Way back in 2003, in an essay that I wrote for my
English-usage in The Manila Times, I
wrote about the special
circumstance of the Philippines as a major exporter of English-capable manpower.
I observed that the English acquired by Filipinos after being colonized by the
United States for half a century was making a great life-saving difference for
some 8 million Filipinos who had to work overseas for lack of gainful
employment in their homeland. I argued then that barring any major reverses in
the global labor market, the Philippines would be running out of its
English-proficient labor exports in a few years. I then suggested that to stave
off depletion of this supply, the country must undertake an intensive,
no-nonsense training program to build the English proficiency of its labor pool
and to assiduously improve it over the long term.
I
wrote that essay at a time when the Philippines was just starting to nurture
its fledgling call-center industry—a special employment variation in which modern
communications technology makes it it possible for the country to export its
English skills while physically keeping the manpower in the homeland. Last year
or a decade later, fueled by the abundance of low-cost but highly-skilled English-speaking
Filipinos, the Philippines became the top call-center country in the world—even
overtaking India in the process.
But now a serious systemic problem has cropped
up—the supply of qualified English-speaking Filipinos can no longer keep up
with the growing call-center demand. Today, it looks like only one out of every
100 English-capable applicants interviewed by the leading call-center companies
are actually hired, and that only 3 to 5 out of every 20 trainees survive the
typical intensive one-month training. Clearly, as I suggested in that 2003
essay of mine, the Philippine government more than ever needs to put up an efficient,
stable mechanism for replenishing its much-in-demand but depleted marketable English-speaking
stock.
So
here again is that 2003 essay of mine to put things in clearer perspective.
(November 30, 2014)
Priming up our English exports
The
special circumstance of the Philippines as a major exporter of English-capable
manpower is a strategic advantage and strength for which we should be truly
grateful. In truth, only God knows where our country’s economy would be right
now if not for the English we have acquired after almost a half-century of
colonization by the United States. We can rant and rave forever against this
colonization from an ideological or geopolitical standpoint, but one fortunate
fact will be indisputable: our passable English has made the great life-saving
difference for some 8 million Filipinos who work overseas for lack of gainful
employment in their homeland, as well as for their 40 million or more
dependents back home who subsist on their $8 billion to $10 billion (400 to 500
billion Philippine pesos) in annual foreign exchange remittances. This happy
accident of history as well as saving grace is something we share with only one
other major English-capable country in the Asian region, India, and whether we
like it or not, how we will deal with it in the next several years will largely
shape our national destiny.
As
with any other national resource, however, our English-proficient pool of
professionals, health care and social workers, teachers, entertainers,
househelps, and laborers is fast being depleted by the relentless waves of our
labor diaspora. Barring any major reverses in the global labor market, we will
run out of our English-proficient labor exports in a few years if we make no
serious effort now to replenish them. The day will come when we will begin
scrounging around for our English-speaking runts, or those who have achieved
only a pitiful smattering of spoken English and cannot even write a decent
English sentence. This will happen because although the Philippine economy has
become so terribly dependent on overseas labor exports for economic survival,
the government has not bothered to set up an efficient, stable mechanism for
replenishing its depleted English-speaking stock. On the contrary, it has
actually de-emphasized the teaching of English in favor of Pilipino in the
primary and secondary schools. It has blithely ignored the fact that it is the
English of its labor exports that has been saving its skin all this time,
propping up the battered and faltering economy. This is like cutting the only
rope that prevents us from falling headlong into the precipice of economic
ruin.
It
is high time the government finally recognized both the danger and opportunity
in our current overseas labor situation. To put it even more bluntly, we must
make sure that our English-capable labor exports are not only deployable but
also the preferred choice of the overseas labor markets. The demand side is
growing but our supply side is now on “low bat” after so many years running, so
to speak. The only way to stave off depletion of this supply is to conduct an
intensive, no-nonsense training program to build our English proficiency as a
people and to assiduously improve it over the long term. We have already lost
out by default to many of our Asian neighbors in the areas of technology,
manufacturing, and agriculture, but the fact is that we are still miles and
decades ahead of them in English proficiency, no matter how low its levels may
have sunk in recent years. English is our only highly viable and competitive
export product remaining today. Let us not lose out on this one; let us nurture
and not neglect it.
One
immediate course of action the government can take is to train a highly
professional, high-performing corps of teachers with a strong English-language
orientation. It can create a highly selective scholarship program for this
purpose, similar to the National Science Development Board (NSDB) program in
the 1960s. The program can aim for an annual quota of, say, 10,000 to 20,000
high school seniors with excellent English, science, and mathematics skills as
well as outstanding aptitude for teaching; prequalify them through a rigorous
state-conducted exam; and put them in a special, highly intensive teaching
degree course as state-sponsored scholars. The best and brightest of our young
people can be attracted to this program by guaranteeing them highly competitive
salaries and privileges upon graduation. After all, their work will be truly
radical and missionary: to teach English and the basic academic disciplines not
simply for domestic needs but for international competitiveness in the foreign
labor markets. The long-term goal, of course, is to spearhead the liberation of
our educational system from mediocrity and to spark a Renaissance in the
teaching and learning of English, science, and mathematics in both the public
and private schools.
In
perhaps five to six years’ time, this elite group of teachers can be deployed
to strategic points of the country to do two very crucial tasks: to take
leadership positions in the regional or provincial educational hierarchies, and
to set up and run local retraining programs in English, science, and
mathematics for primary and secondary teachers. They will also set the
mechanism for replacing or retiring teachers who do not meet the much higher
teaching standards that will be pursued in all levels. Only through a
well-focused, purposive, and long-term initiative like this can we ensure the
continuity of our overseas labor exports as a source of badly needed foreign
exchange, and ensure that the products of our school system are superior to
those supplied by other labor exporting countries.
The
formation of this elite group of English-oriented educators and teachers will
not only be a pragmatic move but a symbolic one as well. It will announce in no
uncertain terms the government’s strong and earnest desire to build a much
stronger educational system that is fully in tune with the needs of the
modern-day world economy. It can in fact become the launching pad for the
long-dreamed overhaul of the educational system that government officials and
educators had only been paying lip service to all these years. On top of this,
it will serve notice to the world that the Philippines is finally taking its
primacy in the English language very seriously, and that it intends to dearly
keep and improve its 100-year lead in English as a matter of national pride and
survival.
(2003)
-------------------From the book English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today’s Global Language by Jose A. Carillo © 2004 by the author, © 2008 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
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