Educators lament continued operation of low performing colleges, universities

MANILA, Philippines – Educators bewailed the continued failure of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to close down so-called low-performing colleges and universities, especially those whose graduates miserably fail to pass licensure examinations of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) every year.

Former education secretary Edilberto de Jesus, currently the president of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), said in an education forum held yesterday that the CHED must flex its regulatory muscle in order to improve the quality of education being offered by higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country.

De Jesus noted that the lack of regulation from CHED was resulting to many colleges and universities being neglectful in their duty to ensure an acceptable, if not a high, level of quality in the education they give their students.

“We want to see CHED enforcing standards more vigorously,” De Jesus said.

De Jesus made the call in the “Education and Inclusive Growth” forum organized by the AIM Policy Center, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and the Centrist Democracy Political Institute held at the Discovery Suites in Pasig’s Clermont Room.

Senator Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture in the 15th Congress and a guest speaker in the forum, backed De Jesus’ observation, saying that while the country has 2,800 colleges and universities, there are only a handful of “quality institutions” among them.

“You can count with the fingers of both hands those who have a high quality of education,” Angara said, adding that the CHED has failed to impose on the HEIs a standard of quality.

“They (HEIs) don’t follow any guidelines and standards at all. That’s the chaotic state of our education resulting to low productivity of our country, a lack of capability in R&D (research and development), and a lack of a critical mass of scientists and researchers and engineers,” Angara said.

It will be recalled that Dr. Patricia Licuanan, CHED chairman, had recently admitted that there were too many colleges and universities offering a myriad degree programs in the country.

Licuanan said that the excessive number of HEIs has prevented CHED from properly monitoring them all to check on the quality of the degree programs they were offering to students.

The latest CHED count of HEIs placed their number at 2,180, which Licuanan noted was a high number considering the country’s size and population of college-age students.

Of the number, Licuanan said that 88 percent was made up of private institutions, while the remaining 12 percent were state colleges and universities and local universities and colleges. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)