A Literature Review: The State and Pattern of Philippine Public Tertiary Education by Arnie "Bong" Fernandez Arquiza

Introduction

The different countries in the world look up to institutions of higher learning in the Philippines. The public education sector, bannered by the University of the Philippines System, has helped in fostering development of the country by producing able leaders and various scientists and scholars. The government also provides financial assistance to state universities and colleges to advance researches in both the natural and social sciences, albeit inadequate.
The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippine government claims that the current system of education in the country is inefficient, of poor quality, lacks factors like access, equity, planning and leadership.
Conclusively, we can say that there is a need to inspect the state of the educational system in the country, especially those belonging to the public sphere.
Since 1995, the implementation of neo-liberalist policies of the government has been a pressing issue in the Philippine context. A part of these policies that they have started is the so called Long Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP) of 1995-2006 and has been revised several times, up to date.
Due to such policies implemented, issues like tuition and other fees increase arise in the education arena. Also, there are attempts to privatize public institutions; hence, the so called commercialization of education. Students claim that commercialization of education is when private sectors intervene in matters undertaken by the University. However, University of the Philippines President Emerlinda R. Roman defines commercialization to be the conversion of the institution into a “diploma mill”. The above-mentioned circumstances gave rise to a more militant student activism in the country.
For us to be able to grasp the real essence of this issue, we should look at its history. We are also being encouraged to inspect the preconditions on why the tertiary educational system today is as it is.
Studying the topic is relevant in a sense that it is a prevailing and unsolved issue in the country. It affects a number of Filipinos in a sense that most of our countrymen fail to gain the education that they deserve. This topic can be considered as a social issue, not just a personal trouble of the milieu, since it affects most structures in the country, like the government and the family. Many of the social orders are, in one way or the other, seriously concerned about the system of education in the country. Also, the education sector of the Philippines has proven itself to play a major part in shaping the nation’s history. Its continuous changing pace has developed significantly in terms of the country’s projection in world affairs.
This literature review will basically tell us the kind of educational system that we have here in our country. Also this will possibly make it clear as to the contributory material conditions that the system has to arrive to such a state.

History of the Pattern of Public Tertiary Education

The birth of the (state) university was during the Presidencies of James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln of the United States of America. The original plan was a college following the land-grant system. During those years, it is safe to conclude that there was no true university in the US. Instead, it was just a many-sided revolution of the different theories of tertiary education. In fact, progress in those years was based upon scientific, theoretical, philosophical and other types of advances. (Nevins, 1962).
In 1817, Jeremy Bentham published his work called Papers upon Codification and Public Instruction. It paved the way for the success of two universities. These two universities, the University of Berlin and University of London, were the two institutions that the United States looks up to. (Nevins, 1962).
To quote Allan Nevins, “Great social changes are never effected by ideas alone, but they are never affected without them, without passion behind the ideas. The most important idea in the genesis of land-grant colleges and state universities was democracy . . .” This statement, believably, is true. State universities are bounded by the principles of democracy. Alongside democracy, its constituents are given equal right to attain college education. There would also be an assumption that every child should be given the opportunity to take whatever career path he or she wishes to take. None of the scholarly foundations, be it science or any philosophy, could take away the role that democracy plays in attaining “quality” education. It is also assumed that the theme of the land-grant system is that every man has equal right and opportunity to attain any position, be it political or in a corporate sense, unlike in the traditional academia of the Greeks. (Nevins, 1962).
If we take a look at the history of the state universities and colleges, it clearly points us to one inventor: America. The innovation started when the United States introduced three modes of instructions: laboratory, recitation and lecture. Across the years, it is lecture and laboratory that withstood the storm. It went in perfect balance with each other. (Brubacher, et al, 1968).
The emergence of undergraduate curriculum came to the picture when scholars noticed the low population in higher education institutions. People care more about the manners that they would be able to grasp rather than the ideals and knowledge. (Brubacher, et al, 1968). The educational system focused on teaching students “how to form a gentleman” rather than making him a “full-blown thinking man”. To solve this dilemma, philosophers were able to think of a way: they decided to put the weight of college education on the student’s shoulder rather than his or her parents. A. L. Lowell of Harvard University even said that “all true education is self-education.” As the rise of self-education came, the merit system was also introduced, giving every student more drive to pursue a college degree.
The curriculum-based education came afterwards. They were able to develop curriculum without abolishing or completely obliterating the traditional one. (Brubacher, et al, 1968). This gave birth to the autonomous faculties and departments. As time went by, specialization in various fields became a reality. Afraid of the forthcoming diversification of the different specializations, academicians delivered series of lectures that would make the students appreciate the interrelatedness of each of the fields.

The State of Higher Education in the Philippines

The Commission on Higher Education said that there are a lot of reasons on why they formulated the Long-term Higher Education Development Plan in the 1990s. In 1994, there were already 1090 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. It has increased by 25.57 percent from 868 in 1990. There were more private HEIs as compared to government-funded ones.
Another CHED study showed that enrolment rapidly increased in the succeeding years. But, there was this conclusion that majority of these enrollees did not really venture in courses which were necessary for national development, the technical and vocational courses. Disagreeable about this fact, still, most enrolled in courses like commerce, the engineering and the like. In line with the boom in enrollment, unemployment figures also increased at an alarming rate. Majority of the unemployed were graduates of non-board courses like information technology, the social sciences, etc.
With regard to courses with licensure examinations, the commission observed the decadence in passing rates of each of the HEIs. Strict regulation vis-à-vis the degree programs’ curriculums, policies were taken into consideration. In fact, a moratorium on opening of academic programs was enforced, though not sternly, by the agency. Even so, this did not solve the problem of diminishing quality of education and unemployment. State universities did not have the problem of profit-orientedness in the past, unlike the private ones. Institutions which were geared toward maximized profits were allegedly a factor to the declining quality of education.
The inequitable distribution of resources was among the problems that the public education sphere is facing. Budget for developmental research was also sacrificed.
Competent faculty members were also difficult to employ. The Salary Standardization Law for government employees, passed in 1989, is contributory to this, as this promotes uncompetitive wages. “Brain drain,” or the flight of skilled workers and professionals to foreign lands for greener pastures, aggravated the situation.
Past and present governments also push for the strengthening of the technical and vocational aspect of education, which is deemed wrong by most scholars.

Long-Term Higher Education Development Plan

The most controversial among all government policies is the Long-Term Higher Education Development Plan which was originally to cover periods from 1996 up to 2005. The researcher would dare say that the basic push factor of this plan is the “constitutional mandate”, as claimed. Article XIV, Section 3(2) of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic provides that “all institutions shall … promote vocational efficiency.”
The plan’s vision of the Philippines in the year 2000 is to be a newly industrialized nation, alongside South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. In 2005, it views the Philippines to be the Center of Education and Training in the Asia-Pacific Region. And in the year 2015, it will fully become an industrialized country with political maturity and economic stability. Education, accordingly, plays a big role in attaining this.
The primary mission of the LTHEDP is to make each individual a productive member of the society by providing the necessary knowledge and skills.
Among the planning assumptions for policy framework of the plan, item number four is the most disturbing. It reads, “Higher education institutions shall adopt management strategies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in utilizing resources and maximizing educational outputs.” It is a subtle way of saying that the government intends to lay off from its responsibility of providing state subsidies to these public institutions of learning.
Increasing the tuition should be the last resort of institutions and should see to it that it would put premium on the quality and effectiveness of education. In a developing country like the Philippines, tuition and other fee increases have always and forever will be a political issue. But, if it is neither the state nor the students who should be burdened by these hikes, then who? (Imperial, 1982).
Most economists in the country would even compare education to a good or service that you can get at a particular price. This is a clear indicator that SUCs in the country is a tool in achieving social inequity.

Problems Faced by the Tertiary Education Sector

There are a lot of given problems that are related to the educational system. It can be observed that the system has expanded in an unprecedented scale within the last three decades. Most of the imbalances are brought forth by the development process in education. The Philippines, in particular, is facing a very intricate task in coping with the expansion, reshaping and revitalization of the system. Equal access and equal educational opportunity are both big time factors in the so-called positive development. (Dumlao-Valisno, 2000)
It can also be observed that social inequalities and educational inequalities go hand in hand in this spectrum. A huge case of student drop-out is apparent. In most cases, the poor ones are the ones going out of school, especially the girls.
Another issue is the quality of education that each one receives. It is often aligned to a high degree of selectivity or elitism. Equity and quality does not pose an innate conflict. In addition, quality of education has a variety of angles. In a more micro level, it can be referred as the knowledge or skills one has acquired. In an institutional level, it is pertaining to the standards of performance an institution exhibits.
If efficiency is one side of the coin, the other one is quality.
Most, if not all, educational systems are labor intensive. It shares a significant part with total-skilled manpower. The issue is how inputs are translated to useful outputs. External efficiency, the first aspect, talks about how a student gets out of the academe and gets ready for social living and employment. Internal efficiency on the other hand speaks more of the personal achievement of one’s educational goals. The third aspect is the qualitative efficiency or how much knowledge or skills one has gained. Studies show that there is a low rate when it comes to the internal efficiency. This is clearly manifested by the high drop-out rates in the country. (Aracelo, et al, 1979)
Effective lengths of study, faculty resources and utilization of infrastructures are factors pointing at the equilibrium of economic development and educational efficiency.
Surveys also declare that a large percentage of college students are not equipped with the necessary skills needed upon entering college. These students are deficient of the basic knowledge of the English language, the fundamentals of Mathematics and Science and the awareness that is needed in the social sciences. Alleged insufficiency of funds is one of the most overrated factors causing such. As they recognize this fact, critics also consider factors other than financial insufficiency. In fact, it is often stressed that democracy and literacy are two inseparable terms. (Sinco, 1959).
In the words of US President Tomas Jefferson, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, I a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” A country may be wealthy and yet it may be not willing to extend its funds to the educational sector. Insufficient funds per se are not to be used as the sole reason.
The ministers of education have always been engrossed with the problem of putting up infrastructures and opening more classes to accommodate the rapid increase in enrollees. They tend to forget the equal importance of producing better educated students.
We should not be complacent of the current educational system that we have. We should always bear in mind the adoption of an educational philosophy that is conducive to national unity for the full development of the potentials of each of the constituents.

Research Question/s

Having studied a number of literature regarding the pattern and state of the public tertiary education in the country, it is safe to conclude that there are questions left hanging. First, what will the future of the country be in terms of political maturity and economic stability relative to our employed educational system? Has the legitimate problems been addressed?
Another thing that we should look into is the dilemma whether the public tertiary education sphere is playing its role well given the fact that it is an offspring of democracy.
Above everything, the most important question which was unanswered is the role that the constituents would play in aiding the system to attain its full-blown development. Government agencies are burdened with the entire responsibility of watching over our education. It is safe to say that the people should also have its part.