Editorial

Nightmarish education

WHETHER our educators today like it or not, the embarrassing results of the 2018 Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) that placed Filipinos ranking among the lowest in the world in the company of Dominican Republic,
Kosovo and Lebanon should kick them in the butt.

Those results created a stigma not only our students as being intellectually inferior but on our teachers as being
incompetent, and our education policies as misguided with wrong priorities.

If this won’t be viewed as a wake up call that should rouse our educators from the lull that led to lack of commitment over
the last 3 decades to make a generation of Filipinos with high proficiency in reading and comprehension in English, math
and science, then our next generation of graduates will be a class of its own in the cellar.

It is imperative that a period of introspection among our teachers and school officials both in public and private institutions
in Pangasinan be called to determine what new approach can be adopted in the province to ensure the quality of
education of our high school graduates in spite of the faulty national policies of government in education.

The school superintendents must seek to organize the thoughts of stakeholders, mainly the present crop of teachers and
from the baby boomers’ generation, to determine what went wrong along the way.

3 Ds plus P1B

EVERY winning athlete has to have the 3 Ds. Discipline. Dedication. Determination. You have discipline when you arrive
30 minutes before the start of practice every single day of the year. Kawhi Leonard became the NBA’s No. 1 player last
year by practicing 365 straight days a year beginning 5 a.m., come heat wave or snowstorm. You have dedication when
you give your whole life to your sport, never abandoning it in favor of a birthday party or even your parents’ wedding
anniversary bash. You have determination when there’s nothing in your mind but the drive to achieve your ultimate goal:
success. With the government shelling out P1 billion last year to finance our athletes’ training, wonder no more why we
are on way to capturing the 30th SEA Games’ overall championship by December 11. 3 Ds plus money equals victory.
Only a major disaster now will stop us from duplicating our 2005 victory.

Lim still undecided on W2W contract

MAYOR Brian Lim said the city has not decided whether to pursue the Waste to Worth contract which the previous
administration already signed with Sure Global Philippines.
“We are asking the proponent to answer our questions first.” Lim said adding that the situation does not require a simple
“yes or no” but a more “careful study.
He maintained, “the city has not committed yet for many reasons.”
He cited among others the presence of more than 400 trees, a resort and a rehab facility.
He also questioned the capacity of the facility which is limited to 60-65 tons a day when the current city’s volume of
wastes already estimated at 90 tons daily.
“If the volume of wastes of the city increases, how will the facility cope with that?” he asked as he expressed doubt that
the facility can reduce the wastes of the city?
He added since the construction of the facility will take time, Dagupan City will not be compliant with the law under the
Solid Waste Management law.
Lim said, “We also want to see legal consequences if we push through or if we don’t…” adding too that there is a
provision in the agreement that states the city can unilaterally pull-out of the venture agreement anytime.
Meanwhile, the city government is set to clear one-third of the city’s controlled dumpsite, specifically tons of garbage
some fifteen meters away from the beach, as part of its intensified waste management in 2020.
The mayor indicated earlier that the city’s Waste Management Division (WMD)’s 2020 budget has been increased to
further control the city’s wastes.
“The dumpsite is now a controlled dumpsite. We wanted to remove one-third of it, because its distance to the beach is
already alarming. We increased WMD’s funding to clean the dumpsite,” he said.
WMD, he added, will have P57 million to procure heavy equipment to move garbage from the area to a sanitary landfill.
The WMD has also strengthened the ‘no segregation, no collection’ policy of the city. They have inspected some
households and establishments, penalizing violators of the city’s ordinance.
He pointed out that the dumpsite in the city increased its coverage from 2.5 hectares to 4.5 over a six-year period. (Helen
Martin)