PHILIPPINE education is not ready for globalization because of its political and economic instability, the executive vice president of the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) said during the first Asian Labor Network on International Financial Institutions last Dec. 4 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex auditorium.
Prof. Rene Luis Tadle, who presented his research paper titled “Implications of the GATS (General Agreements on Trade in Higher Education Series) on the Academe,” said that if global education would enter the country, the market for local education would drop dramatically and lead to the closure of campuses.
“As a result of the regular tuition increase, students could no longer continue with their studies. This might lead to the displacement of academic workers,” Tadle said.
He said increasing the tuition would only result in making education anti-poor. Moreover, employment opportunities for local mentors would decrease, Tadle said, because foreign-owned schools would naturally employ foreigners as teachers.
On the other hand, USTFU director Prof. Gil Garcia urged the government to rationalize the accreditation regime.
“There are a lot of accreditation agencies. But how sure are we that one agency’s set of standards is not stricter than the others? There must be only one set of standards so as to make everything uniform,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that GATS might result in local schools being swallowed by their foreign counterparts. He said the Commission on Higher Education must study the matter more closely and involve the different sectors, especially the teachers.
In the forum, participants suggested a review of the Asian Development Bank policy on educational reforms. They also suggested the passage of a magna carta for private school teachers.
In addition, they said the government should study more closely the probable effects of the GATS on services, the tenure of teachers, and the curriculum
