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I congratulate the Philippine Association for Graduate Education for its upcoming Golden Anniversary five years from now. Rev. Dr. Jose Antonio Aureada, your President, has intimated to me a fitting plan for the PAGE Golden Anniversary celebration. I believe the PAGE has earned its rightful place in the higher education plane. As outlined by your archivist, Dr. Fely Robles, your association has been proactive in chartering the direction that graduate education in the Philippines must take and has contributed in no modest terms to the development of our graduate education through the crafting of the policies, standards and guidelines for graduate education. In certain occasions, PAGE has even been openly self-flagellant for the sins of omission and commission of some segments of its membership, such as: reports made in past PAGE conventions regarding ghost writing of thesis and dissertation, listing of certain well known personalities in the faculty roster only for the purpose of securing permit and recognition from CHED, replication of theses and dissertations by simply changing the locus of the study—with every word from the original intact. Rest assured, however, that it is not my intention to recite the ills that have befallen the graduate education in the country as everyone of us here are utterly familiar with them. Not to mention that, I believe the PAGE is continuously developing ways to combat these problems.
I commend the PAGE for taking a serious step toward enhancing the culture of research in higher education institutions; Research assumes more and more importance because of the many changes that are taking place worldwide. And many of the normally-accepted tenets and concepts don’t work anymore. Research, as ever, will be the fountainhead of new ideas in providing solutions to problems we constantly encounter in our professional life. And since graduate education, as the apex of the formal educational ladder, implies intellectual superiority and academic maturity, you will continue to be the source of leaders in education, leaders in business and industry, and even leaders in the political arena, etc.
Research is the lifeblood of higher education. It is as integral as the institution and extension, comprising the trilogy of functions of higher education institutions (HEIs). Specifically, researches are most commonly conducted in its graduate school department and that should serve as the center of service, excellence and knowledge. Globalization will also increase the demand for higher education services. In preparation for this, HEIs should be upgraded /developed not only as centers of excellence in the transmission of knowledge and skills but also as centers of research and development for expanding the frontiers of knowledge and for generating/adapting technologies that would contribute to technological and economic progress.
Context of Research in Philippine Higher Education Institutions
Let me begin by providing you a background on the context of research in Philippine Higher Education.
As you very well know, over the past two decades, a new paradigm of the function of high education in society has emerged. Universities no longer pursue knowledge for its own sake, rather they provide qualified manpower and produce knowledge. Higher education has become the cornerstone of a country’s economy and has become an adequate element of
economic progress. More and more, higher education will be judged in terms of outputs and the contribution it makes to national development.
It is for this reason that the educational system in the Philippines is the most studied system in the world today. The first survey was done in 1925 by the Monroe Survey followed by the Commonwealth Survey in 1936 the Swanson Survey in 1960 and the review of the Swanson Survey in 1967. In 1969, the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) was organized and handled by the Ministry of Education. The EDCOM Report in 1991, which was under the auspices of the Philippine Congress was the first to get legislative action which led to the creation of CHED and TESDA, and as a consequence, the Department of Education now has control of basic education (pre-school, elementary and secondary). The latest national survey done was the Presidential Commission on Education Reforms – the Philippine Agenda for Educational Reforms in 2000.
Even before PCER, after EDCOM, the late Bro. Andrew Gonzales said that the Philippines has had all the national surveys it needs and what we need now are scholarly in-depth studies on small problems suggested in the large studies conducted.
There’s no doubt that we know the problems in education and we also know the appropriate solutions to these problems, but why have we failed in the past to issue the proper response to the challenge of the continuing decline of Philippine Education?
I would like to quote the Australian Shadow Minister for Education, His Excellency David Kemp, “Education has to be about excellence. If it is not about quality, then all our effort, all our expenditure will have been for nothing because we will not only have blighted the lives of our students, but damaged our ability to compete and survive in a world which does not owe us a living. We cannot have a world-class economy and world-class living standard without a world-class workforce. And we cannot have a world-class workforce without world-class education.”
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New Developments
After long years of seemingly recurring problems in Education, now comes the real good news. No less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through the use of the results of valid research and surveys, made a firm resolve to greatly improve the educational system so we can produce globally-competitive workforce by mandating the harmonization and synchronization of the entire educational system through institutionalizing the system of national coordination, assessment, planning and monitoring of the entire educational system. The President, in the exercise of her function as the Chief Executive, delegated the mandates of the National Coordinating Council for Education (which was created under E.O. 273) to the Presidential Assistant for Education and to the Presidential Task Force for Education through the issuance of the Executive Order No. 632 “Amending Executive Order No. 273 and Mandating a Presidential Assistant to Assess, Plan and Monitor the Entire Educational System” in July 2007 and the Executive Order No. 652 “Creating the Presidential Task Force to Assess, Plan and Monitor the Entire Educational System” in August 2007. Together, they will address the “growing need for a greater coordination among departments, a common approach to trans-subsectoral issues such as assessment mechanism and articulation between levels, and a more harmonized approach to total education planning and resource allocation”.
In the performance of this gigantic task, we in the government, particularly the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Education, would like to spread horizontally by collaborating with important institutions and associations such as PAGE.
Establishing a Viable Database on Research
A tremendous amount or number of researches that have been done either by individuals, government and private agencies and HEIs in the country go to waste primarily because the research outputs/outcomes are not properly consolidated, systematized and placed in an institution that can serve as a repository of all these results of research activities. Most of all, these researches, which normally are very expensive to conduct, almost always remain in the shelves unutilized and totally forgotten –as the song goes “they just lie there and they die there”. These researches once fully documented, systematized and properly translated into appropriate databases could provide the spark to jumpstart new exciting developments in various fields/disciplines which because of the emerging knowledge-based economy (KBE) could in turn help in accelerating the socio-economic development of our country.
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Knowledge Management System
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for Education (OPAE), once it has fully established and developed its Knowledge Management System (KMS) could create and append to it a research component which actually is a pioneering effort establishing a Research Database in Education. The OPAE could now serve as the government institution for collecting, consolidating and systematizing this wealth of research outputs from various sources and transform them into useful research databases. The establishment of this Research Database in Education could be a collaborative effort of various government and even private agencies/institutions (e.g. DOST, NGOs, PAGE, and private foundation, etc.).This could be done by forging strategic alliances and linkages with selected government and private entities under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program maintained and supported through a viable networking and cost-sharing arrangements.
The OPAE which is mandated to assess, plan and monitor the entire education system could initiate the system’s definition/detailing of this Research Database in Education with initial assistance perhaps from its education strategic partners- DepEd, TESDA and CHED. The data elements of this research database could be later identified and properly defined to determine its structure and design to be able to respond most appropriately to the actual research needs of researches, policy-makers, faculty, and graduate students among others.
Research Based Policy Formulation
Further, we have to reckon with the fact that most of the policies that we have formulated and implemented came into existence without the benefit of carefully conducted researches or policy studies. This usually results in government policies that are barely relevant to our development agenda, and non-responsive to emerging global challenges and required paradigm-shifts. With our Knowledge Management Center and the Research Database in Education, there will now be a systematic identification of priority researches and policy studies that will serve as critical inputs to harmonize policy formulation, planning and program/project development, implementation and evaluation in Education.
As a possible corollary function of the OPAE, it can serve as the hub of a graduate school network that is connected through the internet. The Knowledge Management System that we intend to put up will start with hard copies of documents that we shall gather. The next stage will involve the digitization of these documents. The KM system will then be accessible electronically through which the PAGE members will be able to upload data and information. The KM system will then process these data and information and make them ready for sharing with those who need them. The KM system hopefully will grow to be the resource center for data and information following a cycle of gathering, processing and sharing of information. Of course we shall put in place the necessary safeguards so that only reliable data will be accepted by the system.
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The Challenge to Enhance our Research Culture
The challenge to enhance research culture in Philippine higher education entails reassessing our motivations for conducting research. Rather than sticking to the prevalent practice of conducting research only for self-serving motives, we should start developing a genuine passion for discovering breakthrough knowledge that can meaningfully contribute to national growth. As Dr. Allan Bernardo rightly puts it, “We truly need to shift from a mindset that research is done so that someone may get a degree or a promotion, so then we could not care less if the research report is simply condemned to eternal stagnation in some bookshelf. We need to realize that research is done so that knowledge may be generated and that this knowledge may be shared so that it may generate even more knowledge.”
Developing sincere love for research should start at the university level. Specifically, graduate education can serve as a venue in nurturing a culture of research that is badly needed to improve the innovation system of the country. One way would be encouraging students to consider not only the feasibility of the studies but more so their relevance and usefulness to the society.
Another way would be cultivating the culture of mentoring among graduate school faculties. You, who are being looked up by your students of research, you who should serve as a ‘school’ of interdisciplinary thoughts. It is a challenge to you, more than anyone else, to inspire your students in producing quality researches. Let us keep in mind that mentoring does not end in hooding our graduates but it even spans beyond the publication of a thesis. Let us also foster an “intellectual synergy” among our faculty members and institutions to increase communication and our active participation.
May I again reiterate the thought that I mentioned earlier. We have had enough of large-scale national surveys and what we need now are small but relevant in-depth studies beneficial to national interests. Some very important issues and concerns in education beg to be thoroughly studied. The PAGE will be in the best position to offer its expertise, both as an association or as individual member institution, in conducting researches on these issues and concern. One area that we can further delve into is Early Childhood Education. Fr. Bienvenido Nebres and Dr. Milwida Guevarra, have some good news. First, about the progress being made by Synergia, a non-profit organization regarding the good performance of elementary schools in Mindanao, Lipa, Batangas and Bulacan that had been supported by the community. Perhaps the PAGE can study this phenomenon of community support being a big factor of improved learning of elementary pupils. Second, Fr. Nebres proudly announces the “Schools of the People as a Philosophy of Education for the 21st Century”, the Karunungan Festival, which main vision is to see the Philippines marching as fast as the majority of our students and not at the pace of the few on top.
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The PAGE, as an independent body, can also look into the issue of integrating State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in a particular region into a Regional University System. The RUS promises to be a potential alternative to the sanguine issue of declaring a moratorium on the creation of SUCs. We need information drawn from a dispassionate investigation into the feasibility and appropriateness of integrating the SUCs in a region. So far, the SUCs in CHED Region 11, the Davao Area, have made some significant strides toward this end. But hard data are needed to make a more rational decision. PAGE can also provide theoretical as well as practical frameworks for the articulation between high school vocational subjects and TechVoc courses. As you know, technical-vocational courses stride on two levels—high school and post secondary levels. PAGE should be able to provide the rational basis for decision making.
Allow me, at this point, to express my gratitude to PAGE, all its officers and members, for giving me this opportunity to speak before you tonight. I hope that you could make use of my views to enhance the research culture of higher education in the Philippines, hence, to improve our ranking in global competitiveness.
Words are easily spoken, but actions require greater efforts. Enhancing a culture cannot happen overnight as it needs a change from the depth of attitudes. Let us treat our researches not as mere activities, but our significant contributions of knowledge to our nation.
It is becoming obviously clear that the nations that have developed ahead of us had earlier realized that research is costly but that it is costlier not to do research, for the depth and width of a nation’s research defined the level of economic development of that nation.
So today, September 24, 2007, feel the drum beating as a heart-stopping countdown begins, wherein everyone in the graduate education community starts to light up their own fire for a ground breaking, full-blast culture of research in 2012. And throughout that countdown, Fr. Aureada, until the biggest and brightest fountain of knowledge and wisdom has shone to everyone, I will be with you.
Thank you very much. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
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