FOUNDATIONS

of
EDUCATION

by
Jose F. Calderon, Ed. D.
Vice-President for Academic Affairs
And Dean of Graduate School
Weslayan University-Philippines
















Chapter 14
SOCIAL PROBLEMS

There are many social problems that beset the country which may adversely affect its progress. The
school has an important obligation to help minimize such problems if not entirely eradicate them. Some
of the more serious problems are the following:

DRUG ADDICTION
Drug addiction is both a serious national and international problem. Some of the causes are:
1. Membership in a barkada. If the members of a barkada are drug addicts, any incoming
member will eventually become a drug addict too because of the influence of the old members.
2. Overuse. A drug may be taken by a patient as a pain reliever but because of constant use, the
patient becomes addicted to drug.
3. Curiosity. Some persons, especially young ones, are curious about the effects of a drug and they
experiment using it. Later, they become habituated to the use of the drug.
4. Frustration. Some persons who are highly frustrated may take drugs to lessen the impact of
their disappointment and depression. The frustrations may be caused by broken homes,
parental problems, soured love affairs, failure to find a job, etc. Before it is too late, they
become addicted.
5. Victim of a pusher. Some persons, especially women and children, become victims of a pusher.
The pusher gives them free food and drinks under the guise of friendship and kindness until they
become habituated to the drug.
6. Removal of inhibition. Some persons may be inhibited to do something under their normal
consciousness; consequently, they take drugs to weaken the inhibition. Some actors and
actresses cannot act according to the demands of the scene and they take drugs to be able to
act accordingly. Some doctors cannot operate either unless they are under the influence of a
drug. Later, they become addicted.
7. Boredom. This is especially true with rich people who have high incomes from their investments
or inheritance. They do not need to work and are idle mist of the time. Because of idleness, they
become bored and to lessen their boredom, they take drugs.
8. Ignorance. Ignorance of the evil effects of drugs may lead a person to take drugs to enjoy the
feeling of being high until he becomes addicted. This is especially true with people of low level
of education.
9. Easy access to drugs. When drugs are easily available, some people are tempted to try taking
them. Then they become addicted.

Evil Effects of Drugs
The evil effects of drug abuse are being suffered by seriously addicted individuals. Some of the
evil effects are the following:
1. The personality of the addict becomes disorganized. His mental powers fail to recognize logical
relationships and discordant. For instance, if he is asked who the president of the Philippine is,
he may answer Manila.
2. His physical health also deteriorates. He looks messy, haggard, and malnourished because he
loses his appetite to eat. Because of his sickly condition, mentally and physically, he ceases to be
productive. Hence, he becomes a liability to his family and to society.
3. The more he is addicted, the more he craves for the drug. When he runs out of money to buy
the drug, he resorts to stealing or even killing to procure it. Thus, he becomes menace to
society.

JUVENILE DELIQUENCY
Juvenile delinquency as the term connotes is the commission of anti-social acts by young
persons, usually minors. Although this is not much of a problem in the rural areas, it is however a
real problem in cities and big towns. Juvenile delinquency may be in the form of disobedience, theft,
robbery, holdups, rape, prostitution, etc. Some of the causes are:
1. Congestion. Since industrialization and big businesses are usually found in cities and big towns,
people tend to migrate to seek employment and found their luck here. Wanting to live near
their places of employment, they construct houses near the factories or business where they
work. Because of the limited space, the houses are constructed barely a meter apart causing
congestion. Other people live in apartments, where each apartment usually accommodates two
or more families resulting to congestion. Some of these houses are only shacks. Practically,
there is very little or no privacy at all. Children play in narrow and muddy streets or aisles in
between houses. Quarrels occur often. Children are easily influenced by bad characters. With
such conditions, the young people become prone to committing delinquent acts.
2. Frustration. Frustrations caused by broken homes, unrequited love, failure to acquire something
extremely desired, etc. may make a young man violent. He may resort to drinking liquor and
becomes a trouble maker.
3. Joining a gang. Gangs are usually composed of teenagers who are antisocial. They develop
hatred toward somebody or something or another group without any justifiable reason at all.
They are delighted in doing harm to the person they hate.
4. Psychological needs. Lack of an overt show of warm affection, love , guidance and close
supervision by parents who are out most of the time due to work may give the children a feeling
that they are not loved. They do not feel the joy of the loving caress, embraces, and kisses of
their parents. It is worse if the parents are cruel, over strict, and inconsistent in imposing
discipline over their children. The children feel that they are rejected and they become
rebellious. The problem is they vent their vengeance upon other people and do all sorts of anti-
social acts.
5. Poverty. The empty stomach knows no law, so goes the saying. Children of very poor families
who are hungry are forced to steal. Likewise, when they see the fast tempo of city life and the
varied leisure activities, they are tempted to procure by any means the amount of money they
need to enable them to participate such joy-giving activities. They may resort to theft, robbery
hold-up or pick-pocketing.
6. Idleness. Idleness usually breeds mischief.
7. Lack of spiritual and moral values. Spiritual and moral values are the most important factors that
prevent anyone from committing a crime. If children are well-instructed and seasoned in
spiritual and moral values in the home, Church, and school, they will not become wayward no
matter what condition or state they find themselves in. but if children are brought up without
any instruction in spiritual and moral values, they are easily tempted to do wrong.

LACK OF PEACE AND ORDER
What are the peace and order conditions in the country today? Every day, we hear from the
radio or read in the newspapers about killings, robbery hold-ups especially in jeepneys and
passenger buses and taxis, rape with homicide, etc. One of the most heinous and sensationalized
crime committed was the massacre with rape of the Vizconde family. There are many of the same
type of crime occurring throughout the country such as bank robberies that occur in a matter of
minutes. Car napping is very rampant. Kidnap for ransom is a very lucrative business for the crime
syndicates. There is insurgency in every region of the land. Houses and business establishments are
ransacked and robbed. Drug trafficking proliferates. Graft and corruption in the government is not
an uncommon occurrence.
The occurrence of such gloomy picture may be attributed to the following causes:
1. Ideology. Some Filipinos have embraced the communistic ideology. They want to wrest control
of the government y all means so that they can push through with their program of government.
Because they cannot wrest control of the government by peaceful means, they resort to
insurgency. Coup dtats also occur.
2. Poverty. Because of extreme necessity of basic needs especially food, some people resort to
petty thefts, jewelry snatchings, holdups especially in jeepneys, buses, and taxis, and robbery.
3. Get-rich-quick mentality. Some people have this mentality and they engage in bank holdups and
robberies, kidnaps for ransom, and carnappings from which they get away with hundreds of
thousands and millions of pesos. Graft and corruption in the government is rampant, too.
4. Lack of spiritual and moral values. People with rich spiritual and moral values rarely commit
crimes against others. It is the unprincipled individuals who consider that what are yours and
mine are also theirs.
5. Ineffective law enforcement. When criminality is rampant it means that law enforcement is
ineffective. This is because the wrongdoers get away free and unpunished. It is sad to note that
there are some high-ranking officers in the law enforcement agencies who are in connivance
with crime syndicates. This may be one reason why law enforcement is weak.

SEX PROBLEMS
The more serious sex problems are the following:
1. Pre-marital relations having sexual relations before legal marriage.
2. Extra-marital relations married people having sexual relations with others not their spouses.
3. Frigidity and impotence Frigidity is the absence of sexual desire on the part of a woman and
impotence is the failure of erection of the male organ. If the woman is frigid and the man is
sexually strong, or if the woman is not frigid and the man is sexually impotent, sexual
incompatibility results. The sexual desire of a partner cannot be satisfied by the other.
4. Prostitution A woman is paid immediately, usually in the form of money, after having sex with
a man.

Sex Problems in the Country
1. Incest sexual intercourse between father and daughter, mother and son, or brother and sister.
2. Wife-swapping exchanging of wives. We have yet to see this happen in the country.
3. Hippie family several men and women living together intimately and having sexual relations
among themselves. Like wife-swapping, we have yet to see this kind of sex relationship.
4. Homosexuality sexual attraction to the same sex. There are many homosexuals but they are
not creating serious social problems.
5. Nymphomania very extreme sexual desire in women. Women having this problem are very
rare unless fed with sex stimulant.

Causes of Sex Problems
1. Trial marriage. There are minority tribes that practice trial marriage because of their dwindling
population. If a boy and a girl live together as husband and wife for a certain time, and they are
not able to produce a child, they separate and find other partners. Even here in the lowlands,
some partners practice trial marriage to find out if they are compatible, otherwise, they
separate.
2. Contraceptives. The development of birth control techniques especially the use of pill and the
condom lessen the fear of untimely pregnancy. With this inhibition removed, girls become more
free to engage in premarital sex.
3. Poverty. This may be the principal cause of prostitution. This is more prevalent in cities. Even
very young boys and girls are engaged in this kind of money-earning venture. They especially
cater to foreigners who give higher tips. Some married women whose husbands are jobless may
engage in extra-marital relations or survival. Also, some women who desire a luxurious style of
living may attach themselves to men who can give them the kind of lifestyle they want.
4. Congestion. Living in crowded dwellings as a result of industrialization where privacy is very
much lacking may throw people of the opposite sex intimately together, resulting in aroused
sexual desire.
5. Influence of movie stars. Popular movie stars, actors and actresses alike are often reported by
the media to have two or more sex partners, some at the same time while others one after the
other. Without strong condemnation from society, movie fans tend to follow the footsteps of
their movie idols.
6. Desire for luxury. A woman who desires to have a luxurious living may attach herself to a rich
man who can give her the kind of living she wants: a comfortable home, car, jewelry, etc.
7. Working women. Married women who work, especially in offices where they have close
contacts with their male officemates, are often tempted to fall in love with the later. This results
in secret meetings and illicit relationships.
8. Lewd shows. Lewd shows in the movie houses and private homes with Betamax equipment
arouse the sex desires of both male and female who then seek outlets to satisfy their aroused
sex desires.
9. Womens lib. The womens liberation movement wants to erase the double standard of sex
morality between men and women. While a married man is tolerated or even idolized by society
if he engages in extra-marital relations, this is a taboo for women. Women want to be in equal
footing with men when it comes to extra-marital relations. Thus, a woman who catches her
husband having an affair with another woman may do the same.
10. Weakening of close family ties. Because of the weakening family ties, there is now more
permissiveness prevailing in the family. Children are more easy going and do not pay much
attention to the advice of their parents. Hence, they become easy victims of sex perversions.
11. Accessibility of hotels and motels. The easy accessibility of hotels, motels and other houses of
bliss often encourage people to engage in illicit love affairs. Illicit lovers can easily go to these
places for their sex adventure.
12. A spouse working abroad. When a spouse has to work abroad, either spouse feels the loneliness
of living without a partner or being deprived of the satisfaction of sex relationship. Thus, he or
she may fall into the temptation of falling in love with another partner. This may result in
separation. There are many cases of this kind.
13. Lack of strong spiritual and moral values. Spiritual and moral values are the strongest defenses
against sex waywardness.

Negative Effects of Sex Problems
1. Untimely pregnancy. This is the result of premarital sex relationship. If the boy does not want to
wed the girl, it is a big problem for her and her family. Since honor is involved, the girl may
resort to abortion which may result in her death. In some cases, the girl commits suicide.
2. Broken home. If a husband or a wife engages in extra-marital relations and the other one
discovers this, the spouses may end up separating from each other. Their children will suffer the
effects of the separation. In some cases, the man enraged by jealousy may kill his wifes lover or
his wife or it may be the other way around. In another case, a boy forced to marry a pregnant
girl whom he does not love may later on break up the marriage, resulting in a broken home.
3. Venereal diseases and /or AIDS. Venereal diseases and AIDS often afflict people who are
engaged in prostitution. There is also transmission of the disease in extra-marital relations. The
ordinary venereal diseases are curable but so far, no drug has been found yet to cure AIDS.
Besides, children of parents affected by a venereal disease are born defective. They may have
deformed faces, limbs, etc. and may be retarded mentally.

POPULATION EXPLOSION
Population in the Philippines is increasing by leaps and bounds. Some of the causes are:
1. Values and beliefs. In agricultural areas, children are considered as assets because they can help
their parents work in the farms, and so, the couples do not practice family planning. The
Catholic Church only approves of the rhythm method or abstinence as a method of birth control
which is ineffective and difficult to apply. Hence, Catholics have to make a difficult decision
between the rhythm method and contraceptives.
2. Medical consciousness. People are now medically conscious. Once they feel something wrong
with their bodies, they go to a hospital or to a doctor. They now seldom go to a herbolario.
Hence, many lives are saved from death and the life span is prolonged. Pregnant women now go
to a hospital or to a doctor for a check-up. As a result, there is very little infant mortality.
3. Ignorance of birth control methods. This is true especially in the rural areas where the people
are less educated and less informed. They do not know any method of birth control except
abstinence which is very difficult to apply.
4. Poverty. Some couples know some techniques but they cannot afford to sustain the constant
buying of contraceptives. Some resort to ligation but others are still afraid to undergo this kind
of minor operation.
Negative Effects of Overpopulation
1. Poverty. This is the result of underemployment and unemployment because there are many
people than jobs available. There is also less food supply, resulting in malnutrition. The quality of
life is also lower. Because of poverty, many parents cannot send their children to school and so
there is a lower educational attainment of the people. Because of poverty, many people cannot
afford to buy lots and construct houses and they resort to squatting in makeshift dwellings.
2. Retarded national economy. The economic gains realized each year are gobbled up by the
increase in population. For instance, we increase in rice production but the increase is leap-
frogged by the increase in population and so we have to import rice to cover up the shortage.

POVERTY
Among the causes of poverty are the following:
1. Overpopulation. If there is only one pie to be eaten, two persons can eat more than when there
are ten people to eat it.
2. Calamities. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods and fires often make people
impoverished.
3. Unemployment. Because of overpopulation, there are not enough jobs to accommodate the
people resulting in unemployment. This is made worse by the lack of resourcefulness and the
indolence of the people.
4. Graft and corruption. It is not uncommon that funds intended for economic development go
into the pockets of a few individuals, thus depriving the intended beneficiaries they would
derive from such economic development. Even victims of calamities suffer from this kind of
social malaise.
Naturally, the effects of poverty are deprivation of even the basic necessities of life, low quality
of life, low education, low morale, feeling of insecurity, malnutrition, and theft and robberies.

GAMBLING
Legal or illegal, gambling is a problem. The more common forms of gambling are gambling in the
casino, jueteng, cockfighting and card games. The possible causes are:
1. Recreation. Some people consider gambling a recreational activity.
2. Strong belief in luck. Some people strongly believe that luck may be n their side, so they
gamble.
3. Get-rich-quickly mentality. Some like to accumulate lots of money in a short time and in an easy
way and so they place bets in gambling and buy Sweepstakes tickets. The poor people in the
barrios and towns are encouraged to place their bets in jueteng because with a few centavos,
they can win hundreds of pesos.
4. Lack of strong spiritual and moral values. Anybody lacking these can become wayward.

Negative Effects of Gambling
1. Some people become impoverished because of gambling.
2. They lose fortunes especially if luck is not on their side.
3. Excessive gambling at night causes deterioration in the health of an individual.
4. Since gambling has no economic value, time spent in it is useless.

ALCOHOLISM
Alcoholism is an excessive drinking of liquor. It results to drunkenness which is also a serious
social problem. Among the possible causes of alcoholism are the following:
1. Recreation. Some people consider drinking with friends as a recreational activity. Members of a
barkada are very happy when they drink together.
2. Social function. Some people consider liquor drinking as a part of a social function. To them,
social function is not complete without drinking beer or wine.
3. Frustration. Some people drink to drown out their frustrations. To forget problems and worries,
people resort to drinking until they become drunk.
4. Lack of spiritual and moral values. Persons without spiritual and moral values are easily tempted
to get drunk.
Negative Effects of Alcoholism
1. Killing. Probably, this is the most serious bad effect of drunkenness. This is especially true in big
cities. Every morning, we hear from the radio that someone has been stabbed or shot after a
drinking spree. This is due to the fact that the inhibitory powers of an individual are greatly
weakened when he is under the influence of liquor and do things which he cannot do when he is
under his moral consciousness. Thus, a slight argument between two drinkers may trigger one
to stab or shoot the other. Persons under the influence of liquor are potential troublemakers.
2. Injury to health. Excessive drinking weakens the constitution of the body. It also aggravates
certain ailments like stomach ulcers, hypertension, and tuberculosis. It is especially dangerous
for people with heart ailments to drink excessively.

TRAFFIC CONGESTION
Traffic jams are a serious problem in cities and big towns. Some of the causes are:
1. Concentration of establishments in the city. There is too much concentration of industrial and
commercial establishments as well as educational institutions in the city. This causes too many
people to flock to the city where many vehicles are needed to transport them to their places of
work and places of study.
2. Oversupply of vehicles. There is an oversupply of private vehicles and small transport vehicles
such as jeeps and tricycles which occupy more space in the streets than big buses do.
3. Narrow streets. Many of the city streets are constructed without foresight. They are very narrow
and cannot accommodate many vehicles.
4. Lack of flyovers and doubled-decked streets. Flyovers certainly ease traffic in street
intersections. Double-decked streets can accommodate more vehicles. Double-decked streets
are found in some cities in Japan.
5. Illegal parking. There are so many vehicle illegally parked in the streets obstructing the smooth
flow of traffic.
Negative Effects of Traffic Congestion
1. Waste of time. It often happens that a distance which can be negotiated in a matter of minutes
when there is very light traffic is negotiated in a number of hours when there is heavy traffic.
Sometimes, it takes two hours or more to negotiate a distance when there is heavy traffic which
can be traversed in thirty minutes or less when traffic is light. It is simply a waste of time.
2. Hampered production. Because of traffic jams, workers often go to their places of work late not
only in minutes but hours. Students also go to their classes late. Under such a condition,
production is surely hampered, economic or otherwise.
3. Accidents and killings. Traffic jams are often accidents and sometimes killing or mauling.

BROWNOUTS
Brownouts are becoming serious problems throughout the country. Some of the causes are:
1. Lack of foresight. There is an apparent lack of foresight on the part of our national leaders we do
not foresee the increasing need of electricity. They do not construct enough electric-generating
plants that would supply the future needs of the country.
2. Lack of expertise. The operations of electric-generating plants seem to lack the expertise to run
the plants resulting in the frequent breakdown of the plants. Hence, there is a suggestion from
some quarters that the government should employ consultants who are experts in the trade.
3. Graft and corruption. There are allegations reported in the newspapers that the agency in
charge of electric-generation is graft-ridden. There were even reports that the fuel for the
generating plants is often stolen, resulting in the inefficiency of the agency.

Adverse Effects of Brownouts
1. Reduced production. When daily brownouts occur, ranging from four to six hours, reduced
production of economic goods cannot be avoided. This hampers economic progress.
2. Unemployment and underemployment. As a result of brownouts, some companies closed down
or reduced their production, resulting in the unemployment and underemployment of the
workers. This result in poverty of the workers deprived of work.
3. Demoralization. Many people are demoralized because of the daily lack of light in their places of
work, in their offices, and in their homes during which their house appliances cannot function.
Hospitals are especially affected.
DEFORESTATION
This is also a serious national problem. Some causes of deforestation are the following:
1. Illegal logging. This is a problem which the government cannot succeed to solve. If this cannot
be stopped, our forests will get denuded.
2. Charcoal making. This is not being paid attention to but sometimes this is worse than illegal
logging. In logging, only the big trees are cut down but in charcoal making, even the young trees
are cut down to be burned into charcoal.
3. Kaingin system. This practice is worse than the first two. In this practice, the hillsides or
mountainsides are cleared thoroughly. All the trees, big and small, are cut down and burned.
The place is then planted with rice, corn, or vegetables. After two or three years, the cleared
hillsides or mountainsides become barren wastelands. This is so because the fertile surface soil
has been washed down by rain. The kaingero leaves the barren hillside and find another hillside
to clear. This is the reason why the hillsides and mountainsides we see from the lowlands are
barren.
Negative Effects of Deforestation
1. Flash floods. Flash floods in deforested areas occur whenever there are heavy rains, resulting in
the destruction of crops and loss of lives. Very little vegetation in the hillsides and
mountainsides can hold the rainwater from onrushing to the lowlands. An example is the flash
flood that occurs in Ormoc, Leyte killing about two hundred people.

POLLUTION
Pollution is also a serious problem especially in the cities and big towns. The causes are:
1. The emission of toxic carbon dioxide from moving vehicles especially the smoke-belching trucks.
With thousands of vehicles running in the streets, one can imagine the amount of toxic gas
being emitted that pollutes the air to a great extent.
2. The factories emptying their toxic waste into rivers or esteros or into the ocean cause water
pollution.
3. Radiation from a nuclear plant crates extensive damages.
Negative Effects of Pollution
1. Poisoning of people. The polluted air being inhaled by people slowly poisons the people. Sooner
or later, they will develop respiratory ailments.
2. Poisoning of water life. The toxic wastes being emptied into rivers, esteros, and ocean poison
and kill water life such as fish and other water creatures. Even plants, especially rice, are
adversely affected by such toxic wastes from factories and power plants.
3. Instant death. When pollution is caused by radiation from a nuclear plant, it causes instant
death like what happened in Chernobyl, Russia. When the nuclear plant accidentally exploded
and caught fire, many of the residents living nearby met instant death because of radiation.

UNEMPLOYMENT
This is a perennial problem. Among the causes are:
1. Population explosion. The increase in population exceeds the increase in jobs being created.
2. Mismatch between skills developed by schools and skills needed by industry. The manpower
skills being developed by schools do not match the manpower skills needed by the industry.
Thus, there are many unemployed graduates every year.
3. Slow industrialization. The industrialization of the country is very slow and so very few jobs are
created every year.
Adverse Effect of Unemployment
1. Poverty. It is natural that the family of a jobless man becomes impoverished.
2. Employment abroad. With no jobs available, coupled by the low value of the peso compared to
the dollar, may Filipinos strive hard to find jobs abroad causing brain drain in the country. The
people working abroad also sacrifice being separated for a long time from their loved ones.
Sometimes this separation causes break of the family.
3. Low education and low quality of life. Children of the unemployed people cannot pursue higher
education. Because of poverty, they also lead a low quality of life.
4. Squatting. Because of unemployment or underemployment, many poor families cannot afford
to buy a house and lot and they resort to squatting. They usually build their shanties on the
banks of rivers, creeks, esteros, seawall, and on lots not their own. Squatting is now becoming a
serious national problem, too.