Recently I've been reading articles on the web about high paying jobs, just not offered here in the Philippines. Of course it's common to see IT jobs on top 3 of the list, but I was impressed that a teaching profession actually came in 2nd place after a senior IT position.
I don't know if it's more difficult to teach other nationalities from abroad and even it is, the pay rate of teachers here in the Philippines doesn't even come close to 1/4 of what is offered abroad.
I am mainly an IT professional on the software development category but I also had teaching experience just recently when the global financial crisis caused massive layoffs even for the highly successful companies. I'm saying this because I'm not just writing about the sentiments of teachers that keep pleading to get a salary increase, but also because I was once in their situation and it's not that easy to teach, trust me I thought it would be a walk in the park compared with software development but it wasn't. It still requires a lot of dedication to teach classes if you want to be a good instructor.
When I read this article, I thought to myself "if only our teachers here get paid even half the amount offered abroad, a lot of good professors would still be here in our country teaching our countrymen and producing more future leaders, engineers, inventors, or maybe even the CEO of a large company."
Brain drain has been going on since I can remember. And that was a long time ago. But the rate back then was not alarming compared to now. Back then it was mostly greener pasture that drove them to other countries, simply getting a better paycheck.
But now it's about survival. Yes, sad but true, majority of Filipinos go abroad just to survive.
They don't want to do it, but they have families to feed, children to send to school to have education, and future retirement plans to name a few of the reasons whey they "had to".
And this isn't limited to an individual trying to make a decent living; no, it doesn't just end there.
This has a domino effect on other Filipinos and the country as well. If all teachers, just for the sake of discussion, goes abroad to teach there, who would teach our children here?
Okay it might be a long shot but let's say some of the best teachers go abroad because they are qualified to work there, and that only second rate teachers were left here, what kind of education would our children get from school then?
And it's not just about teachers. We have doctors going abroad to be nurse because it pays more to be a nurse abroad than to be a doctor here, and that's just pathetic of what our country has become. It's like you're a college student here and you go to a high school abroad because you'll get more by doing that.
So what now? Some of us would blame the government for this. Some would blame the people for this. You can call it blame but I think the government is the one that should correct this problem. I know some people are lazy to work that's why they're not earning that much and some even don't have a job because of that; and that's a different issue.
I think if the government really wanted this country to improve like what the rulers in Dubai did, I believe it's very realistic and I believe it can be done.
I watched an episode in NatGeo about Dubai and that it was like a poor country back then populated with squatters, and now look at it, if I remember correctly it's the only country that has a 7-star hotel.
My point is simply this: government basically is the driver of a country, we are primarily passengers. No matter what we tell the driver, the driver is still the one holding the steering wheel. Let's build on this analogy so I can further clarify my belief.
Situation : approaching an intersection with a traffic light in place.
Case A. Bad driver, good backseat driver (or passenger that tells the driver what to do)
Driver doesn't respect the traffic lights. Passenger tells driver, to obey it, red means stop and green means go. Driver sees the red light and proceeded to cross.
What do you think would happen?
Case B. Good driver, bad backseat driver
Driver obeys the rules. Driver stopped on red light. Passenger told driver, step on the gas and let the other drivers worry about stopping when you cross. Driver ignores this bad suggestion and even told the passenger "you either obey the rule just like I do or take another vehicle"
So again, I believe that no matter how good we are, if we have a bad government then it's most likely that we're heading to an accident sooner or later.
But a good government with a discipline and the will to make progress happen, make people obey the law would have a very high probability of success.
I'm sure you've heard of bad drivers here that goes traffic sheep when they drive abroad. Why? Cause they know the law is enforced there and no amount of bribe or "connection" will exempt them from traffic violation. Another is the case of a lazy, unproductive worker here and is doing a great job abroad. Again, why? Because you get fired on the spot if you don't perform there.
We Filipinos have a lot of good attributes, we have a great history, we have great heroes and of course we have a great country but the problem is, we tolerate rotten tomatoes and discard the good ones. That's not exactly what is taught of us, but sadly that's what's happening.
But that's jumping ahead of topic; I think the best thing any country can do is keep it's resources inside AND add resources from outside. We should follow other countries that have done this successfully like Japan, Korea, China, others. If you look at how their leaders do it, you'll notice that although several of their own products are more expensive than the importer counterparts, they also make sure that their own people have enough income to afford them.
They help unemployed citizens get their job so they can contribute the country's success.
They use their taxes to improve roads, they create landmarks that are sources of tourism revenues, and most of all I think most of them (if not all) are disciplined especially their leaders.
If this country continues to ignore this brain drain problem, sooner or later the country will be like hell on earth, ruled by greedy people, traffic violators, lawless environment and a very high crime rate. Yes, at first it doesn't look that big of a problem, but just like cancer cells, if you ignore it and then it grows and scatters and dominates the host then it will be too late to remove them. By then the country might use chemo but just like real world cancer cells, not only does chemo kill the bad cancer cells, it also kills the good ones, and since at this stage the good ones are outnumbered by the cancer cells, the host will die even before it kills half the cancer cells.
I hope something pivotal happens by next year when we get another chance to select a leader that would turn this horror around and get us back in line to success story. There's still hope, just like they say, while there is life there is hope.
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