For Dr. Felizardo Francisco:

On CHED’s ETEEA Program

After reading your article (September 11, 2009) CHED’S Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program, I decided to check out the CHED website and found some useful information.

My three children have all graduated from college and I figured it was about time that I finally got that college degree that my own parents would have been proud of 30 years ago. But that’s another story.

The CHED website did have a list of accredited HEIs (higher education institutions) here in Pampanga so I started calling and the answers that really “scared” me the most were:

1. They did not know about the program;

2. No, they are not sure if the university is an accredited HEI;

3. Yes, they are positive the university is an accredited HEI but no one has availed himself/herself of the program.

I rechecked the websites of these colleges and universities in Region III and looked up “ETEEAP”—Nada. Zilch. What’s scary about the whole thing is I could be the “guinea pig’ for the program’s implementation in that particular institution, under careful and maybe even protracted scrutiny that eliminates the very essence of the program.

Does this program really work?

Is it really implemented, and if so which particular colleges and universities in Pampanga?

Does the CHED have n updated list of colleges/universities in Pampanga that have effectively carried out the program? (This way I could be more specific in my search and lessen my public commuting time from one place to the other.)

Does the CHED even update its website?

I’ll be 52 years old before the year is over. I don’t mind attending a few more classes and paying for the regular tuition if it is found that my job experiences are still not enough for a college degree.
I’m just tired of getting the runaround.

Dante Deang
dantedeang@yahoo.com