OPINION | Dumber than the Dumbest

I was scrolling through my feed to look for a worthy-news and I came across a circulating post online pertaining to an opinion article where I was completely disappointed. Instead of siding and voicing our sentiments as students in a nutshell of a failed education system, we were addressed as the most “dumb” students in the world. The most devastating part of the narrative is the one who wrote that opinion had the nerve to call himself a journalist. How paradoxical.

While it is a common mishaps of the Philippines to rank bottom in terms of education system, a writer from one of the most prominent media outlets in the country 'Philippine Star’ named ‘Tony Lopez (Virtual Reality)’ blamed Filipino students on his opinion article naming them as “The World’s Super Bobos.” It is quite puzzling as to why students are the ones who should take the blame for being functionally illiterate, malnourished, and incompetent in the world where in fact if you look on the wider perspective of reality—the government must be the one to held accountable for the impoverished education in the country.

This only describes one word: untouchable. Easy to say for those who are privileged enough to say that it is easy to thrive in education in the Philippines because when you immersed yourself in the shoe of underprivileged students living in a not-so conducive environment for learning, that's the time when you'll finally realize how hard it is for other students to continue their studies.

Either you presented tons of facts in your article, be it about the World Bank 2025 data showing that nine in ten Filipino kids cannot understand what they read; consistent low ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); “proficiency collapse” according to Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II); and 42 of every 100 Filipino students are chronically malnourished. That doesn't change the fact that the root of the problem lies within the aftermath of the complacency of the government over the past years thinking that education is not a priority. It shows the never-ending cycle of learning poverty because the government, especially the Department of Education (DepEd), does not really give much effective long-term solutions for unresolved problems in the education sector.

As a matter of fact, billions of budgets have been allotted over the past 10 years in DepEd. Now, those large sums of money can fund new textbooks, more educational programs, newly renovated classrooms and facilities, and covering students’ expenses when you cannot afford to do so. However, nothing has changed. Public schools are still facing approximately 165,000 classroom shortage, textbooks are limited and outdated, and high dropout rate solely because of one main reason: poverty.

These unfortunate cycles are not us students to blame. I can say that I am privileged to be somehow proficient to represent the marginalized bodies of students. We are the victims of a poor education system in the country, which has slumped because of the greediness of those in power in the name of corruption. Thus, we are not ought to be degraded and called “dumb” by someone who does not know the real hell that many Filipino students are facing. There is a lot of potential that many of us students can offer, but never had the opportunity to foster full potential because of the lack of learning materials and lack of support that the government must fulfill.

For once, it is ironic to think that a journalist relies too much on analytical statistics and datas wherein the real deal of education in the Philippines lies when you enter a bustling environment of ordinary public schools. Calling us “dumb” does not make your demeanor decrease, but how you incapacitated us students does not make you different from the imbecility of the government.