To Learn, To Be, To Be Free

(October 1 - 13, 2006)
By Rose Cheryl Orbigo

Rose Cheryl Orbigo

These were the ingredients of the seminar “No Education: No Freedom, No Opportunity” conducted by the International Academy for Leadership (IAF) in Germany from October 1-12, 2006: 25 education reform advocates from 12 countries and four continents, countless views, profiles, and strategies and one common vision – education and freedom for all.

After 12 days of presentations, working group sessions and intense arguments over cups of coffee and even beer, and after distilling through the discussions, these are the lessons and pieces of information that had the greatest impact on me.

1. Enlightenment led to the rise of what would later be called liberalism. Given that the world is moving towards knowledge-based societies and economies, and that education has a role in promoting peace among people, enlightenment is an imperative goal when formulating and realizing education policies and strategies. As defined by a working group I joined, enlightenment means making rational decisions based on experience, education, and information, and these decisions must lead to respect for others and for the environment. In a session specifically on this topic, our moderator considered enlightenment as “education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge.” To my mind, enlightenment is the seed for peace and can be the destroyer of prejudice.
   
   
2. Early childhood education, being fundamental in how personalities are shaped, can be a powerful tool in promoting citizenship. Through interactions and exercises, toddlers can develop values, proper social skills, self-reliance, self-motivation, better understanding of the environment and social responsibility. As their minds begin to grasp the wonders of the world, kids come to build self-respect as well as understand and practice respect for others.
   
   
3. Student freedom and enlightenment lead to empowerment and vice versa. This was very clear to me when we visited the Marie Curie Grammar School in Dresden and interacted with their students and teachers. All the guests were very impressed by the accomplishments of the students and the leeway given to them. For example, a relatively new ecological club raised a substantial amount of money to help save rainforests in Ecuador. An entire grade school class was made to lay down the rules for their English lessons. For the high school leaders’ presentation of their activities to us, their advisors did not even screen first what they would say – something that I can attribute to trust and liberalism. Overall, these are illustrations of how fledglings can spread their wings once given the chance to own decisions and responsibilities.
   
   
4. Education problems in developing countries share similar situations: poverty, rising globalization, declining quality, etc. The presentations by various participants on their countries’ situations, made through videos, PowerPoint presentations, or plain pictures, illustrated how festering these problems are, but also revealed the heroism and hopefulness of children, teachers, and school stakeholders. No matter how small the resources, there are always efforts being made to improve these respective situations. At the macro and micro levels solutions are being carried out, and a growing number of these solutions are making significant inroads. For example, a foundation is in its second phase of building a quality, affordable school in a very poor village in Uttar Pradesh, India, and it has been successful thus far. In the Philippines, private corporations have become important partners in the Adopt-A-School program of the Department of Education. These workable practices that involve the private sector and NGOs are best shared among countries and organizations.
   
   
5. Continuous learning through postgraduate education, seminars, skills acquisition, etc., is necessary in the increasingly competitive, globalized and technologically fast-paced environment today. As a staff at the Asian Institute of Management, a premier graduate school of business and management, I am aware of the significance of lifelong learning. Yet through the comprehensive and all-encompassing structure of the seminar, I was able to see lifelong learning in the context of the other levels of education. Furthermore, one of our moderators related a staggering statement: About 50 percent of knowledge becomes obsolete in five years. A bunch of what I discovered in college, for sure, no longer holds true. Up until a few months ago, Pluto was a planet; now we have only eight planets in the solar system. People must learn, unlearn, and relearn many times in the course of their lives, especially if they want to remain competitive in the job market. To promote lifelong learning, a culture of self-improvement must be encouraged.
   
   
6. Vocational education must be viewed as an alternative, not a compromise, to tertiary education. It was surprising to me that in Germany, vocational education has a high status; its graduates are sought after. This is in contrast to the situation in developing countries, where people who finish vocational education are looked down upon and are often deemed incapable of moving up the professional ladder. In discussing this topic, my working group envisioned a situation wherein vocational schools collaborate with private businesses in order to update their technologies and meet the job skill requirements of employers, wherein quality standards are set and met, wherein avenues for career advancement are opened to and obtained by vocational graduates, and wherein these graduates’ families and friends change their perception of vocational education by seeing how it has improved their standards of living.
   
   
7. Mothers are essential in education and survival, and not only because they are commonly the first teachers and the tutors that every kid runs to at the end of the day. The higher the educational attainment of mothers, the lower the child mortality rate. Women are also the primary transporters of knowledge; the genes of intelligence are passed from mother to child. Governments and societies should therefore invest in the education of all women and allot programs that inform mothers on how to nurture their children properly and be actively involved in educating their children.

On a personal level, I learned how to be flexible, tolerant and appreciative of the very good inputs by the facilitators, speakers and co-participants during the seminar. Specifically, the working group sessions and presentations were effective in extracting ideas from everyone. I have attended two programs previously with international participants, but in the IAF seminar, the discussions were more provoking and intense. Nonetheless, the seminar attained its objective; we came out more knowledgeable, wiser and more supportive of liberal education reform.