungsod Maynila (PLM) died following the airstrike of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the New People’s Army (NPA). Jerlyn Rose Doydora, Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education Major in English, “succumbed to an illness during the period of intensified aerial bombardment and ground assaults in the area,” said the National Democratic Front (NDF). Doydora was reported to have been conducting interviews with indigenous people and the NPA. One social media page remarked, “Is the course B.S. in NPA?” (referring to the tendency of students to join the armed struggle). Humanities programs require students to conduct research in far-flung areas or even in terrains. This is to study local regions, the state of indigenous people, give information or legal assistance to the marginalized. But since we see humanities to a lesser degree and education as mere tickets to join the industrial world, we see the act of empowering communities as joining an insurgent group. There are a plethora of reasons why there is insurgency. However, when education became a tool to challenge power, it is whether you are labeled a ‘communist’ (which is not illegal in the Philippines per se), an excommunicated, a filibuster, or an insurgent. 

To put it simply, education is anything but for liberation and attainment of enlightenment. To be honest, if you want liberation and enlightenment, do not enroll in a university and expect them to happen. Go and become a Buddhist monk and meditate. Because our form of education mimics the real world. The real world means that your 1.0 grade is immaterial to your monthly salary. The real world does not care if you know your introduction to philosophy. It cares about your diploma and credentials; and how you will be commodified as an economic asset in this third-world country. Perchance, that is the realest definition of education we can get. Some call it neoliberal or capitalistic, I just call it reality. Reality does not mean right. We recognize the reality, the norm, to challenge it and go beyond it. 

This is not to be cynical. Because to unearth the real goal of education, we need to sprinkle idealism. To give in to cynicism is to accept the fact that education remains to be obsolete when it should be empowering, for all the right reasons. There are people who do not have anything but education. And if they are deprived of this, what will happen to them? What will happen to us in a reality that sees education as a ticket to mere capitalization? When it should lead us to liberation and perpetuation.

The real challenge lies not in how we will make education more future-ready, technology-ready, economy-ready, or workforce-ready. We already have done all of those at the expense of numerous things. The real challenge now is how we will reclaim education from the hands of commodification that stole its ability to empower generations. Before education enables economies, it must first free its agents. 

Perhaps, we have forgotten the real ‘cost’ of education. It should be our ignorance and not our humanity and liberation.