8/3/2019 Open Letter to Ched

1/2

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION, THE PHILIPPINES31 DECEMBER 2011, BINANGONAN, RIZAL

THE COMMISSIONERS

Commission on Higher Education

May I recommend some changes in policies on the countrys collegiateeducation 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 studentsdropping out or shifting from their initial courses due to their inability to copeup with required abilities of their initial courses of choice. I believe thatengineering 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 highschool grades of at least 85% average (even higher for courses whosegraduates have very limited opportunities).

2. Reinforcing the foundation of English language as the medium of instruction andlearning. It was observed that many graduates have very poor foundation inEnglish. Even some of the registered doctors and engineers were havingdifficulties preparing reports and correspondences. English is the de factonational language of the Philippines. In the Constitution, discrepancies ofinterpretations among local dialects shall be settled by the English translation. Itis recommended that professorial positions for English subjects should be very

well screened. Until we were able to produce completely translated books (andample local employment), English will be of much relevance.

3. Abolition of the On-the-job (OJT) system. It was observed that, generally, theaims of the OJT system were not being served. In my college days, computerand telecom engineering students, were tasked to seal billing envelopes in theirentire tenure as trainees. Some were fielded to companies whose businesses areirrelevant of their fields of studies. The worse, some were unable to graduatebecause there was scarcity of companies accommodating trainees. Someschools do not mind to visit the trainees at their worksites. Since mostcompanies (government agencies included) do not compensate trainees, OJTsystem has become a vehicle oftechnical slavery.

4. Strengthening of the laboratory and facility systems of colleges and universities.Good laboratories and facilities backed by skilled instructors will eliminate theneed for on-the-job training. It should at least be patterned before the US wherethe schools were the birth place of many inventions, researches andtechnologies.

5. Synchronize the syllabus with the college graduates most potential initial jobresponsibilities. Many courses, particularly in engineering and related courses,have curriculum where the expected output is to give the graduates the basic ofeverything under the sun. This is not the reality in the field; graduates shouldhave the initial skills. Say in electrical engineering, graduates should at leastknow how to replace circuit breakers, or clean contactors, etc. In computer

engineering: basic repair skills of PCs, networking etc. Hands-on of these basicskills should be taught in schools and not scavenged from the faulty OJT system.

6. Supervision of school-based collegiate entrance examinations. It isrecommended that entrance examinations should be target-oriented (withdefined level of difficulties) for particular courses. Some institutions were giving

8/3/2019 Open Letter to Ched

2/2

only token examinations were the level of difficulty can be easily hurdled by asixth grader (and therefore enrollments are high). If the NCEE is to be re-instituted, there will be no more need for entrance examinations by schools.

7. Regulate the enrollment. CHED should provide a study on the market trends ofvarious professions. Recent development in the nursing sector showed thatthere were too many graduates with already limited opportunities ofemployment. The markets were not carefully studied. There was a bandwagon ofenrollment. Schools offered nursing almost overnight. The opportunities for the

lump of graduates and those still in schools are almost nil. The ProfessionalOrganization and CHED were not able to anticipate the problem resulting topotential unemployment and underemployment. Who should be given thequotas of offering the courses? Of course, the schools that fared well in theboards, civil service examinations and employability of graduates. Percentage ofpassers as against total graduates may also be considered. Updated and state-of-the-art laboratories should add credit. The problem of limited opportunities isalso already being felt in the EE, ECE, Computer Engineering and other courseswith high enrollment.

8. Strictly regulate the course offerings of schools. Schools should only be givenpermits to offer courses on the basis of good staffing patterns and facilities. New

course offering by schools should be given temporary licenses for a certainperiod of time and be gauged in accordance with the quality of graduates.

9. Regulate new course offerings. To evade the boards, many schools are nowoffering courses which are practically renamed old courses. It is recommendedthat CHED identify these equivalent courses for endorsement to PRC andProfessional Organizations for inclusion in the existing boards.

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

Very truly yours,

WILLARDO C. MESAFilipino Taxpayer