by May Anne Joy de Lara-Romanes
University of the Philippines-Diliman
March 11, 2016
Change is an inevitable process. No one can
escape change. When something changes, it results in either progression and
development, or regression. Most, if not all, countries and societies would
most certainly favor development. I agree with the Linear Cyclical Theory of
Development, which assumes that societies can change consistently in a
generally desirable direction with some conflicts arising as part of the
process (Fagerlind & Saha, 1983). It is unrealistic to say that change does
not come with conflicts. Human beings are creatures of habit; hence, when we
drastically change something in our lives, often we experience a state of
disequilibrium (represented by the loops in the graph of the Linear Cyclical
Theory). But unlike the Classic Cyclical and the Augustinian Christian Theories
of Development, the conflict in the Linear Cyclical model does not drag the
whole system at the bottom, because even though we are habitual creatures, we
have the ability to adapt to the new challenges we face and bounce back to the
state of desirable development.
We need change in order for our society to develop. Change does not need to come from our president or from someone outside of our country. We also does not need meaningless change—a change that is not necessary. We need to carefully examine a lot of things including ourselves, in order to choose a path that will lead to the progress of our country. We should expect conflicts and problems arising as results of change, but they are nothing if we are able to work toward and believe in the positive outcomes of our effort to contribute to the progress of our country.
Societies develop because people develop; thus, the development of the people (or simply, human development) is important. To have an overview of the human development of a country, people often look to its Human Development Index (HDI) report. Selim Jahan, the Director of the Human Development Report Office, concluded and wrote in 2015 that HDI is not a comprehensive measure of human development because it does not take into account a number of other important dimensions of human development. Thus, we cannot completely rely on HDI to accurately determine the development of the people in each country.
Every country wants to attain a high HDI, so other countries would say that the former is a better country, but life expectancy, knowledge, and GNI are not the indicators of how happy, how satisfied, and how passionate their citizens are. I think the things, which are unquantifiable are more important than the indicators of HDI.
The development of the Filipino people through education has become one of the priorities of our past presidents, who led us in the last 5 decades. In terms of their effort in bringing development through education, the last 6 Philippine presidents pursued a path that hope to transform the country into a progressive and robust nation (Valisno, 2012, pp. 73, 79), yet excellent and world-class education is still far to be realized. Blaming the recent presidents is definitely not the solution to the declining quality of education. People themselves should strive to be developed wholly, because in the end, each of us becomes the real yardstick of the societal development in our country.
Development should start from the people themselves. People run the government, the country, and the society. If each citizen is empowered to spark a positive change to his/her family, community, society, and eventually to his nation, his/her country will definitely be progressive—something that he/she could truly be proud of.
References:
Fagerlind, I.
& Saha, L. J. (1983). Education and national development: A comparative
perspective. New York: Pergamon Press Inc.
Jahan, S. (2015).
The Human Development Index—what it is and what it is not. Retrieved from
http://hdr.undp.org/en/hdi-what-it-is
Valisno, M. D.
(2012). The nation’s journey to greatness: Looking beyond the five decades of
Philippine education. Makati City: Fund for Assistance to Private Education.
