MANUEL FUDERANAN: A university degree means something, as well it should
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Manuel Fuderanan
Some time ago, a news item in The Californian disclosed a shocking revelation -- that only 15 percent of Kern County residents are college graduates. I did not bother to dwell on the issue until recently, when hiring or promotion practices of a local government unit were alleged to be inconsistent with its presumably existing or supposedly adopted policies.
This disclosure, considering our resources and accessibility to education, might be surprising but it was not totally unexpected. Telltale signs in our work environment betray the lack of professionalism, ethics, correct grammar and academic skills that one normally learns within the confines of the traditional school system.
It's true that knowledge can be attained not through the schools only, but knowledge with a diploma to show for it is definitely better and bankable. This parchment is one's ticket to gainful employment and social ascendancy, especially in developing countries.
There's no hindrance for anyone to achieve a college degree -- not even abject poverty. The only possible obstacle to formal education could be only yourself. I belong to a family of 13 children (from one set of parents only) and only one among us, virtually, did not attend college. One of my elder brothers who is now in the great beyond was a contrarian who loved to defy society's norms and conventions. He set foot in a college classroom for a few days only, but then decided to abort his college journey when he sensed that he was more academically prepared than the professor. In his case, intellectual elitism could be the culprit that prevented him from possessing the coveted college diploma -- not addiction to prohibited drugs, which are the norm these days but which were unheard of in our place in my generation. He paid some price for his intellectual vanity. Although he was perceived to be the smartest among us 13 siblings, he spent the rest of his life in our village doing blind-alley jobs for a living. But he remained my idol in many ways.
Let's not talk only about college education. Formal education in America is right at one's doorsteps and students are assured of a safe and easy passage to it. There's no reason for anyone to be illiterate, or at least, not finish high school. But there's still a sizable percentage of dropouts in our county population, as statistics would show. School crossing guards, free lunches, free tuition, school buses, well-equipped schools and other perks and amenities are provided to our students, but we still complain about our schools and refuse to cooperate with the mandates of our state or federal government. Compared to what I underwent in my school years in my native country, students in America live in heaven.
Society has built-in incentives for people to acquire a college degree. Perhaps because of the dearth of college graduates, some agencies or establishments in Kern County even institutionalize these incentives by adopting policies that would allow only college graduates to occupy supervisory or managerial positions in their organizations. I applaud a certain local government agency for supposedly doing just that. It validates academic achievement and promotes professional ethics in the work environment.
But rumors have been circulating that some tweaking of this supposed policy has been done on some occasions to accommodate certain non-college graduates to supervisory or "high" positions in the organization -- while other well-qualified employees who have been on the job for "quite awhile" have been bypassed because they do not belong to the "ruling clique."
Shades of Third World office politics? Sure, it is. It always pays to be rubbing elbows, literally and figuratively, with the powers that be. But this practice, in some ways, blunts the incentives for a Kern County resident to get that college diploma. A shortcut to gain the financial and social advantage that is attached to it is more appealing.
For some Kern County residents who belong to the upper 85 percent, a college diploma is a mere piece of paper that is not worth the trouble. But for me, I, still, would rather have one.
Manuel D. Fuderanan is an engineer with the city of Bakersfield. He is a member of the American Institute of Transportation Engineers and a registered geodetic and civil engineer in the Philippines.
