MPSPC thrust to gain university status hard

EDUCATION UPDATE

Dexter A. See 

BONTOC, Mountain Province – To avoid credit-grabbing in uplifting education in the province, concerned stakeholders came out with a historical background and analysis on how Mountain Province State Polytechnic College was able to gain approval of its becoming a university.

The vision statement of MPSPC as crafted in 2005 has included among others its quest for becoming a center of excellence and rural development in the Cordillera Administrative Region as it aspires to become a state university.

           

With this as its well thought of - dream, MPSPC management has considered a delicate balance between its objectives for global competitiveness and that of rural development in its road map.

           

“The burning quest for universityhood to some extent has pushed us to improved our stature and attain our desired results. We  pursued bold steps in capacitating all sectors, departments, and units thru our faculty and staff development program, accreditation, institutional reform agenda and upgradingmechanisms  with the end view of attaining our goal on quality and self-reliance   characterized by the emergence of self-managing  units,” Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, MPSPC president said..

These results turned subsequently to significant milestones. For one, MPSPC achieved SUC level lll in 2007 from its level l status in 2004.

For another, MPSPC at the height of the unrest in 2011, emerged as Top l for the Criminologist Board exam nationwide, to mention a few.

This CHED - determined  SUC leveling was made as basis of  DBM ‘s dramatic budget increase allocation for SUCs for fiscal year 2013 where  MPSPC like  other few level lll- SUCs, was earmarked a higher  allocation for MOOE and Capital outlay  for  fiscal year 2013.

The thrust to gain university status was first complied with by committees and TWGs.

The bill was   filed in 2009 at the house by Rep. Manuel Agyao of Kalinga Province, who was then Mountain Province’s caretaker after the demise of the late Congressman Dominguez.

This became a pending bill since it was overtaken by events of the 2010 elections.

“We did not give up our hopes towards our university status. Our unrelenting resolve to perform to the best we could was pursued with resilience    despite the indescribable incident that almost shutdown MPSPC in July l, 2011,” she stressed.

Thus, ,as part of its review,  MPSPC  management complied again  with the updating of   requirements  when the pending bill was refilled  in 2010 by congressman Dalog and the Chairman of the Higher and Technical Education,  Rep. Sonny Angara.

Being a pending bill in the 14^th Congress and with its updated requirements through the support of all stakeholders and authors, it passed the hearing from the Committee on Higher and Technical Education again.

“Let it be part of history that almost all the College stakeholders and supporters were part of this struggle if only to achieve this significant milestone. The LGUs of Mt. Province through the initiative of the ABC Chair/Board member B.Lacwasan,the faculty, staff and students passed  several resolutions in support of  this dream (despite the disinterest or seemingly objection of Dalog as indicated by his being last to sign),”

Dacyon added it was no less former congressman, now provincial governor of Apayao Province Elias Bulut Jr. who was the movant of this bill for approval by the Committee at the house of Representatives during the 14^th Congress.

The  refilled  bill which  is one of the 14 pending  conversion  bills since 2009  fortunately passed the hearing  at the committee level at the Senate in Oct 9 ,2012.

The colatella was overemphasized however during the hearing for these SUCs whose conversion were approved at the committee level to comply with in two years with the standards set by CHED; that corresponding budget must be appropriated otherwise, without it, according to Senator Legarda, the presiding chair over this particular agenda, it will be a slap on the faces of the concerned congressmen.

An MPSPC feasibility study conducted as a requirement of  Congress and CHED in 2009 to support its application for university status, showed that the school needed that time an amount of P300 million to be compliant standards set by CHED.

The needed amount covers all major upgrading requirements on accreditation, SUC leveling, normative financing and Annual Performance Review (APR). It’s equally worth noting that MPSPC grew significantly amidst all odds with barely 53 M (  (GAA for 2005)  to a budget of 100 M for FY2013. This growth however is far from meeting the 200 M gap budget for universityhood. In brief, MPSPC needs 200 M to be substantially compliant with university standards, fiscal year 2009 level.