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| Photo from Bulatlat |
In the recent years, news of bombing and demolition of Lumad Schools all over the country have started coming to light and has since then been in constant circulation all over social media. Together with it came the pleas of the Lumads and students from different universities in organized movements lending their voices to amplify their call. The Lumads in the country are only one of the many examples of education being under attack. Outside of our country, children are afraid of being shot and killed even inside the now questionable safety of their schools, meanwhile, some children are not able to go to school because of ongoing wars and sieges in their countries.
This September 9, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO calls for awareness and joins the plea of millions of children and educators to protect education from attack and destruction. Education is a crucial part of children’s development. Quality and mass-oriented education is something we hope all children are able to access, but that would not be possible if the very institutions built to educate and cultivate the minds of the youth are constantly under attack. Furthermore, a safe and welcoming learning environment guarantees a child does not grow up to become ignorant and blindly subservient to oppressive forces and instead, become upstanding members of society that unite against the root of whatever issues the world faces.
Outright violence is not the only type of attack on education that takes form. Attacks on education can also mean unnecessary censorship. Censorship is seen as a means to protect the youth from any explicit and indecent materials that may ‘cause them harm’ but what this only does is raise children to be oblivious to the everyday struggles and conflicts that the world faces every day such as racism, fascism, discrimination, homophobia, etc. Censorship, moreover, creates apathetic people who in turn, unknowingly or not, support the very forces that continue to oppress and torment the innocent.
What Can We Do?
Wars and crimes are unfortunate truths that children all over the world have to endure. There is only so much that we can do to save them from the tragedies that befall them and their education. However, we must continue to keep ourselves informed about the conflicts over the world so that we may know how to extend our help to the youth of these countries. We can support their causes on social media and help them reach aid and awareness worldwide.
As individuals in our country, there is a lot that we can do to ensure that we protect the youth and education from attacks and that is making sure we become educated and use our platforms to amplify the voices of the Lumads and other children whose basic human right to education is under threat. We can directly support causes like Save Our Schools Network which helps unite the Lumad community and their schools.
It is up to us to ensure that pieces of literature, film, or artwork remain untouched by forces attempting to censor and hinder the learning of our youth. We must learn to distinguish what constitutes as the true enemy that threatens the education of our youth from those that seek true understanding and empathy from them.
