No retrenchment in BSU even with K-12

By Rocky Ngalob

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Officials of Benguet State University here said no one in teaching and non-teaching jobs here would be terminated as a result of the K-12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) program to be implemented nationwide next year.   

The signing of the Enhance Basic Education Act of 2013, an additional of two years was added to the nation’s basic education system.

High school students are now mandated to enter senior high school’s grade 11 in 2016 and grade 12 in 2017. And along with this, HEIs will expect a drastic drop, if not close to zero enrollment during these two years all the way to school year 2021-2022 when things are expected to back to regular. And if there are no students, there will be no jobs left for our HEI educators.

BSU however, unlike other universities, holds other three functions, aside from instruction which other universities mostly possess.

Being one of the pilot universities of K-12, BSU saw year 2016 and 2017 as an opportunity to forward their faculty educational development.

Through sponsorship from various private and public entities together with BSU, instructors of BSU, mostly young ones, who have yet to finish their masteral and doctoral degree, will enjoy scholarship grants for professional growth.

BSU eyes prioritizing young instructors to finish both their masteral and doctoral degrees for them to fill vacancies which will be later be vacated by retiring professors.

By equipping young instructors with masteral and doctoral degrees, BSU will move closer and closer to its vision as “A premier state university in Asia,” officials said.

With all the adjustments, BSU will reportedly maximize the two year drop of enrollees by momentarily giving research and extension loads to affected instructors.

According to retiring BSU president Ben Ladilad, all affected instructors must be accounted for, and this it’s a perfect opportunity for them to momentarily step out from the BSU instruction function and employ its research function as well.

By employing research function of BSU, and while waiting for the enrollment to normalize, BSU instructors will be strengthening the university’s instruction function by their researches.

This because according to Ladilad, researches will form part of university’s curriculum thus further advancing its standards towards meeting the university’s vision.

Also, another function of BSU which instructors can maximize is the BSU extension function wherein instructors will have the opportunity to do field works and introduce plus conduct trainings and seminars to farmers the breakthrough researches done inside the University.

If the tertiary level will be having a drop in enrollees, BSU high school on the other hand is expected to have an increase of population due to the additional grade 11 and 12.

To answer the possible shortage of high school teachers, BSU will transfer their instructors from tertiary to secondary level.

This however, is on the voluntary basis among tertiary instructors of BSU.

Since BSU high school is under the University’s College of Teachers Education (CTE) program, it will be having sufficient number of high school teachers come 2016.

To date, there are around 300 regular faculty and approximately 700 contractual employees due to the limited item slots.

The 700 contractual employees are all accounted for and were assured no retrenchment this coming 2016.