Fortifying Quality Education in the Advent of Change

Our country’s uniqueness as the only Christian and English-speaking archipelago in Southeast
Asia impacts our education system more than we acknowledge.

Our country’s anglophonic culture and religious system are all results of colonialism, backed up
by our rich history of being colonized by the Spanish regime for three centuries, followed by the
US occupation for nearly five decades.

The US colonialism has always had a huge impact on the development of the education system
in the Philippines. In fact, the American English has always been imposed in our schools and
become second to the Filipino as our national language.

Our strong knowledge in the English language could be a global tool in personal economic
growth, particularly if you’d consider the business process outsourcing industry in the global
landscape. Despite this, Filipinos are still very dependent on attaining college degrees in terms of
climbing the professional ladder, as a college diploma is still a very basic requirement or
qualification in landing on financially fulfilling jobs. Luckily though, a lot of advancements have
happened in the modern Philippine education system that is designed to empower Filipinos
personally and professionally.

One of the most notable milestones in the Philippine education is that the government actively
seeks to expand access and participation in higher education and, even more importantly, tries to
improve the quality of education.

According to the Philippine National Development Plan, “the number of higher education
institutions in the Philippines is ten times more than its neighboring countries. The Philippines’s
weak performance in producing innovators, researchers (81 researchers per million population
versus 205 in Indonesia and 115 in Vietnam) and knowledge producers (28 out of 777 journals,
or 3.6 percent are listed under Thomson Reuters, Scopus or both) indicates that the country has
lagged behind many of its Asean neighbors in producing researchers, innovators and solutions
providers needed to effectively function in a knowledge economy.”
Although the participation in higher education in the Philippines has expanded in recent years,
with the gross tertiary enrolment rate growing from 2.2 million in 1999 to 4.1 million in 2016,
the information from the Philippine National Development Plan that we have a shortage in local
“researchers and innovators” should not be overlooked nor ignored. Enrolment rates for college
students are expected to expand even more, with the bold decision of President Duterte in 2017
to make education at state universities and colleges tuition-free, yet this does not automatically
mean that such changes can result in producing a new generation of researchers and innovators.

On the other side, the previous administrations K-12 reforms have inevitably led to decreased
rate of college enrollees, too, at least in the short-term, since many of the students that would
usually have entered higher education after Grade 10 now have to complete two additional years
of school.
In 2013 the Philippine government initiated the extension of the country’s basic education cycle
from ten to twelve years—a major reform that former Education Secretary Armin Luistro has
called “the most comprehensive basic-education reform initiative ever done in the country since
the establishment of the public education system more than a century ago”. Between 2015-2016
and 2016-2017, the total number of tertiary students already dropped from 4.1 million to 3.6
million—a decrease that is particularly apparent when looking at undergraduate enrollment rate,
according to data from the Commission on Higher Education.

Despite some predicaments, qualitative improvements and achievements in the Philippine

education system are still notable in a number of areas. This includess a slight increase in the
number of higher-education faculty holding higher degrees. The percentage of instructors with
master’s and doctorate degrees grew from 38.87 percent and 11.09 percent in 2010, respectively,
to 40.34 and 12.62 percent in 2015.

The number of higher-education institutes with accredited education programs, which is not
mandatory in the Philippines, increased by more than 40 percent between 2010 and 2017,
while the passing rates of candidates sitting for professional licensing exams, a measure of
academic effectiveness, jumped from 33.9 to 58.6 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Despite the shortage of innovators, researchers and knowledge producers in the country, it is
great to note that Filipinos are generally prioritizing higher and advanced education. In fact, there
have been a wide interest in international education among Filipinos, as well as nontraditional
educational courses outside of the typical college courses.

With the efforts of the local government, the advancements of local-educational institutions,
corporate social-responsibility initiatives of corporations and the individual pursuits of Filipinos
for personal empowerment through education, a rise on the number of innovators, researchers
and knowledge producers” in the country may not be a problem anymore in the near future. As a
nation, we just have to redirect our focus in terms of continuously advocating higher education
by support any efforts in the improvement of our educational system.

Individually, we just have to be more open to educational opportunities, and maximize our edge
as English-speaking citizens, a major benefit in global commerce and education. Being more
pro-active in teaching ourselves to be our own responsible innovators and knowledge producers
for our own professional and financial gain. After all, as a nation, we are also very much into
technology and the Internet. With research and a few clicks here and there, we might actually
stumble on some local grants, interesting online courses and international scholarships that can
upgrade us educationally and economically. Continuous learning and education, after all, are still
the greatest investments we could give to ourselves.

Reforms from basic to tertiary level have been constantly shaping the state of Philippine
education.
One of the most notable milestones in the Philippine education is that the government actively
seeks to expand access and participation in higher education and, even more importantly, tries to
improve the quality of education.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines caters to the educational needs and
requirements of a population relatively diverse in socio-economic status, religion, and culture.
Distributed among the 17 regions of a country that consists of approximately 7,100 islands,
Philippine HEIs delivers educational services that demand responsiveness not only to national
developmental thrusts but also to regional and community needs, as well as to specific
institutional philosophies as articulated in their vision-mission.

As mandated by the Philippine Constitution, higher education institutions in the country, whether
public or private, operates within an environment of laws and policies that aim to guarantee and
protect the right to education of all citizens by ensuring that institutions of learning promote
access, equity, quality, and relevance even as they exercise their institutional academic freedom.

There are currently 1,935 higher education institutions in the country, 1,708 (88%) are private;
227 (12%) are public. Private higher education institutions are either sectarian, i.e. owned and
operated by religious groups or organisations, or non-sectarian, or owned and operated by private
entities that are not affiliated to any religious organisation. Private HEIs generally fund their
operations from their own capital investments, tuition fees and other school charges, grants,
loans, and subsidies. Public higher education institutions operate through national and local
government subsidies.

According to the Philippine National Development Plan, “the number of higher education
institutions in the Philippines is ten times more than its neighboring countries however, despite
the more number of HEIs compared with other countries, Philippines has a weak performance in
producing innovators, researchers (81 researchers per million population versus 205 in Indonesia
and 115 in Vietnam) and knowledge producers (28 out of 777 journals, or 3.6 percent are listed
under Thomson Reuters, Scopus or both) indicates that the country has lagged behind many of its
Asean neighbors in producing researchers, innovators and solutions providers needed to
effectively function in a knowledge economy.”

The governing body that covers both public and private higher education institutions in the
Philippines is the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), established on 18 May 1994
through Republic Act 7722 and created in view of the broad agenda for reforms that resulted
from the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM) report.

The EDCOM report led to the tri-focalisation of the education sector in the country, separating
the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), into three separate agencies: the
Department of Education (DepEd) for basic education, the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) for technical-vocational and middle level education, and
CHED for tertiary and graduate education.

Challenges and reforms

Higher education issues, from pre-EDCOM report to post-CHED creation, can be categorised
broadly into two persistent areas of challenges: (a) quality, and (b) thrusts. Quality issues may
involve unemployment and underemployment due to the lack of desired competencies by the
annual cohorts of graduates from the industry standpoint; local colleges converted into state
universities, and their eventual expansion into satellite campuses, regardless of their compliance
with the criteria for university status; the opening and offering of programmes, unmindful of
CHED policies and minimum standards; the lack of a robust faculty profile in terms of academic
preparation and training as well as advanced research capability; or the evident need to improve
access to quality education for the marginalised sector to translate a higher education degree into
real opportunities for social mobility.

Thrust issues result from the perceived purpose of higher education. At the macro-level, higher
education remains key to economic growth and national development, spurred by research and
innovation; hence the desired emphasis on science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and
mathematics. At the micro-level, higher education is an investment not only for the individual,
but for the basic social unit. An immediate return on investment becomes necessary as
employment opportunities are culturally synonymous with affording education for core and
extended families. Career pathways and decisions are determined according to the comparative
requisite time, material and physical resource in honing scientists and scholars on one hand, and
the ready industry practice and market participation on the other.

As expected, globalisation has added more challenges to higher education in the Philippines as
the country contends not only with local quality assurance measures but with regional and
international benchmarks. World and Asia university rankings, international programme
accreditation and quality assessment, faculty and student exchange, research publication and
citation, and international networking and linkages have become essential considerations that are
inevitably transforming the academic landscape.

Addressing these challenges, higher education in the Philippines has undertaken the following
reform programmes in recent years:

 The Philippine K to 12 Program was implemented in 2012, adding two years in basic
education and effecting an educational structure comparable with the rest of the world
even as it resulted in a minimum 5-year transition period for higher education. DepEd,
TESDA, and CHED collaborated on the effective curricular alignment of the three tracks
of Senior High School (Grades 11 and 12) – academic, technical-vocational-livelihood,
and sports and arts – in order to rationalise the expected competencies at each level of the
Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF) vis-à-vis the ASEAN Qualifications
Reference Framework (AQRF).
 The ASEAN integration in 2015 prompted higher education institutions to do faculty
qualifications accreditation and curricular review and upgrading, rendering these
competitive in view of mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) in the areas of
engineering, nursing, surveying, architecture, dentistry, medicine, and accountancy, and
which MRAs are currently at varying stages of development. Together with the economic
sector, universities and colleges brace for the anticipated mobility, if not fluidity, of
professionals and students with the commencement of the MRAs.
  CHED has embarked on several initiatives under four key tactical points: (1) expanding
access to quality education; (2) enhancing student and faculty competence; (3) promoting
excellence; and (4) upholding ethical and innovative governance.

Better access to quality education is being delivered through financial assistance and
scholarships for students, regulation of private universities’ tuition and other fees, upgrading of
instructional and laboratory facilities of state universities and colleges, and availability of
equivalency, ladderised, and distance programmes. The Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) has nothing but praises for the increased funding for higher education “at levels that no
administration has ever done in the past.”

The Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTEA), a bold decision of President
Duterte in 2017 to make education at state universities and colleges tuition-free, CHED
Chairman J. Prospero De Vera III said, has benefitted some 1.3 million students in public
universities and more than 100,000 students in private universities.

Enhanced student and faculty competence is being developed through curriculum planning and
enhancement, in consultation with experts from concerned areas or disciplines as technical panel
committees and working groups, and with emphasis on outcome-based and competency- based
education; revision of the general education curriculum for higher education; strengthening of
academe-industry partnerships to remedy the mismatch between academic preparation and
employment needs; availability of faculty development grants for both private and public sector,
for the pursuit of graduate degrees, research, and industry immersion and engagement.

Excellence is being promoted through the exercise of regulatory and supervisory functions,
allowing CHED to close down substandard programmes; extension of financial support to
private universities and colleges for intensification of internationalisation initiatives; granting of
autonomous and deregulated status as recognitions of HEIs’ excellent performance; recognition
of centres of excellence and centres of development, following stringent criteria for selection;
creation of collaborative avenues such as the Philippine Higher Education Research Network
(PHERNet) and higher education regional research centres (HERRC) for research capacity
building.

A more ethical and innovative governance is being applied through anti- corruption mechanisms
within the bureaucracy to promote efficient and effective allocation and management of
resources; institutionalisation of the CHED Strategic Performance Management System; regional
amalgamation to rationalise state universities and colleges; and through board governance,
compliance of state universities and colleges to CHED policies and standards.

With all these, higher education in the Philippines is undoubtedly transitioning as it is made to
view itself through additional external and varied lenses. The changing times, and together with
it, changing demands and expectations, pose a transformative reality that is shared by the
Philippine higher education with its counterparts around the world.