Philippine Culture and Education

Group Strawberry Holiday

Section B

Every culture has aspects it values a lot more than others. To Filipinos, "makatapos" or being able to finish studying all the way up to college is a necessity. Our group observed however, that this does not hold true for western cultures. In the Philippines, if you can afford it, not going to college is unacceptable. We now wonder, why? What part of our culture makes this so? We then decided to ask our respondents, "How important is higher education and why?" Here are our respondents, several people ranging through different age groups and backgrounds.

Bea, 7, Kid
#Culture #Learning

Edwin, 50, Male upper class
#Culture #Passions

Nicola, 33, Professional
#Culture #Prerequisite

Chela, 27, Working class
#Culture #Jobs

Shane Anthony, Professional

Rachele, Adult
#Culture #Training

Noel, Father
#College #Goals

Lolita, 73, Lola
#Culture #Ambitions

Jeric, Professor
#Culture #ResponsibilityToCountry

Armando, Lolo
#Culture #Better Life

Nancy, 49, Mother
#Culture #Jobs

Angela, Upper Class
#Culture #Society #Discrimination

Sara, Student
#Culture #GradesvsPassion

Nacho, 10, Kid
#Culture #RealWorld

Sasa, Religious
#Culture #Einstein

Christina, 19, Teen
#Culture #Career

Raphael, 15, Teenager
#Culture # Jobs

Clive, 48, Adult
#Culture #Advantage #Attitude

Nancy, 49, Mother
#Culture #Jobs

The responses we got were quite predictable. Education, especially higher education in the Philippines, is usually for purely pragmatic reasons. Every time we came across an answer concerning the future and jobs, we couldn't help but feel "Ah yes of course," as we get that very same speech from almost everyone around us. It was shocking to see however, that most of the responses had a common denominator. It was refreshing to see people from older generations speaking of modern ideas like passion and personal goals. It's also quite interesting to note that some people part of the system, aka college students, are very critical of the importance of higher education.