On The Death Of Kristel Tejada
Janet Denzel
Tragic is the only thing that accurately describes the way student Kristel Tejada ended her life at 16 over an inability to pay tuition fees due to the University of the Philippines (UP) where she was enrolled in a Behavioural Science course. As to the conclusions that were drawn from all that, debatable is the only word that comes to mind.
Why is a college education important in the Philippines? Because a high school education alone gets you nowhere. At least that is the thinking that prevails in Philippine society. To many Filipino parents, kids who do not acquire a college education are failures. Filipino kids are therefore under intense pressure to secure that university degree at all costs. Failure to do so is tantamount to a death sentence in Philippine society.
Trying to control that deluge of credentialled talent into automatonesque jobs is like trying to prevent flash floods from ravaging Marikina by building a dike around the city. The only real sustainable solution to flash flooding is to plant forests big enough to absorb all the water being dumped by the hammering monsoon rains that hit the Philippines every year. As much as it is essential to life, water in excessive doses is toxic. Same principle applies to a talented labour force available in value-crushing abundance. You need to grow the forest of opportunity that will absorb this deluge of warm able bodies so that their value appreciates and is appreciated.
Many students (including some friends of mine when I was a student) take leave-of-absence from UP when they fall into personal cirumstances that render them unable to meet the demands of the UP system. Such circumstances include health issues, family issues, and, yes, financial issues. One friend of mine took a year off to help set up the family business. That put him behind by 21 units to our batch but nevertheless came back, picked up from where he left off, met his future wife in his new batch, and graduated with honours.
Thus achievement is bred and propagated in a positive feedback loop that sees them increasingly monopolising the same resources and opportunity that they acquire and plow back into their next generation offspring and their mating tools.
Lead in setting academic standards and initiating innovations in teaching, research, and faculty development in philosophy, the arts and humanities, the social sciences, engineering, natural sciences, mathematics, and technology; and maintain centers of excellence in these disciplines and professions.
A lot of Filipinos do. And that is a problem best explained by my Philosophy professor: that 16 year olds are too young to take up college, not because they are not intelligent enough to study and learn, but because they are not mature enough to appreciate the nuances of intellect and deep thought.
Did not the school authorities see the simple solution of extending her additional loans then write it off by approving her request for reappraisal? If this was workable solution under the premises, did not the school authorities in failing to explore this area actually came short in addrressing the problem that lead to her suicide?
What the heck are you talking about? And what does it have to do with me starting college at 15yrs old? Maybe in your wolrd it is impossible, but in my family it is expected! I came from a long line of scholars, albeit promdis.
If you must know, I am a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, licensed to practice in the Philippines and has been practicing as a licensed Veterinarian here in the USA. Your comment is not only rude but also uneducated.
Physical age alone does not determine the intellectual capability & moral terpitude of a person. You also have to consider the environment they came from, their genetic make-up and their character that is developed beginning at home.
i agree to this. being poor is not an excuse. lucky for u.p student that they have an option to file a loan for tuition but for us at a state university in central luzon,no such luck during my college years. and yet, my mother managed to keep me on college single handedly and with an income lower than hell.and there are ways to earn money while studying too- i worked at a fast food resto while studying to help out with the finances.i think it is all about parents making their kids tough to cope with the realities of life. kids today are living in an illusion and generally faint-hearted- pardon me for saying that. we are breeding a generation that is too soft and easily gives up on the trivial matters of life
The only positive thing that came out from the unfortunate suicide of a 16 year old, UP student, was the realization: why does UP- a university funded by the blood and sweat of the Filipino people, opens @ accepts a good number of students from affluent family?
Why not the government opens UP, solely to the deserving poor students who also come from public high school @ give them education with allowance, totally FREE??? There are too many deserving students from public high school who deserve to be in UP, but since it opens also to students from private and exclusive high schools, nabawasan ang mga mahihirap na kabataan na siyang dapat nakikinabang sa perang galing sa mamamayan.
Kung tatanggap man ang UP ng anak ng mga may kaya, bakit hindi nila i charge ng tuition kapantay ng tuition ng 3big schools para maidagdag sa subsidy ng estudyanteng mahihirap at maging competitive ang pa sweldo ng mga teachers nila?
Kaya lumilipat sa 3big schools mga prof sa UP e!
KUng hindi competitive ang pa sweldo ng UP, sa palagay natin makaka attract ba ito ng mga de kalibreng mga guro? Kung hindi de kalibre ang mga guro ng UP, makakapag produce ka ba ng de kalibreng estudaynte?
The truth is that , for whatever reason, the young lady sought a permanent solution to a temporary problem.it may sound harsh and I actually wish someone could have done something to prevent it, but that obviously did not happen. The guy who posted that life is not fair is goddamm right, it is not, and it will not ever be.
Also, UP, as far as I know, requires that each of its colleges apply for their own tuition fee increase on a price per unit basis. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago that the Diploma course I stopped taking ended up increasing their price per unit.
But still, it boggles me why suicide was the choice. I feel there really is more to it than just the tuition problem. Why? Well, as everyone said, you can file LOA and defer your studies to save up. You do not completely lose your right to study. And just like board exams, you can always try again at a later date, once you are ready/prepared to take on the challenge (in this case paying the tuition).
Spinbusters says it was still second-hand information. So the assumption that the motive was frustration over being made to stop studying from tuition non-payment is still questionable. So all this talk about the school may be leading elsewhere.
Like I stated before you Philippines have a total different mind set than most Europeans. I really wouldnt want to feel that burden on my shoulders. And why is it always only the (oldest) daughter? What happened to the sons. It really must be heaven for sons in the Philippines. And daughters accept that fate/destination?
oldest child or only oldest daughter? I am sure there are exceptions but in the case of Kristel (and again looking at with western glasses) I think its ridiculous to put such a pressure on a kid/a child. I am sure nobody wants to be the first born daughter in any family.
And even when the kids have to support their family then why not divide the burden among all the kids. Each offspring is partly responsible for the burden to take care of and to support the family. The pressure per person becomes lower in such situations.
Okay thanks for the explanation. All I can say is that I dont like the system. It seems that procreation is only based and done to be taken care of when parents are old. Seems like a selfish decision to procreate and not focused on the individual future of the child itself. How can children excel with so much pressure? and what if the kids miss the IQ to graduate from a college, high school or even university? Not everyone is born with the right set of brains.
My apologies, I was just thinking out loud by raising those questions. Sometimes or more often we dont have clues and answers to questions (not biblically meant). Anyway, its a pity and shame Kristel committed suicide. It was really unnecessary. Probably, she thought that was the only out.
the bill is now a law but only delayed by 120 days most recently, right? I dont think a law is needed to change how people (must or will) think. The change must come from within the person. But like you already stated thats a complete other issue.
This is not a time for you nor your friends who have struggled while completing your respective degrees to flaunt to the world your achievements despite the situation. This is not the time for you to judge the weak. How self-righteous!
UP is a private preserves of the rich and the conyo crowd. During my time, our classmates were scions of Senators/Congressmen, Businesspeople, Justices of CA/SC. Ony about 3 of us came without old-money and influence.
I am all for the overhaul of STFAP (which, by the way, was nearing completion and was already for implementation next semester) and making UP accessible to all qualified students, but I hate that a suicide is romanticized (and irresponsibly reported by media by simplifying the cause and being specific with the method, for anyone to copy) and used as a fuel for outrage that is greatly disproportionate and misdirected at UP *alone*.
All this protesting and voicing out and pakikibaka, good, sure, but maybe also put a little more critical thinking into it. All this statement are fallacious, regardless of how much effort you put on the photoshopped statement photo you shared in facebook:
There was a proposal that UPCAT passing scores by applicants coming from the barrios be lowered compared to applicants coming from the cities. The reason behind was the test is a component of reading comprehension in english, current events and vocabulary, and of course with some spices on math and science. The proposal was shelved because the city dwellers were benefitting from undue advantage of having Televisions, radios and newspapers as against barrio dwellers who got their news from old newspapers wrapping their dried fish from the market.
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