The twenty first century have witnessed a great transformation in the Philippine education system as K-12 curriculum has been embraced in the entire country.
Repositioned to respond to the transition period in the K-12 program, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) revived the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) grants and post doctoral study grants for higher education institution (HEI) teaching and non-teaching personnel.
In particular, CHED issued guidelines for International Continuing Professional Education (ICPE) grants to be awarded to HEI faculty and staff in different fields of professions to impart specialized knowledge, competencies, skills and qualifications in their specific fields. These are necessary for mastery of skills and for strengthening higher education.
Here, grantees may avail of the CHED-funded certificate programs and short training courses delivered by Philippine HEIs with an international institution partner(s) and CHED-initiated partnerships with international institutions.
Among the CPSU faculty who qualified for the said grant funded by CHED on Scholarships for Graduate Studies Abroad and International Relations or SGSA-IR, Texas International Education Consortium (TIEC) were Mr. Francis Ian Adad, Mr. Reymark Agita, Mr. Ken Balogo, Mr. Reymond Paculanang and Mr. Juno Pajarillo.
This is in line with CHED’s thrust to internalize higher education with the aim of furthering human capital development, increase and strengthen the number of partnerships between Philippine and international HEIs, and develop new fields of study that are currently unavailable in the Philippine higher education sector, among others.
Dr. Aladino Moraca, CPSU president, stated that these initiatives by CHED are great programs to expand the niche of Philippine education and strengthen the quality of its teaching force.
With the inputs gained by these faculty members from their international exposure once they commence with their training and education, this will then be translated to the field through the quality outputs they could provide to their students, thus giving CPSU graduates the edge of gaining globally-competitive skills to par with graduates from the other parts of the country and abroad.
By J.A. Emoy