Read the interview:
Philippine higher education stands at the intersection of economic growth and social progress. Dr. Reynaldo Vea explores how universities can break the cycle of underdevelopment by aligning with industry, supporting K-12 improvement, and crafting a shared national vision for education that drives inclusive prosperity.
I think the biggest challenge that we have, and it's been there for a number of years, is how to break the cycle of, no economic development, no development in the schools. So, you know, the other countries in the region have already addressed that particular issue. And the development of schools actually follows their rapid economic development.
So in the Philippines, [the] challenge there would be how to break it. So we think maybe the academe can, can, try to do it, but of course, cannot do it without industry. And we have to make some moves that will help [the] industry to develop. And, right now, we have some examples like, in the BPO sector, we were able to develop programs that would help people sick or become one of the major earners for the Philippine economy.
Now we're trying to do that as well in the semiconductor sector of the economy. So so, you know, the vicious cycle, if you will, will become a virtuous one and hopefully with a spiral. Unfortunately, there's the other challenge, the crafting of a vision for Philippine higher education. And I think this was one of the challenges that was acknowledged with the commission.
This question from discussing reforms and education right now. So, you need some vision that must be key towards the vision for the entire country as well. Something that the schools can all work towards. So, I think that is something that the Association of Schools, the Federation of School Associations, can work towards.
And the last today's big challenge [today] would be the quality of basic education. This [has] nothing to do with higher education formally. But as you can see, the feed [of] their graduates are fed into the higher education system. So, I think there is more of an issue of quality in the basic education sector right now. So as much as the higher education institutions can help improve the quality and basic education, then it would be helping itself.
Like in our own case, we do reading programs because that has been identified as a major, major issue because, you know, without knowing how to read, how can you progress in the other areas of learning? So we're doing work in, kindergarten and grade one, and, small scale at the moment, but we have our students, helping out the teachers in, in their reading.
And our hope is it can be scaled, well enough to make a dent by involving the other schools in this program and by getting support for many stations in the country.