No Blind's Fault

A nation's desperate need for dedicated intellectuals

and what parents can do about it

By Georgene Rhena P. Quilaton-Tambiga

       Now, more than ever, the imbalance distribution of our intellectual resources is clearest.

     Back in 2005 when I graduated from high school, I had a heated debate with my OFW mother over the phone. The issue was the college course I chose-journalism or broadcast communication. She told me not to take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) because she wanted me to take BS Nursing in a college either in Bacolod or Cebu. No pun intended to my dear friends who are now dedicated to that profession, but then, I vehemently protested and proceeded to take and pass the UPCAT and eventually graduate from UP-Visayas.

       And here I am now, writing yet another column for NRWP. Regrets? None at all. 

       But for the thousands and thousands of college graduates who happened to graduate with a degree they know next to nothing about regrets are all that is filling their pockets. Several Philippine colleges are diploma mills for degrees in Education, Tourism, IT, Nursing, Management and Marine Transportation. And, their graduates end up in call centers when we could have a few hundreds of them deciphering the 'blind fault' that caused the February 6 earthquake that sent us in Exodus to the mountains.

       What a waste!

      We complain that PAG-ASA and PHIVOLCS work ever so slow. What we do not know is that these agencies are almost ghost offices because there is human resource shortage as much as equipment shortage. There aren't enough weather scientists, geologists, and seismologist. Accuracy and efficiency are greatly sacrificed.

       Over the weekend, on board the LGU service vehicle, I had the honor and pleasure to talk to two fellow UPians: Dr. Leilanie Suerte, a geologist, and Prof. Noelynna Ramos, a seismologist. Both admitted that professionals like them are far too few in the country that there aren't enough of them to monitor and study the entire archipelago which is strategically located in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

       Dr. Suerte, who earned her degree in geology from UP Diliman, said there were only three of them who graduated together decades ago. Prof. Ramos shared that professionals in geo-sciences are being tempted by foreign countries to pack their bags and migrate.

Dr. Leilanie Suerte, MGB Geologist (center, in red long-sleeved shirt and chaleco), is flanked by the author (left, in pink) and MGB's Joel Villanueva.

       A large portion of the country's brain spent time studying subjects they aren't even interested in, worse subjects that could not even promise them a good career. There is blatantly mismatch not only of the labor force's background and qualifications vis-à-vis what our industries need, but also an uneven distribution of professionals that makes the country look like a sinking ship with too many passengers huddled in only one side of the vessel.

       Young parents should realize this today. Our country is far too vast a space for it to be completely discovered. Phenomena are far too varied and erratic for all of them to have been deciphered. These are reasons good enough why parents for progress should rise and lead children to take career paths that will truly matter like those in geo-sciences, biology, botany, forestry, zoology, chemistry, engineering, food and nutrition, fisheries, and agriculture. At the UP, students in these courses are nil during the first year; on the second, they become endangered; on the third, the worst that could happen is they all become extinct.

       Dr. Suerte advised that parents should nurture their children's future without undermining, of course, the child's freedom to choose his/her career path. Introducing science and exploration books is definitely a good start that will tickle their interest and broaden knowledge base.

       If only parents thought of this before, the Negros fault would not have been blind and more than a couple of typhoons would have been forecasted right.