Department of Budget and Management Sec. Florencio Abad urged officials of state colleges and universities (SUCs) in Region 1 and the Cordillera region to institute reforms that would boost government tertiary education and to ensure that money of SUCs are spent on priorities and for the government invest more with SUCs.
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Abad met with SUCs in the two regions last Nov. 12 at the Benguet State University to discuss the possibility of implementing reforms in the tertiary education emphasizing on linkages with industries, dovetail programs to government concerns, come up with good research and development programs, strengthen faculty development, and recruitment program.
Abad highlighted the need to have good linkage with the industries, such as the business process outsourcing sector, which is gaining ground in the country, and the electronic industry like Texas Instruments in Baguio City and Clark, Pampanga.
To match the needs of industries, SUCs should look into the courses it offer so that it would ultimately ensure immediate employment among graduates, Abad said.
He said such industries are willing to train faculty and bring their equipment for training purposes.
He also urged SUCs to develop their fields of expertise. “We have to move on to the direction of consolidating in identifying areas of expertise,” Abad said.
Abad also urged SUCs to focus their development programs on the five areas of government concerns, namely BPO and electronics/semiconductor, tourism, infrastructure, the AFF or agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and to enhance it as potential investments for economic growth.
Research and development programs, the secretary said, should be focused on the requirement of the industries and priorities of the government but not in the academic sense.
“If we don’t reform the tertiary education, I don’t think there will be a strong appetite from the national government to also invest in SUCs,” Abad said.
“This is not going to be business as usual,” he said. The government has to come in as the country is in crisis and needs to catch up globally. The country has lagged too far behind”, he added.
This can be done by pooling resources together, Abad said. (PIA / by Susan Aro)
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