The Coffee Bean
Jenica M. Villanueva
The Privileged Few
Sloth is identified as one of the seven deadly sins in the Christian teachings — it is the habitual inclination to laziness. In students’ everyday lives, they have the tendency to feel lazy and avoid going to school. If students exercise laziness, they don’t just become sinners because of practicing sloth but also because they fail in making the best out of their opportunity to study, a chance provided by the constitution to be a right for all but appears to be a privilege for few.
In the 2016 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), 10 percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos age 6 to 24 were out-of-school children and youth (OSCY). The 1987 Philippine Constitution states in Article 14, Section 1 that “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”
Despite being founded as a right for all Filipinos, education in the Philippines today still becomes a privileged for the fortunate. Children who are situated in rural places of the country are either forced to travel by foot to reach the nearest school which is kilometers away from their homes or be accompanied by their parents in crossing rivers. Now that it is time for elections, we see a man wearing black and yellow shirt through advertisements telling us as if we owe to him the free access to education in tertiary level. Isn’t it a responsibility of the government to continuously uphold what the constitution states?
A person making the best out of the chance to study may not be able to directly send the OSYC to learning institutions, but as the privilege few, they can give justice to this opportunity through not letting it go to waste. Do not be lazy in going to school every day for other children and youth have all the energy and dreams to study but are not fortunate to gain it. Make the most out of being a student, for not everyone are given a chance to be considered as one.
