26 March 2009
In an exception to the rule. this blog now gives way to to an important message from PGMA to DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus and to CHED Chairman Angeles:
To: Sec. Lapus, Chairman AngelesRe: No Frills Graduation RitesDate: 20 February 2009In time for the graduation season, the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education should issue reminders to schools that graduation rites should be lean on cost and long in the imparting of valuable messages.It has become a habit for lavish and excessive graduation ceremonies to be paid for by collections from students. Schools at all levels should desist from such practices.We should usher in a paradigm shift. Graduation rites should not be exercises in splurging and display of pomp and pageantry but should be Spartan affairs that exhort civic duties, sense of community and personal responsibilities.School administrators should be reminded that it is their duty to curb excess in every form and guise, especially with the cost being borne by others.Curbing excess also makes economic sense. Money saved from tempering excess in graduation rites can be used to fund the cost of an elementary student going to high school, a secondary student going to college and a college graduate moving to graduate school.Across the globe, citizens are more aware now of their civic duty to curb excess and immoderation in their lifestyles.That the global economic meltdown was partly driven by Gilded Age lifestyles -- with excess and intemperance overridding good economic decisions -- has pushed the citizens and leaders further into the realm of prudence and responsibility and away from irresponsibility.We are lock-step with the global movement. In that light, the curbing of excess should start at the basic level. That includes graduation ceremonies.Graduation rites can be memorable, exciting and animated without the baggage of extra cost and excessive spending.
I would like to thank Mrs. Corazon Gonzales, Asst. Superintendent/OIC of the DepEd Division Office in Caloocan City for giving me a copy of this memorandum from PGMA.
This is a seminal message loaded with recurring appeals to "curb excess in every form and guise." The paradigm shift has began, from an unexpected quarter, and we should sustain it-- because it will benefit not only this generation of Filipinos but also future ones -- to include not only excessive graduation fees and other expenses but also to place a moratorium on increases in tuition and other school fees. It's about time!
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