Rationale

Education has long been regarded as one of the primary components for poverty
reduction and socio-economic upliftment. Tertiary education particularly, is tasked to
train the nations manpower in the skills required for national development, and to instill
and foster the appropriate and relevant, knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable each
individual to become a useful, productive and gainfully employed member of society.
Investments in education would be considered wasted if people do not move into
productive jobs that enable them to pay taxes and support public services (Gradute Tracer
Study, 2011). The government offers various opportunities in order to encourage students
to study out of poverty and social circumstances. It provides free education in all public
schools up to high school level, and various scholarship grants, student loan programs,
subsidies and other incentives for those who wanted to pursue college. These programs of
the government ought not only to increase the literacy rate of the country, but also to
produce competent graduates that will not be utilized in the private sector, but more of
the public sector being the primary provider of public services to the civil society.

The public sector plays a key role in Philippine economic development (Siason,
2009). Although some analysts would single out the importance of private sector-led
growth and sound macroeconomic policy as drivers of development, the public sector,
such as the Local Government Units, or the government itself with its instrumentalities
and subsidiaries still are the provider of basic services which benefit all of society rather
than just the individual who uses the service. Amidst the rise of the private sectors in the
country, the government & public sector practice aims to be the preferred partner in
driving transformational change for governments around the world (Government in
transformation, n.d.). However, amidst the strive of the public sector to achieve this
transformational change, it remained as one of the lowest in proportion, or inadequate in
number (Wootton 2017), having only an estimated 8.3% out of the 93% employment
status (2015 Annual Labor and Employment Status, 2015).

One example of the public sector includes the workers of the Local Government
Units. The employees herein provide public services to the people within its jurisdiction,
together with its elected officials which should ensure that quality and basic goods and
services are delivered to the people. However, as stated earlier, public sector seemed to
contract. According to a developmental study of Lonti and Joumard (2007), to improve
the public sector requires not only expenditure growth, but also improved performance of
its employees. The public sector must also be competent and compete with the fast track
of globalization, in the name of serving the public society. Thus, requiring not only a
professional, but also efficient, honest, and responsible public servants (1987, Philippine
Constitution, Article XI, Section 1), to discharge the functions conferred by law in the
name of good governance and public interest. If this is what required to uplift the status
of the public sector in the country, the institutions that trains the students, specifically the
tertiary level, should also be competitive to provide efficient training and knowledge to
the students who will become a part of the labor force someday, especially in the public
sector.

There is this degree program that prepares people for careers in public
administration and governance for the public interest; AB Political Science. Political
Science as a field of discipline is more than just an art and science but an application of
both. According to the study of Bagoong and Ruiz (n.d.), this course is intended for those
students who want to devote their life in public service in government and civil society.
Thus, if we dwell from this definition, it could be concluded that this course aims to
prepare the students who intends to serve the public in the future. One tertiary institution
which offers this degree is Central Mindanao University. Central Mindanao Universitys
AB Political Science program, commits to produce political science graduates who will
work in the academe, government and private institutions who are equipped with
knowledge and skills to be effective and efficient manpower and responsible (College of
Arts and Sciences Department Objectives & Programs, n.d.). AB Political Science
graduates of the said institution are shaped to envisage the vision of the program.

The conduct of this study could help to trace the graduates of AB Political
Science in Central Mindanao University who have been employed in the Local
Government Units, specifically in Maramag Bukidnon. Moreover, it primarily aims to be
an instrument that will assess the skills gained and knowledge learned by the graduates
that are applied to their field of work, including the skills and knowledge that the
graduates lacked in the application to their performance and duties, as perceived by the
Local Government Unit of Maramag personnel. This study also aims to determine the
levels of satisfaction as perceived by the Local Government Unit personnel of Maramag
from the graduates of AB Political Science in Central Mindanao University, both from the
appointed and elected graduates which is now part of the institution.

The result of this study would establish the evaluation output of the education and
training system in relation to the labor market, specifically in public sector. The result
could also bring together certain basic types of information the contemporary labor
experience and the correspondence between educational qualifications and required work
skills, amongst others which put into perspective the contribution of the sector. They also
provide indications of possible deficits in a given educational programme, such that the
educational program can be more closely aligned with the needs of the economy, which is
return would reflect to the program, specifically the AB Political Science of Central
Mindanao University. The results then, would serve as the basis for the faculty of the said
program to enact changes or revise the curricula which would further produce a more
competent and efficient graduate, for the graduates to be also effective in their chosen
endeavors, particularly in the public sector that would eventually uplift its condition.

References:
Graduate Tracer Study, (2007). Retrieved from http://www.tec.mu/pdf_downloads
/pubrep/gts_premrep_feb2012.pdf
Siason, (2009). Public Administration and Economic Development in the
Philippines. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=2051394
Government in transformation, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ey.com/ph/en/indu

stries/government---public-sector

2015 Annual Labor and Employment Status (Preliminary results

of the 2015 annual estimates), (2015). Retrieved from
https://www.psa.gov.ph/content
/2015-annual-labor-and-employment-status-preliminary-results-2015-
annual-estimates

Lonti and Joumard, (2007). Improving Public Sector Efficiency: Challenges and
Opportunities. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/43412680.pdf

Wootton, M., (2017) An inadequate number of public sector

employees Retrieved from http://www.manilatimes.net/inadequate-
number-public-sector employees/317300/

College of Arts and Sciences Department Objectives & Programs, (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu.ph/academic-units/arts-and-sciences/