Invest in education, invest in the future

Education is deemed a beacon that illuminates the path toward a brighter future and serves as one of humanity’s most powerful tools to attain a better tomorrow.

It provides stability — a foundation that no one can wrest away from us. It serves as a key to unlock doors of opportunities for better career prospects and personal growth. A well-educated individual is better equipped to secure a higher-paying job and manage finances wisely.

Education also helps foster self-reliance and allows us to make informed choices and navigate life independently.

It also serves as the cornerstone of a more equitable world. When everyone has equal access to education, it narrows the social gaps. Education serves as the great equalizer.

As the late South African President Nelson Mandela, a well-known nationalist and social rights activist, once stressed: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

With the valuable role of education, the call of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto to keep the government’s free education program in public educational institutions is a welcome development.

Given that education is the most crucial investment, Recto has emphasized the need to allocate fiscal resources to support it.

“I think we should make space for that [education]. I think it’s the most important investment,” Recto, the chief architect of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) Act, said as he pushed for the retention of the free education program. UAQTE is a law promoting universal access to quality tertiary education by providing free tuition and other school fees in state universities and colleges, local universities and colleges, and state-run technical-vocational institutions. It establishes the Tertiary Education Subsidy and Student Loan Program to strengthen the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education.

While some want to do away with the government’s free tertiary education program, citing rising dropout rates and the concomitant costs, we should not give up on investing in the education of our youth.

The costs currently incurred in implementing the free education program will ultimately be recovered when the country attains a well-educated, knowledgeable populace.

Let’s continue investing in education and build pathways toward a progressive future for our nation.

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