AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION, THE PHILIPPINES 31 DECEMBER 2011, BINANGONAN, RIZAL

THE COMMISSIONERS Commission on Higher Education May I recommend some changes in policies on the countrys collegiate education system. Recommended actions are as follows: 1. Re-institution of the CHED-supervised National College Entrance Examination (NCEE). It was observed that there is high number of college students dropping out or shifting from their initial courses due to their inability to cope up with required abilities of their initial courses of choice. I believe that engineering courses require good mathematical abilities, medical courses need good grasp biological and natural sciences, education courses: linguistics, etc. Entrance to baccalaureate courses should have good high school grades of at least 85% average (even higher for courses whose graduates have very limited opportunities). 2. Reinforcing the foundation of English language as the medium of instruction and learning. It was observed that many graduates have very poor foundation in English. Even some of the registered doctors and engineers were having difficulties preparing reports and correspondences. English is the de facto national language of the Philippines. In the Constitution, discrepancies of interpretations among local dialects shall be settled by the English translation. It is recommended that professorial positions for English subjects should be very well screened. Until we were able to produce completely translated books (and ample local employment), English will be of much relevance. 3. Abolition of the On-the-job (OJT) system. It was observed that, generally, the aims of the OJT system were not being served. In my college days, computer and telecom engineering students, were tasked to seal billing envelopes in their entire tenure as trainees. Some were fielded to companies whose businesses are irrelevant of their fields of studies. The worse, some were unable to graduate because there was scarcity of companies accommodating trainees. Some schools do not mind to visit the trainees at their worksites. Since most companies (government agencies included) do not compensate trainees, OJT system has become a vehicle of technical slavery. 4. Strengthening of the laboratory and facility systems of colleges and universities. Good laboratories and facilities backed by skilled instructors will eliminate the need for on-the-job training. It should at least be patterned before the US where the schools were the birth place of many inventions, researches and technologies. 5. Synchronize the syllabus with the college graduates most potential initial job responsibilities. Many courses, particularly in engineering and related courses, have curriculum where the expected output is to give the graduates the basic of everything under the sun. This is not the reality in the field; graduates should have the initial skills. Say in electrical engineering, graduates should at least know how to replace circuit breakers, or clean contactors, etc. In computer engineering: basic repair skills of PCs, networking etc. Hands-on of these basic skills should be taught in schools and not scavenged from the faulty OJT system. 6. Supervision of school-based collegiate entrance examinations. It is recommended that entrance examinations should be target-oriented (with defined level of difficulties) for particular courses. Some institutions were giving

only token examinations were the level of difficulty can be easily hurdled by a sixth grader (and therefore enrollments are high). If the NCEE is to be reinstituted, there will be no more need for entrance examinations by schools. 7. Regulate the enrollment. CHED should provide a study on the market trends of various professions. Recent development in the nursing sector showed that there were too many graduates with already limited opportunities of employment. The markets were not carefully studied. There was a bandwagon of enrollment. Schools offered nursing almost overnight. The opportunities for the lump of graduates and those still in schools are almost nil. The Professional Organization and CHED were not able to anticipate the problem resulting to potential unemployment and underemployment. Who should be given the quotas of offering the courses? Of course, the schools that fared well in the boards, civil service examinations and employability of graduates. Percentage of passers as against total graduates may also be considered. Updated and stateof-the-art laboratories should add credit. The problem of limited opportunities is also already being felt in the EE, ECE, Computer Engineering and other courses with high enrollment. 8. Strictly regulate the course offerings of schools. Schools should only be given permits to offer courses on the basis of good staffing patterns and facilities. New course offering by schools should be given temporary licenses for a certain period of time and be gauged in accordance with the quality of graduates. 9. Regulate new course offerings. To evade the boards, many schools are now offering courses which are practically renamed old courses. It is recommended that CHED identify these equivalent courses for endorsement to PRC and Professional Organizations for inclusion in the existing boards.

Hoping that these recommendations will be given due attention, I am

Very truly yours, WILLARDO C. MESA Filipino Taxpayer