BOY AND GIRLS ANSWERED CRITICAL ISSUES, Ang Bag-O Nga Patiyog Bulletin, October 1, 2010

The twenty-eight (28) high school students who were luckily chosen to represent the boys and girls week event of RC Roxas, in the celebration of the New Generation Month this September, faced a panel of adjudicators last Sept. 26, 2010 at the Provincial Health Office, Roxas City, Capiz.

These students took the exams last Sept. 25, 2010 at the Rotary Center of which from among the sixty-four (64) high school applicants from both public and private high schools in Roxas City, twenty-eight (28) students successfully made it to the top. They were chosen to be Mayor, Vice-Mayor and Councilors for the week to sit and report for duty during the one-week event.

During the interview, there was one general guide questions given to them. If given the chance to be the newly elected Philippine president, what are the first three (3) priority projects that you will carry out in your first 100 days? Students were very conversational and outspoken. Generally, they prioritized Education, Alleviation of Poverty and Health.

Education as they said is the key to progress. According to Ivy Lopez, 16 year-old high school, if one gets a good education, he/she will surely succeed. However, most of the students presently are not seriously taking the opportunity of good education. When asked why, she said, most perennial problems that the youths are facing right now are: teenage pregnancy, smoking/addiction, truancy and joining fraternities.

These concerns that this youths raised before the panelists were likewise affirmed by the rest of them. Stefanie further explained that, some of the reasons why most students do not have interest in their studies are the low quality of teacher’s strategy in teaching lessons, students instead cut classes and play computers. Other classmates would say, the teachers are boring, I hate the subjects, etc.

As to their stand in the additional 2 years of school, they almost disagreed. Jasef said, the government would instead think to add more classrooms and hire quality teachers so that students will become globally competitive. According to them, the additional 2 years will not answer to the deteriorating standard of education, but rather, will give more problems to the parents especially that 80% of Filipinos fall below poverty line.

On teenage pregnancy, John Rey said that, parents play a big role in discussing sex education before the dinner table. Likewise, among the 28 students, about half of them agreed to include sex education in their curriculum. They are in favor of getting awareness thru sex education in school, as to how the modules will be presented, that is now the debate. They also are concern of the teenage pregnancy cases in their school because of curiosity and lack of knowledge on reproductive health.

Truancy outside of the school community is rampant. Mariah Yza would agree to these. She suggested that computer shop owners should be disciplined by the city government and that to implement the Law on Truancy. Kirbie added, in order that these students will not cut classes and resort to truancy, teaching strategy should be improved, teachers should be sent to more seminars and learn new strategy in presenting lessons and not make it boring to them; to also provide teachers good salary and additional school rooms and facilities for more learning opportunities.

As to abolish Sangguniang Kabataan, Toni Maree, Ann Karlyn, Pearl Ann and Joem disagreed. They said, they represent the voice of the youth in the community. And in their Barangay, they do good deeds like providing sports fest for out of school youth and the like. While Ferdinand, Jason Jay, Christina and Venice agreed to abolish SK as they are being lured to corruption by some politicians like vote buying and will end up with corrupted mind, in return becomes the liability of the community. They said, if ever, they would want SK to be functional, otherwise eliminate it.

These students in the truest sense of the world indeed indentified perennial problems of the youths in school and in the community, too. They were all articulate in exposing the fact that there cases such as this that is really happening before their eyes. These are the everyday challenge they are facing. Other observations they said are, addiction to smoking, drinking and peer pressure, population control, no justice for all especially the poor and boring teachers. The cause of some is attention deficit from busy parents that resort them to these vices.

As to the alleviation of poverty, if they will be given the chance to be the president, most of them will provide feeding program, housing to the poor and jobs to the jobless. They also said, that by providing free education for all, it will resolve corruption and poverty. When asked about health, they all agreed to give solutions to the alarming dengue; to strictly implement the segregation of waste materials and the consistent clean up activities, as what they are doing in school now.

When asked to give a grade for President Aquino, 10 being the highest – average grade was 6. They all saw the hostage crisis on television and they said, we wished P-Noy could have done something to stop the crisis and avoid the loss of lives. On the other hand, most of them, too, idolized Pres. Noy and hoping that he could bring change to the country and become the role model of the youths.

Only a couple of them gave solutions to improve tourism by bringing in investors in the country. Jan Erol affirmed that where there is development, there is also the negative effect of tourism. However, he said, it is but normal that there is the pros and cons to tourism, but more on the side of pros like giving employment to the locals.

These 28 students are ready to face the challenge to report to duty from Sept. 27 to October 1 at the city municipal office. We will wait for more exciting news of their actions to some of these concerns they brought out during the interview. John Paul said that, “I wish that during the boys and girls week, the city government will give attention to our concerns.”

Led by Pres. Jerry Lames as the committee chairman, the invited panelists were PE Mariz Gepilano PP Megs Lunn, Rtn. Raoul Bermejo, Rtn. Marie Antonette Borres, Rtn. Rexam and Rtn. Toto Arce.

Happy New Generations Month celebration Rotary International.