Education for Child Workers

It is disheartening to see children working hard instead of going to school just because their families could not afford to provide their basic necessities e.g. food, clothing, shelter, and could not send them to school due to lack of financial resources. I  would like to believe that it is not enough reason for these children to stop learning just because their families are economically challenged. There are alternative learning systems that can be availed of as discussed in the following article:

Photo courtesy of http://www.ilo.org/

Non-traditional education boosts child workers’ access to education

By Jerome Yanson

Technology is now paving the way for the world’s child workers to be educated. An estimated 250 million child workers worldwide, one hundred fifty-three million or 61% or which can be found in Asia, may finally gain tools for them to eventually be drawn away from child labor.

In a policy memo on “Reducing Child Labor through Education: Innovative Uses of Technology,” Hawaii-based Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) suggested an alternative technology-based solution to the inability of child workers, particularly those in the rural areas, to avail of education.

PREL recognized the limitations of traditional education services to reach child laborers in the rural areas and the frustrations of formal school systems to meet the basic learning objectives. The memo pointed out that low-cost technology could be an effective and appropriate alternative in bringing education closer not only to child laborers but also to their parents and community.

Costs and Access Problems     

For an estimated four million Filipino child workers aged between 5 to 17 years old, PREL’s solution is indeed good news. In a survey on working children done in 2001, one-third of the surveyed child workers did not attend school due to loss of interest and high cost of schooling. A majority of them, the survey showed, dropped out of school because of high costs. Even with free primary and secondary education, most poor households simply cannot afford to send their children to school because the attendant costs are too much for a low-income family.

In most poor rural areas, many children would rather work than go to school on order to earn money and help provide for their family’s basic needs. Many if not all of them are not properly paid and are exposed to hazardous working conditions.

A study also found out that some Filipino children stop going to school because of lack of access to schools. The distant location of schools from the child’s dwelling or place of work hinders the pursuit of primary education. Access to schools is also limited due to lack of classrooms or schools, high student-to-teacher ratios, high percentage of unqualified and under-qualified teachers and poor physical school environment particularly in poor regions.

Solving the Problem

PREL offers some alternative solutions to these constraints. One alternative is the use of satellite video and internet. Delivery through low-cost satellite dish or antenna, receiver and television can provide access to educational programming. Strategic placement of a television in a school or community center, PREL says, can have an enormous impact on the learning potential in the classroom, allowing on-demand content streaming at any time of the day or week. Meanwhile, access to Internet will allow schools to download educational materials for the classroom, providing teachers with new resources for instructions.

Another alternative is the use of broadcast radio and television. Television and radio stations can broadcast and rebroadcast educational and community development programming at different times to target the largest possible audience. Radio and television broadcast makes instructions and information accessible to a large audience with cheapest requirements such as simple transistor radio and television set.

Multimedia and print materials are also effective means of alternative learning. Computers, VCDs, DVDs and other audio-video materials placed in a school or community center can provide education and community development information as stand-alone training or as supplement to other training mediums. Printed materials such as magazines, flyers and pamphlets can be used to disseminate information about education and community development programs against child labor.

These innovative ways of using technology as a form of non-traditional education can be an effective alternative method for child laborers to gain knowledge outside formal schooling system, for their parents to be aware of the physical, emotional and psychological effects of child labor on children, and for the community to strengthen partnership with community organizations toward mobilizing the people to reduce child labor, particularly in remote and rural communities and, consequently, reintegrate child laborers into the formal educational system. (Published in Bata Man, Vol. V, No. 2, July 2005, Manila, Philippines. Bata Man is an advocacy magazine for child labor published by DOLE, ILO, UNICEF, DepED, DSWD, PIA, TUCP and VFA)                

Church-Labor Connection

I never thought the Catholic Church would find enough time to get involved in matters relating to labor and employment. But it actually did. In a forum specially organized for the Church-Labor Conference, claiming to be an alliance of church groups and labor organizations in the Philippines, the Catholic Church expressed its concern on the long-standing issues of workers (unemployment, security of tenure and right to self-organization) and vowed to support the workers in their fight to address these issues.

Labor and employment issues are usually tackled in policy discussions among labor, management and government representatives. You would not expect the priests and all other sacred cows to preach about how employers should behave and what workers should get in return for their hard work. But I was amazed to find out that the Church had its own literature on such topics as human work, wages and unionism, eventually making its way connected to labor advocacy.              

The connection is found in what the Church calls the Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Fr. Enrico Adoviso of the Archdiocese of Manila Labor Center explains that CST refers to “a limited body of literature written in the modern era that is a response of papal and episcopal teachers to the various political, economic and social issues of our time.” It “encompasses all the ideas and theories that have developed over the entire history of the Church on matters of social life.” Simply put, it is understood as “an effort by the pastoral teachers of the church to articulate what the broader social tradition means in the era of modern economics, politics and culture.”

Believe it or not, the Church has its own substantial explanation of what a “wage” is as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2434:

“A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay, both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. Remuneration for work should guarantee humans the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for themselves and their family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good (Gaudium et Spes, #67). Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.”

Another scripture on the relationship between the workers and employers is articulated in Rerum Novarum # 20:

“Among the most important duties of employers, the principal one is to give all workers what is justly due them. Assuredly, to establish a rule of pay in accord with justice, many factors must be taken into account. But, in general, the rich and employers must remember that no laws, either human or divine, permit them for their own profit to oppress the needy and the wretched or to seek gain from another’s want. To defraud anyone of the wage due him/ her is a great crime that calls down avenging wrath from Heaven: Behold, the wages of the laborers . . . which have been kept back by you unjustly, cry out: and their cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts (Jas 5:4).”

Summarizing the scriptures in Tagalog, Fr. Adoviso says: “Dapat tandaan ng mga mayayaman na walang batas ang nagbibigay sa kanila ng karapatan upang alisan o bawasan ng takdang sahod ang manggagawa.”

Labor-Management Education

We need not wait for Sen. Miriam Santiago's bill (Plain Language Act) to be signed into law before taking efforts to improve and promote clear communications among government offices. Government agencies should improve their communication system even before the bill takes its first reading in Congress.

Take, for instance, the initiative of the Bureau of Labor Relations to simplify the approach in educating the workers, would-be workers, once-upon-a-time workers, and even the employers (yes, sometimes they need to be reeducated) on the complexities of labor and employment. The BLR has recognized the need to do so because many workers, even those who have retired from employment, still do not know their rights at work…And because some employers, even the bigger companies, continue to violate the constitutional rights of the workers.

Thus, the need to restructure and redesign the approach in educating the Filipino workforce  in such a way that the workers easily understand information on labor and employment through written words is indespensable. Restructuring and redesigning the approach would mean departing from the “governmentalese” way of communicating.    

This is where the plain language bill comes into the picture. Workers should be given “clear, concise and well-organize” information for them to have easy access to livelihood and employment opportunities and ensure that theirs rights at work are protected. Again, just to emphasize, information dissemination should be done using plain and simple language.

If, for instance, information is to be developed in a question-and-answer format, it must be done in such a way that is it easily understood by all kind of workers – either by college or elementary graduates. Using these guidelines as provided by a government communication expert may be of help:     

1. Use simple and non-technical language and keep in mind the adage that “there is beauty in simplicity."
2. Questions must be direct.
3. Answers must be to the point, clear and precise.
4. The active voice produces the simplest and shortest statement. Avoid the passive voice, which is the most common illness of governmentalese lingo.
5. Keep sentences short, paragraphs even shorter.

The question, however, is that: how plain is plain and how simple is simple? Is there a hard and fast rule on the use of simple language? One could argue that what is simple to some may not be simple to others. Or what is simple to others may not be simple to some. 

This may be true to a certain extent, but the bottom-line is how the message is developed. The Plain Language Act, I believe, can help solve the issue on the use of simple English language, as it requires government agencies to adopt clear guidelines in communicating with the public once it is passed into law. It will help boost not only the government’s labor education program but the entire government communication system as well.   

(Re)Defining Unemployment

Unemployment rate in the Philippines is at 7.4 percent as of January 2011. Seven years ago it was a two-digit rate. Does it mean to say that we have produced so much jobs  that only a few are left unemployed? Of course not! The drastic decline of unemployment rate from two-digit in 2004 to one-digit in 2005 cannot be attributed to the jobs created and the persons employed. It does not mean that many jobs were created and many were employed in 2005. So what's the reason gthen behind the rosy figure? Read on to find out the trick!       

Redefining Unemployment: What’s the Consequence?

By Jerome Yanson

The Philippine unemployment rate drastically declined to 8.3 percent in April 2005 from 13.7 percent in April 2004. Why the dramatic decrease?

The change in unemployment figure, explained the National Statistics Office and the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, is the result of the adoption of a new official definition of unemployment in the Philippines approved by the National statistical Coordination Board through Resolution No. 15, Series of 2004.

NSCB issued the resolution after a series of briefings and consultations with government statistical agencies was held through the Interagency Committee on Labor, Income and Productivity Statistics, which reviewed the and improved the concept of the old definition of unemployment in conformity with the international standard definition of unemployment as adopted during the 13^th International Conference of Labor Statisticians in October 1982.

In redefining unemployment, NSCB Resolution No. 15 cited the International Labor Organization’s concept of unemployment which defines an unemployed person as one who is without work, currently available for work, and seeking work.

What Makes the Difference?

The change in unemployment figures should have been expected long before the release of the April 2005 Labor Force Survey, according to the governmental statistical agencies, since as early as February 2004, the NSCB has informed the public of the ongoing review of the old definition of unemployment.

NSO used to base the past labor force survey rounds on the concept of unemployment, which provides that unemployed persons are “all those who are 15 years old and over as of their last birthday who have no job or business and are actively looking for work, as well as those persons without a job or business who are reported not looking for work because of their belief that no work was available or because of temporary illness/disability, bad weather, pending job application of waiting for a job interview.”

The new definition of unemployment, however, provides that the unemployed includes “all persons who are 15 years old and above as of their last birthday and are reported as: 1) without work, meaning the person has no job during the reference period; 2) currently available for work, meaning the person was available and willing to take up work in paid employment or self-employment during the basic survey reference period, and/or would be available and willing to take up work in paid employment or self-employment within two weeks after the interview date; 3) seeking work, meaning the person had taken specific steps to look for a job or establish business during the basic survey reference period; or not seeking work due to the following reasons: tiredness or belief that no work is available, awaiting results of previous job application, temporary illness or disability, bad weather, and waiting for rehire of job recall.”

Survey Says…

In the old definition of unemployment, a person has to satisfy only two criteria during the survey to determine whether or not he or she is unemployed, namely: 1) did not work or had no job/business; and 2) actively looked for work or did not look for work because of the five valid reasons mentioned earlier. A person who satisfies the two criteria is automatically counted as unemployed.

In the new definition, however, a third criterion was added, that is, 3) availability for work. A person is considered unemployed only if he or she satisfies the three criteria; otherwise that person would be counted as economically inactive or not in the labor force.

Had the availability criterion been adopted as early as the January 2005 Labor Force Survey round, around 1.5 million would have been counted out from the unemployed, with a corresponding drop in the labor force participation rate, according to the NSO. The unemployment rate at 11.3 percent as of January 2005 would have been reduced to 7.3 percent. (Published in the ILS News Digest, Volume XVIII No.1, January-June 2005)    

Fiesta in the Philippines

Photo courtesy of bisdakplanet.net

Almost all Filipinos love fiesta because it characterizes the diverse culture and tradition of the Philippines. It has become part and parcel of the Filipino culture even way way back the Spanish colonization. In fact, with much fanfare and activities, almost every baranggay, municipal, city or province celebrates fiesta as a way of showcasing the diversity and richness of Filipino culture and heritage.

Most of the time, fiesta celebrations serve as a venue for reunions, family gatherings and other social activities....the reason why Filipinos abroad always look forward returning to their hometowns.

Aside from being a cultural celebration, fiesta is also considered as a popular religious activity in different parts of the country, showing how pious the Filipino people are. Well it's an opportunity for Filipinos to celebrate the blessings of the Almighty.
 

Job-and-Skills Mismatch

A certain Mr. Jobless writes to a major broadsheet asking for advice on how to get a job as he has never been employed since his graduation two years ago. He narrates that one employer has rejected him because the company needs a graduate of a technical-vocational course. His qualifications do not match the requirements for the job in the company. In other words, he is not qualified for the position he has applied for. This is the case of job-and-skills mismatch.  

There are jobs but many vacancies remain unfilled because the job requirements do not fit the qualifications of the applicants. There exists a gap between the qualifications of the workers and the qualifications that the job requires, resulting to unemployment. According to the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, of the 2.8 million unemployed Filipinos in October 2010, more than one million (1.186 million) are college graduates.

Interestingly, a 2007 Report by the Department of Labor and Employment says that there are occupations that are hard to fill in several industries. In the mining industry, for example, mining and metallurgical engineers are needed. In hotels and restaurants, there is a high demand for cooks, butlers and baristas. In cyber services or business process outsourcing, call center agents, medical transcriptionists and computer programmers are in demand. There are also hard-to-fill jobs in agribusiness, maritime, shipbuilding, construction, and wellness and medical tourism.            

The DOLE Report goes to show that there are jobs available. The challenge is more on finding solutions to the job-and-skills mismatch problem. It is therefore highly reccommended to make an informed and wise decision on what degree to take in college. Why? Because making the right decision can make a greater impact not only on the direction of one’s individual career but also on the dynamics of the country’s labor market.

Government Gobbledygook

During my first few months in a traditional government office, I had difficulty in stringing words into sentences…the government way. I realized that people in government speak and write differently from that of the people in the private sector. There seems to be a difference in the application of the elements of style.  

Believe it or not, this has made my first few days in government service a little less enjoyable. I needed to adjust, against my will, my writing style to fit in the system, if only to avoid conflict and misunderstanding. It was quite difficult because at that time I was already used to my KISS writing style.

I'm glad there is now an initiative to improve the system of written communication in government agencies through Senate Bill 1859 filed by Sen. Miriam Santiago. The bill, if passed into law, will somehow standardize the writing style of government employees and, in effect, avoid or lessen any conflict between superiors and subordinates who have different ways of speaking their minds in printed words.      

As reported, Senate Bill 1859, otherwise known as the Plain Language Act, seeks to improve the effectiveness and accountability of government agencies to the public by promoting clear communications that the public can understand and use.

According to Sen. Santiago, “in using plain language, we will be able to communicate information to a broader range of recipients in terms of educational capacity. We will be able to reach out to more people inside and outside the government.” The senator is right, and I support her in pushing for reforms in the government communication system which is so “governmentalese” – by government, for government.     

So what is a plain language, by the way? Let us check a definition from an online dictionary: “plain language is clear, direct and honest expression in speech and writing. Plain writing is free from jargon and rarely used words and terms, and comes straight to the point being addressed.”

An English professor explains that plain English is “clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted sentence construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English language.”

Back to the Plain Language Act, I notice that is a little bit similar to the U.S. Plain Writing Act of 2010 which took effect in October 2010, requiring federal agencies to write new publications, forms and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise and well-organize manner” and banning the use of confusing words and sentences in government documents such as the words shall, precluded, heretofore, in accordance with and herein. 

I have not read the full version of the law, but from its description, I can say how much the U.S government puts greater value on the power of written communication. In a document from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, officials argue that implementing the plain writing law will:

• improve public understanding of government communications;
• save money and increase efficiency;
• reduce the need for the public to seek clarification from agency staff;
• improve public understanding of agency requirements and thereby assist the public in complying with them;
• reduce resources spent on enforcement;
• improve public understanding of agency forms and applications and thereby assist the public in completing them; and
• reduce the number of errors that are made and thus the amount of time and effort that the agency and the public need to devote to correcting those errors.

With these benefits, I cannot find any valid reason not to enact the bill. Passing the bill into law will somehow emphasize the importance of establishing "a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration" in government.

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Work almost always overtakes our daily life. We spend more time in the workplace than in our home. We spend most hours of the day attending meetings, pounding the computer keyboard, poring over heaps of paper files, signing documents, etc.  Only a few hours are spent for other equally important undertakings e.g. family, business, studies, etc. And this is not going to change...unless we can afford to live our life meaningless.

For ordinary mortals, work goes on because life depends on how we spend our time at work. For as long as we live, we need to work and, rightly so,  deal with the challenges and opportunities that come along the way. As the saying goes, "work is not to make money; we work to justify life."