Is college education a state regulated scam?

A prime time youth oriented talk show on Studio 23 last Sunday debated the question of whether or not a college diploma is relevant. I heard the usual arguments pro and con but the overriding point for me is quality, as in the quality of the diplomas that could be earned in this country.

Now that students are back at school, it is reasonable to wonder if all the effort and all the love, sweat and tears invested in a college diploma is worth it. I almost didn’t earn one because I became a practicing journalist just before my senior year at UP. I was doing so well at the ABS-CBN Newsroom, and was even supervising a cum laude graduate who was a year ahead of me at UP, that a diploma didn’t seem relevant.

Then martial law came and there was nothing to do that seemed worthwhile, so I went back to school. With the help of a couple of friends who made the process less painful, I got my bachelor’s degree and even stayed on to finish the academic requirements of a master’s degree with grades that redeemed my lackluster undergrad transcript. But I didn’t finish my master’s thesis because it interfered with a new career in marketing communications.

Looking back, of course I would say without doubt that a degree matters. But what matters more is the quality of the learning that went with it. I got mine at UP and many years later in my career, at the Center for Research and Communication, the forerunner of the University of Asia and the Pacific for a graduate level course in business economics.

Good as the education I got from UP and CRC, if I could do it all over again, I would give the process of learning more focus and personal commitment. In the end, it isn’t the diploma that’s important but the education you get. If at all, the process of getting a diploma should only whet your appetite for lifetime learning. Too bad we learn this fact of life a little late.

These thoughts came to mind as I was watching the young people and some adults that included Jesuit educator Fr. Tito Caluag discuss the relevance of a diploma. But I guess the context of the Studio 23 show’s discussion was more along the line of whether or not the diploma will get you a good paying job, a satisfying career, the opportunity to escape the vicious cycle of poverty that afflicts a large majority of our young population.

That being the case, my thoughts wandered to something Sen. Mar Roxas told me couple of years ago about the recruitment experience of call center operators here. I think Mar told me they were only able to recruit three out of a hundred applicants. They may be able to expand the number to about seven but they must be ready to invest in more training.

That’s horrible but the even more horrible thing is, I haven’t heard any improvement in the numbers now, several years after the first call centers were established. That means, diplomas aside, our schools are not training our students well enough to take a modern entry level job. The pigs and the carabaos sold by hopeful parents to pay tuition fees are being wasted. College education here must be nothing more than a state regulated scam.

It didn’t help me feel better about this issue as I opened my e-mail and found a press release from Cantanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago listing the top nursing schools as well as the worst of them. According to Santiago, a total of 55,744 nursing school graduates took licensure tests from 1999-2003 but only 27,345 of them, or 49 percent, passed the tests.

So, half of the local nursing school graduates were not good enough to be nurses, diplomas notwithstanding. They paid dearly for the years they spent supposedly studying to be nurses but the education they got from government certified schools were just not good enough. They were, in a manner of speaking, robbed by diploma mills, in an implied conspiracy with a government bureaucracy that allowed the scam to happen.

In fairness to CHED, the government agency charged with supervising higher education, there had been attempts to more strictly regulate diploma granting schools, substandard nursing schools among them. The CHED recently ordered 191 colleges and universities to phase out certain programs, including accountancy, civil engineering, nursing and elementary education, due to the poor performance of their graduates in licensure tests. But if what I hear is accurate, Malacañang often intervenes, overruling CHED on behalf of influential owners of diploma mills. That’s why the last head of CHED, a Dominican priest and educator, decided to call it quits.

And let us not forget the law schools. The bar examinations has a dismal passing rate. The law schools must not be doing a good enough job of training would be lawyers. A number of them ought to be closed down. I am not sure if this is under the jurisdiction of CHED or the Supreme Court.

Another congressman, Rep. Herminio Teves has a proposal that would use economics as a means of assuring quality education. Teves wants to peg any tuition fee increase to the performance of graduates in government tests.

The Teves proposal is simple: Schools, private elementary, secondary and tertiary schools, whose students or graduates perform dismally in government tests should not be allowed to increase their tuition.

In other words, there would be an economic incentive to actually educate students. The really bad diploma mills will just have to eventually close shop because they would not be able to afford the cost of running even a badly run school.

The Teves proposal is worth trying. After all, the DepEd conducts annual national aptitude tests for elementary and high school students. It would be nice to have another use for those tests other than merely diagnostic. The Professional Regulation Commission, for its part, conducts licensure examinations for fresh college graduates who want to engage in a profession. The schools, and not just the examinees, will now be tested by these licensure exams.

Poorly trained nurses and other professionals who eventually migrate may end up giving the Pinoy professional a bad name. That would tar the reputation of our workforce. Given our economy’s dependence on OFW earnings, owners of diploma mills should be considered guilty of nothing less than economic sabotage.

Bale walang miles

I got this e-mail from reader Estela L. Zamora about his bad experience with miles program of Northwest Airlines.

Perhaps you can find space to call the attention of NW airlines country manager, Mr. Rey Nashihira, to our plight in trying to use NW Perks miles to upgrade our flight. Last December, about six months ago, we personally booked our flights for June 24 at the office of the NW. This was the only date they could give us to assure us of at least one upgrade, and I had to remain waitlisted.

After almost six months of following up weekly, I still am on top priority waitlist while my husband was already upgraded. I have faxed my appeal to Ms. Michelle Bartolome, who took the place of Amy Meris of NW but to no avail. I am appealing to NW to make good their NW Perks usage as this is not the first time we experienced having to literally beg to avail ourselves of this privilege.

What can I say, but welcome to the Club! My brother in law, Dr. Art Ludan had the same sad experience with Northwest. And closer to home, my own wife and kids always had trouble trying to use their Northwest miles. Yet, my in-laws who are residents of Southern California, never had trouble using their Northwest miles going anywhere, including Manila.

Then we stumbled on a solution. When my son migrated to the States, he changed his residence address. Presto! He was able to use his miles easily. I told my wife to do the same. She was able to use enough of her miles last April to join me when I was in Germany. My guess is, they respect those with a US address because they could be sued. Unfortunately, consumer protection here is so bad, they don’t take us seriously.

Oh well... fortunately getting miles from Northwest has never been a problem for me. I prefer flying the direct route of Philippine Airlines to the US anyway. No sense wasting all that time cooling your heels in Tokyo or Osaka.

Life threatening condition

Here’s Dr. Ernie E.

Bob: My doctor said that I will be dead in a week if I do not stop chasing women.

Joe: Why would he say that?

Bob: One of the women I was chasing is his wife.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]