Angeles panel presses for education reforms

Published by rudy Date posted on January 30, 2009

An additional year for college courses will not mean extra cost to students, but will give them time to prepare for life after graduation, chairman Emmanuel Angeles of the Commission on Higher Education said yesterday.

Angeles said that revising the country’s education system is the only way for graduates to meet international standards and become competitive.

Angeles, deputy chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Education, appealed to opponents of the extended college course to give the curricular reforms a chance to bring about results.

Earlier, CHED dropped a plan to add one year to the four-year nursing course amid protests from students and parents.

Dubbed as the Philippine Main Education Highway, the new baccalaureate curriculum in the tertiary level will be implemented in two phases following the adoption of the 10+2+3 formula.

Students who complete the 10-year basic education (six years in primary and four years in the secondary), may then choose to continue in technical schools or take a two-year pre-university program before finally pursuing the three-year specialization course.

Angeles said that Phase I will take effect starting school year 2009-2010, effectively turning all existing courses that require licensure examination administered by the Professional Regulation Commission into a five-year program.

Phase II, on the other hand, will take effect starting school year 2010-2011 for all four-year board and non-board programs. Angeles said graduating high school students will continue to take the National Career Assessment Examination administered by the Department of Education.

The NCAE measures not only the academic and scholastic aptitude but also the technical-vocational knowledge and skills as well as the entrepreneurial inclination of the student.

Angeles also said that for academic year 2009-2010, CHED will use the scholastic aptitude test domain of the NCAE as a guide in admitting students to degree programs. –Gigi David, Manila Standard Today