Politician’s scholars

Evenings have not been so enjoyable than the three straight years of fulfilling a duty in classroom management in a near state university. I posed to set aside minding the day-time work to give way for a very noble duty of teaching students in my first alma mater in college. The rewards were great, indescribable. One thing I have realized which cannot escape my attention was the task at par or beyond classroom discussions. Within the confines of the four corners, so to speak, were souls ready to battle it out just to cling for something in life – the students commonly call “future”.

Many of us were awarded scholarships in college. As I kept repeating this with my students, I graduated with the incredibly and measly sum of only twenty pesos (student council fee) as my only monetary obligation with the school. I did not have to pay for my student publication fee then being the EIC of the school’s official student organ. Tuition fees were paid, excluding those in the miscellaneous lists. I took refuge of other scholarship grants which I highly owed until now, that one granted by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). For the very least, I masterfully engineered the thinking of students being their conscience in the class in the hope my experience would motivate them to study well.

I did not consider it a pity to have a very tight budget while in college. It was a take-it-or-leave it choice. Had I not grabbed the opportunity offered by CHED, I could have landed an odd job, or worse, had become jobless. However, the story did not end there, the time I received the scholarship. The contractual obligation took its course when I began flexing every cerebral muscle to get good grades enough to stay in the roll. The untold stories of all academic scholars like many of us in the past were part of our gloomy days. Certainly, nobody wants to talk about it again. We created a particular condition knowing our very poor situation did not permit us to carry the ladder that a rich fellow has. In successfully building a ladder for ourselves to get a college degree, we have liberated ourselves from that situation.

Yet, there is another facet of the students’ journey in college when they grab any scholarship offered to them. In a jaw-dropping instance, no student surfaced in my class. I thought it was already an ominous sign of protest since not even the dean received a communication for their excuse. But I was told, they were called by a politico sponsor for an urgent meeting. The dean and I voiced in unison: “pwede diay na?”, in that hoarse voice, recalling how easily a communication protocol with the dean can be violated. No doubt, this man should rightly claim the Worst Brand in Politics Award.

In this university, political power looms till it ends. The “scholarship grant” is tainted with the dirty name of politics. Parents accordingly have to personally swear in and bow down to this congressman before their child can be admitted to the scholarship. Students were used for some outreach projects in the guise of community service. Worse, there were no fixed rules in the requirements on grades to stay in the roll. This is foolishness to its shameless and highest degree. Was it people’s money used to finance the schooling of these students that the scholarship has to be called under the politician’s name?  

This politician is a make-or-break of a student’s life. In a state-run university, nobody should take it as an element of debt of gratitude. It is the duty of the state to see to it constituents were served. All “scholars” I have interviewed so far said they only care for the scholarship (or the payment of their fees) and nothing less. Funny thing is, some have divulged their parents’ preferences in politics which still refer to the Dutertes. However, I always cut short the discussion because the school should neither be a venue for sharing political preferences nor entertaining talks about mudslinging by politicians. For delicadeza’s sake, I refused to comment on any observation made by the students against their congressman-sponsor minding seriously I could also directly or indirectly give them an undue influence, especially on their personal decisions later.

I am always proud to be in a pool of faculty in this state-run university. But I have a dream too for these students so they cannot become sleazy like the ones who appeared to have paid for their education (when it was actually people’s money). This is the challenge: Every student should be treated alike. All must become the beneficiary of quality college education. A significant change is called for when it is the government which will truly subsidize their education. Parents should know rigid rules are bitter pills but necessary evils to spell glory, especially when students have survived college life.