SCUs operate on budgetary crumbs

(Last of 2 parts)

MANILA, Philippines - With the “budgetary crumbs” that the country’s state colleges and universities (SCUs) are allocated, it’s no wonder that many of them are performing lacklusterly.

A university professor once told this writer that one only has to see the results of licensure examinations given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to find out why. Many of the products of “mediocre” schools are uncompetitive in the “real world”.

In fairness to SCUs, though, a good number of them are outstanding — a big help to government effort to bring progress in the country owing to their creditable achievements in education, research and extension.

The University of the Philippines System (UPS), for instance, has maintained its position as the country’s premier tertiary institution. Perturbingly, however, not a few of the UPS teaching and research staff (professors and scientists) have in recent years been answering the call of the proverbial “greener pasture” owing to measly remunerations they get compared to those of other private tertiary schools and the corporate world.

Other SCUs that belong to the roster of achievers include (from north to south) Mariano Marcos State University (Ilocos Norte), Benguet State University, Isabela State University, Central Luzon State University, Bicol State University, Visayas State University (Baybay City), Aklan State University, Central Mindanao University (Musuan, Bukidnon), University of Southeast Philippines (Davao City), University of Southern Mindanao (Kabacan, North Cotabato), and Western Mindanao State University (Zamboanga City).

With the proliferation of SCUs in recent years, the government (notably Congress) has been criticized for continually creating tertiary institutions more than it can sufficiently support. By ratio, there is more than one institution of higher learning in every province – from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi.

The mushrooming of state-owned tertiary institutions in the country becomes more noticeable when one considers that the universities have several campuses scattered across a province.

A few decades back, the government merged institutions in provinces and created universities out of them. Thus, some have become provincial universities while others, owing to the wide scope of their education coverage, have assumed the role of “regional universities”.

On top of the educational totem pole is the “national university” exemplified by the UP System, as stipulated by a law passed two years ago.

The SCUs are distributed thus: National Capital Region, five universities and three colleges; Region 1 (Ilocos), four universities and one college; Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), two universities and four colleges; Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), three universities and two colleges; Region 3 (Central Luzon), seven universities and five colleges; Region 4-A (CALABARZON), five universities; Region 4-B (MIMAROPA), three universities and three colleges; Region 5 (Bicol), three universities and five colleges;

Region 6 (Western Visayas), four universities and seven colleges; Region 7 (Central Visayas), three universities and two colleges; Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), seven universities and four colleges;

Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), one university and four colleges; Region 10, (Northern Mindanao), two universities and five colleges; Region 11 (Davao Region), one university and three colleges; Region 12 (SOCCSKSARGEN), one university and three colleges; Region 13 (CARAGA), four colleges; and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), one university and five colleges.

The proliferation of SCUs has been criticized, particularly by the education sector, pointing out that the government has been spreading its resources too thinly by creating more tertiary institutions, some of which have been described as “glorified high schools” (as two former Education Secretaries had once lamented).

Some of the colleges eventually become universities, thus, need more funds that the government could hardly afford.

The increase in the number of state universities and colleges has been attributed to, among other things, the penchant of some lawmakers to create schools in their respective turfs, some in honor of people close to them, as reflected by the schools’ names themselves, and to boost their political stock.

Now, as we had earlier written, “many of these schools are suffering the reason for their existence.”