No money for more teachers

No money for more teachers | Daily Tribune

Teachers are expensive. People think you hire a teacher and you’re done. No. This is the problem with honest spending. You have to keep doing it.

She wants a salary every month. Then next year, unbelievably, she still wants a salary, benefits, leave credits. Training. Maybe a pension someday.

By the way, DepEd is also short about 143,543 classrooms. So we need teachers we cannot afford to teach in classrooms we do not have?

Then maybe we need more chairs. Chalk. It never ends. Put more children in each room! Children are small. You can fit many in there.

And, get this, Sonny Angara also wants one book per child. One book. In Martin Romualdez’s time, students who were not Martin were expected to share. And they survived.

Now Sonny wants it one-on-one and the children could write in it. Write in it! The kid might think the book is his. Very dangerous precedent for government property.

And next year? A new child but the old book already has doodles, torn corners. Suddenly the government has to buy a new one.

Martin Romualdez became Speaker with the education system we had. How much more educated does the country need to get?

And we also complain about the VAT!? You want government services and your money back? Pick one.

It would be much cheaper to explain that there is no budget. Filipinos understand that. We have been understanding it for years. Besides, children are remarkably adaptable.

Give one teacher more pupils, she will manage; teachers always manage. Give her another section, she will manage that too.

Let her bring the papers home. She can check them at night. She can afford to buy her own chalk. If a child in a class of 50 raises his hand and she does not see him, raise it again tomorrow. Eventually he will stop raising it.

Problem solved. Excellent preparation for adulthood. Government will ignore most of their questions later anyway.

And if the child falls behind? Personal responsibility. Study harder. His mother should find a tutor. Excellent public-private partnership.

Anything, really, except for asking why the country could not find P4.29 billion. Maybe DepEd made a mistake. They asked for teachers. Perhaps they should have asked for kickbacks. Suddenly we’re told the billions exist.

At least Martin is much less demanding. Again, assuming prosecutors can prove it. The alleged P7.4 billion is wonderfully efficient. Once it is gone, government never has to pay it again.

It does not come back next payday asking for another P7.4 billion, maternity leave, GSIS, PhilHealth. It does not demand a classroom. Very low maintenance.

People don’t appreciate that Martin would actually have been extremely nice about it. A normal robber takes you. Only you. Takes your wallet. Maybe your Seiko. Now you’re furious. Martin allegedly takes P7.4 billion and everybody says, “He robbed me!”

You?

You paid a VAT on a Jollihotdog and suddenly you have more equity in the republic than Tony Tan Caktiong in Jollibee!

Calm down, shareholder. This is public money. Everybody owns a tiny piece. So everybody loses a tiny piece. Much more humane. Robbery with anesthesia. Very considerate.

You don’t wake up missing P7.4 billion. You wake up and the classroom is still crowded. Next year, something else is still lousy. You spend just a little more yourself.