blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Outgoing University of the Philippines (UP) President Professor Emerlinda Roman writes in the UP Forum on the need to revisit the university system's Revitalized General Education Program (RGEP).  Prof Roman's essay is based on a 2010 series of surveys and focus grouped discussions (FGD) on the problems and successes of the RGEP. For those old (and not so old) and "loyal to thee" alums and those who didn't attend UP, the RGEP was conceived under the presidency of Dodong Nemenzo. Nemenzo is probably the only Marxist to occupy Quezon Hall. One chapter of R Kwan Laurel's iconoclastic and larrikinous book "Philippine Cultural Disasters"   is all about Nemenzo, Randy David's motorcycle and the RGEP recipe with a dash (or is it deadly dose?) of Ayala Corporation!  The larrikin , academic heretic and "loose cannon" that I am, I would recommend readers to grab a copy at your friendly reputable and credible bookshop. I'm not plugging, but ...

The unpleasant reality of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's 1.39 billion peso budget cut for next year has finally dawned on faculty, staff and students of the University of the Philippines , the Philippines' national university as defined by law. Administration officials have warned university constituents that the university will likely not hire anyone for next academic year. This includes non-academic staff (clerks, records examiners, department secretaries etc), research staff and faculty. This also means that professors who will retire at the end of this year won't be replaced by young assistant professors, research projects and programs can't hire new graduate students to work in the labs, and no new clerical staff will be hired. And we haven't even touched upon the subject of salary adjustments and promotions, which are even more likely to be cut or put on hold! This bodes ill for the university (and a "baptism of fire" for the new...

We have this science graduate who got his biology degree this year with a magna cum laude to show and now is quite in the dumps. After having won accolades from the university like best thesis research and of course the McL plaudit, he applied to work for a top notch hospital as part of the research team dealing with patient satisfaction. Given the good scholastic record he has, he got accepted. But one month into the job he quit. The reason is that he was placed under job training first (where he got a pay he did not expect to get) and the change of orientation from the grade oriented life as an undergraduate to the output and team building orientation of life in the corporate private sector was quite of a shocker. He complained to me about "poor labour practices". And this leads me to think that our undergraduate training philosophies are horribly out of sync with what is to be expected in the world at large. Note that I refuse to use the cliche "real world" sinc...

According to the Philippine Star , the Presidential Task Force on Education chaired by Ateneo de Manila president, Fr Ben Nebres recommended to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that tertiary education be at least for 5 years. Fr Nebres essentially suggested the European Bologna system wherein applicants for university will have to spend 2 years of preparatory courses before moving on to three years of university study. This is similar to university qualifying programs offered by some Commonwealth universities. At the end of these two years, the student may enter the job market or proceed to university. This presupposes that the two year qualifying courses provides skills necessary for the job market. The proposed system is essentially a two cycle system The proposal also calls for mandatory university aptitude exams. This is necessary is this qualifying scheme is to be implemented. There are certain overlaps with the American Associate in Arts degree system. But if Fr Nebres and his c...

I was digging through my lolo's Rizaliana, Quezoniana and UPiana when I came across a copy of a convocation lecture given by Professor Harley Harris Bartlett of the University of Michigan. Bartlett was a noted botanist and scholar of Southeast Asia. He was invited by the University of the Philippines to reasssess the status of the UP and Philippine higher education. The lecture entitled "The Status of the University of the Philioppines and of Higher Education in the Philippines" was given on the occassion of the first year anniversary of the Republic of the Philippines. The context of the speech was in the post war devastation faced by the UP and higher education. Bartlett asks the questions: Has the UP gained? or lost ground? Bartlett's important points include: The UP is essential to the Republic. If the university fails, then the Republic fails in part. The University exists to provide leaders for the nation. The future of a democracy rests on a large part on an eq...