The Philippine government has different programs and policies for population management and education. Gloria Arroyo openly bows to the Catholic church diktat of no artificial birth control. At the same time, she has listed education among the top priorities in her 10-point program.

There is only one tree–population explosion and dwindling quality of education are only two branches of this tree. What affects one affects the other.

“Maybe five years from now,” principal Cristina Reyes of the Ramon Magsaysay High School said, there would not be enough room.

Up to 55 students now make up each class, but can consider themselves lucky. In some other Manila schools, the building shortfall is so acute that students are asked to show up only three times a week, Reyes told Agence France-Presse.

The dropout rate is rising especially for boys, some of whom hail from shanties that line the nearby railroad tracks.

Their slots are eagerly taken up by transfers from private schools, as parents who can no longer afford rising tuition fees decide to make do with the government’s free elementary and secondary education, Reyes said. [Philippine Daily Inquirer]

Land has physical limits. It stays the same. The accretion made possible by decaying coral reefs and river beds drying up may change topography but the pace at which they occur will not make much difference in a generation.

The yield of the land and the seas has physical limits as well.

The uncontrolled growth of a population means dividing a finite land–and its yields–among a continually growing number of users and consumers. We can all be as resourceful as we can but, given the rate at which our population grows, the growth rate outrace any innovation and resourcefulness.