Cebu City – “The cause of defending U.P. Cebu High School against the threat of closure is a cause for accessible quality education. Their fight is every underprivileged parent’s fight to ensure that education remains a right and not a privilege.” said Sonia Roco as she called on the entire U.P. and Visayan community to unite against this threat to education.
Sonia Roco is a senatorial candidate of the Liberal Party-Aksyon Demokratiko coalition and the widow of the late Senator and DepEd Secretary Raul Roco. The U.P. administration has ordered the suspension of acceptance of High School Admission Test applications for this incoming school year 2010-2011 and is planning for its eventual phase-out.
She added that U.P. High provides “outstanding opportunity for quality education not only to Cebuanos but possibly to other students from neighboring regions. To deny them of this opportunity is one step closer to utter ignorance. U.P. High’s exceptional record of providing education to underprivileged but intellectually deserving students and its exceedingly successful graduates should speak for itself.”
“This is alarming since the manner by which this seemingly draconian measure reeks of the state’s blatant disregard for education in this day and age when knowledge is key. As an educator myself, alam kong karunungan ang sagot sa kahirapan. I’d rather they close casinos and gambling hubs rather than schools.”
She further stressed that the state should “provide to sustain the operations of U.P. High. Let it not be said that as a nation, we prioritized ignorance over knowledge. My personal basic aspiration is: walang batang no read, no write. Literate ka na nga, pero mahihirapan ka naming maghanap ng high school na papasukan.”
Roco, the educator who is also called Inang Guro, called on all stakeholders to “undertake transparent consultations and deep soul-searching to discern if such move will not erode into U.P.’s role country’s premier state university.”
January 22, 2010
Sonia Roco for Senator Movement
2nd and 3rd Floors, 32 F, Katipunan Road, Brgy. Loyola Heights, Quezon City (Beside Bo’s Coffee)
Tel No. (63) 2 986-4466 Email Address: aksyonkabataan@gmail.com
Secretariat (Lian Halili): 0917-5160728 Liaison (Bobbit Roco): 0917-8191432
For media interviews with Sonia Roco, contact: 0918-9059999
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