Mula Tore Patungong Palengke: Neoliberal Education in the Philippines by Bienvenido L. Lumbera

The present education system clearly curtails the development of a genuine nationalist consciousness among the youth and students. It continues to shape the thinking and consciousness of students towards an orientation which reflects the country's long history of foreign colonization and exploitation.

Instead of achieving sovereignty in our political life, economy and culture, education is used as a tool for perpetuating a slave mentally and a social system that protect the interests of US imperialism —even if these result in the country's economic perdition and involvement in meaningless wars. The violent and exploitative character of the current world order is masked by the rhetoric of neoliberal globalization which is peddled as the solution to all the problems of the world.

In addition to these, the neoliberal educational system promotes a selfish and individualist ideology that weakens the feeling of a shared nationalist interest. It stamps in the student’s mind the notion that education is only for their own self-interest; that it is mainly a tool for social mobility in a globalized world. It is these two tendencies, a colonial consciousness and individualist ideology, that immensely weakens the formation of a genuine nationalist consciousness among our youth and students.