Dr.

Jose Rizal has been known for promoting education as the best way towards a better
future. He learned from the more advanced countries in Europe at that time that education
created the capacity of the people to be free from oppression and opened opportunities for
economic progress. He would like the people to open their minds to new ideas and society
context in the Philippines, he wanted the Filipinos to overcome colonial thinking, and embrace
the new, liberal ideas in Europe particularly those that relate to freedom from any form of
domination. He already recognized the importance of education in the progress and welfare of
the nation when he was only a teenager. Eighteen years old, to be more precise. Thus, in his
poem, Through Education Our Motherland Receives Light, he said that education “lifts the
motherland to the highest station.” It is only through education that the country will prosper. In
his essay, The Indolence of the Filipinos, he wrote that the system of education must promote
economic progress and activity. He recognized the importance of vocational education. Rizal’s
ideas on education were echoed and restated by the freedom fighters of the turn of the 20th
century, and the leaders of independence movements after the Second World War when many
colonies of the western powers clamored and fought for independence and freedom for their
people.
Today, we hear parents, teachers, government officials, our leaders, telling us, advising
us, cajoling us, or ordering us, again and again, to “read, read, and learn”. It is only through
education that we as individuals will achieve new heights and prosperity. It is
through education that countries will prosper and governments will be cleansed of corruption
and demagoguery. Listen to speeches of our government officials, of education advocates, and
you will hear the echoes of Rizal’s advice to his younger sister and of the idea on the
importance of education. Rizal’s ideas on education was relevant to the Philippines then and
now, as it is relevant in any other country where people desire to improve the quality of their
lives. It will be to their benefit if Filipinos and everyone else, particularly those who are still
young, to listen and heed Rizal’s advice on education: “:read, read, and learn”. Education will
elevate them to new heights and become not only active, but also recognized partners, in the
art of government and every community activity.
It is fortunate, though, that we have retained the capacity to go back in history and
restudy Rizal. By remembering his human side, we bring our national hero back to our midst
and begin to share with him once more the ideals of freedom for which he laid down his life.