Out-Of-School Youths Show Naked Reality Of RP Schools

First posted 05:22am (Mla time) June 02, 2006
By Margaux C. Ortiz (Inquirer)


FOR THESE young men, getting their message across meant taking all their clothes off.

In an attempt to call attention to what they described as the “pathetic education system” in the country, around 30 members of a group called Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Lakas ng Kabataan staged a brief protest action in the buff yesterday morning.

The protesters, all out-of-school youths with ages ranging from 18 to 22, alighted naked from a van in front of the Far Eastern University campus on Nicanor Reyes (formerly Morayta) Street and ran in the direction of España Street.

They sat on the pavement, holding aloft banners assailing the state of education in the country and chanting anti-administration slogans.

And then, as though sensing that cops were on the way, the young men hurried to a waiting vehicle that sped away.

The nude protest -- which took all of seven minutes -- halted traffic and elicited embarrassed giggles from bystanders.

‘Naked reality’
A young woman later explained to the Inquirer the whys and wherefores of the protest action.

Alyansa national secretary general Jehhan Silva said the protesters were all residents of impoverished communities in Las Piñas, Caloocan and Quezon cities and the province of Bulacan.

“All of them should be in college now, but they had to stop schooling because of lack of resources,” Silva, 21, said in an interview.

Silva said the protest action was intended to highlight “the naked reality of the education sector” and how the government had supposedly been ignoring the problem.

“The growing number of 14.6 million out-of-school youths in the country must take action to regain their right to education,” she said, adding that Filipinos from five to 25 years old should have free access to school.

Official day
Silva said Alyansa had declared June 1 “National Out-of-School Youth Day.”

“While the fortunate ones are busy preparing for the opening of classes, many of us are suffering because of the lack of opportunities to improve ourselves through higher education,” she said.