Chemical education in the Philippines

(Fourth of a series)

Because of the success of this program the Department of Science and Technology decided to implement a much bigger project, the Engineering and Science Education Program (ESEP). ESEP has several components, including faculty development, visiting professorships, acquisition of major equipment, provision of computing and library facilities, and electronic networking of several science colleges, expanding the coverage from the original three to seven. In Chemistry, three other departments were included: University of the Philippines Los Baños, University of Sto. Tomas, and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). All six departments/institutes were provided with major instrumentation. In addition, a National Chemical Instrumentation Center with state-of-the-art facilities was set up. All these facilities, including library resources, are shared by the different departments/institutes. A Materials Science Laboratory was also set up and this is also shared with some Chemistry faculty and graduate students working with their counterparts in Physics and Engineering. Under the ESEP, funds were made available for students to do graduate work not only in the Philippines but also abroad and for faculty to do post-doctoral research locally and in universities abroad. This is in addition to the “sandwich” programs described earlier. I must say that we are now more comfortable in sending students abroad because we are now able to attract them back. We now have viable graduate and research programs and a critical mass of expertise to keep them in the country. Note also that we have expanded not only the number of departments/institutes but also the areas of research.

As mentioned earlier, the enrollments in some schools are declining. In order to entice more students to enroll in Chemistry and other science programs, scholarships are being offered both by the Department of Science and Technology and the Commission. The Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1995 supports at least two science scholars in every municipality in the country. From AY 2003-2004 to AY 2007-2008, the DOST, through the Science Education Institute (SEI), supported 1,279 undergraduate Chemistry scholars. In addition, the SEI gave support to 49 master’s degree and 51 doctoral students enrolled in Science Education, major in Chemistry. The Commission has also given highest priority to science in its scholarship programs both in public and private colleges and universities.

The Commission on Higher Education, building on what has been accomplished continues to implement faculty development programs in Chemistry, among others. CHED implemented a five-year program in 1998 focusing on Mindanao. Faculty members from all over Mindanao were given faculty fellowships to get their M.S. or Ph.D. at MSU-IIT. CHED has expanded the faculty development program nationally and is providing fellowships to 86 faculty members pursuing master’s and doctoral programs in 11 HEIs.

(To be continued)

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Dr. Ester Albano-Garcia is currently the president of the University of the East, a position she has held since 2006. She was chairman of the Commission on Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. From being chairman of the UP Department of Chemistry in Diliman in the late 1970s, she was promoted to associate dean of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics division of the College of Arts and Sciences. She was assistant to the UP President for Science and Technology and a member of the Project Advisory Group of the World Bank Engineering and Science Education project of the DOST from 1993 to 1998, while simultaneously serving as chairman of the CHED-DOST Technical Working Group. Albano-Garcia, together with other concerned scientists, was one of those who influenced the creation of the PhD consortium in Chemistry, which to date has enabled the UP to graduate 25 PhDs in chemistry, bringing her closer to her vision of the “critical mass” that hopefully will one day put our country in the science and technology map.