Bringing College Education at the Doorstep of the Youths

(This nomination paper was recently submitted to three international awarding bodies.)

Provincial Governor Antonio Cerilles deserves significant recognition for coming up with an effective solution to the educational needs of the poor rural youths. He facilitated the forging of a partnership between a local state college (JHCSC) and the local government units (25 municipal governments) in the province of Zamboanga del Sur to put up a community college in every locality. It is a one-of-its-kind partnership in the country, if not in all developing countries. This partnership was able to establish a total of 25 community colleges in the province, covering all municipalities, effectively bringing tertiary education right at the doorsteps of the poor rural youths.

These community colleges allow youths to have access to quality and affordable tertiary education. Without these community colleges, many of the poor rural youths could not have gone to college for lack of money. For the past decade, these community colleges have already produced about 18,000 college graduates, which is around 60% of all college graduates in the province. Helping these youths become professionals resulted in a positive impact of this partnership to the entire province, and it may do so in other places if replicated.

Context

Just like other periphery provinces of the country, or of any developing country, Zamboanga del Sur is mostly populated by poor farming families. Most of them struggle to meet their basic needs. They live below the poverty threshold pegged by the national government at around $173. The adult population among them rely on their income mostly from their agricultural work, but their products are not enough to satisfy their economic needs. The farming families are even getting poorer as time goes by. Chemical agriculture causes their farm to be less productive, as inflation shrinks the value of their income over the years.

This situation generally paints a bleak future for farming. That is why most of the rural youths have no interest in pursuing the farming profession. Only a few of them have the interest to pursue a farming profession and take agricultural courses in college if ever they get access to tertiary education. Overall, the situation is quite grim.

In spite of this grim situation, school-age youth, who comprise around 30% of the farming families, provide hope for the farming sector. They are still young and have the idealism and drive to pursue the promise of a better future. They only need to be capacitated to pursue their dreams. Capacitating them to become professionals through quality tertiary education can make them economically productive. Making the youths financially productive is the key to uplift farming families from poverty. It is on this promising note that JH Cerilles State College (JHCSC) was founded.

Problem Addressed

The problem with the poor rural youths was their lack of access to tertiary education. They could not afford the cost of private tertiary education. The tuition of private tertiary education is just too high for the poor rural youths, although such tuition is necessary to pay for school improvement and salary of the academic and non-teaching personnel. Most of the poor rural youths could not also access to the more affordable public tertiary education often located in the urban center. They could not afford the cost of transportation and board and lodging entailed in urban living. Some of them could not also leave their localities as they still have to do some farm works or household chores. Because of these constraints, most of the poor rural youths in Zamboanga del Sur could not go to college.

Solution

Given the promising future of the youths and their constraints in accessing tertiary education, the Cerilles couple laid down the foundation on how to address their educational needs. As a Congressman then, Governor Antonio Cerilles authored a law converting JH Cerilles National High School into JH Cerilles Polytechnic College. After six years of operation as a nationally supervised institution, the said polytechnic college was converted into JH Cerilles State College (JHCSC), with its board of directors and management board, through Republic Act 9159 of 2001. The Legislative Act was authored by Congresswoman Aurora E. Cerilles, who replaced his husband Antonio in Congress at that time. The Cerilles couple then donated a lot wherein the main campus of JHCSC was built. After establishing the JHC State College, Governor Cerilles then rolled out the ultimate solution to the educational needs of the poor rural youths.

Governor Antonio Cerilles facilitated the forging of an educational partnership between JHC State College Administration and the local government units of Zamboanga del Sur in establishing a community college in each of the 25 municipalities of Zamboanga del Sur. As a political leader overseeing the province, he successfully convinced the municipal mayors through consultations to provide the school site and chip in funding the opening and operation of local community colleges as part of their devolved function on the delivery of educational services. As a founder and principal part of the Board of Directors of the JHC State College, he successfully convinced the college administration to take charge of hiring of teachers, providing the curricula and supervising the community colleges as its satellite campuses. This Re-Engineering Education Partnership has effectively brought quality tertiary education right at the doorsteps of the poor rural youths.

Innovation

This Re-Engineering Education Partnership is innovative because it is the first and only initiative in the Philippines, if not in all developing countries, in which quality tertiary education is expanded in every locality of a province. A few cities and municipal governments in the Philippines also have established a local college. However, these local colleges only cater to the needs of a particular locality and have no partnership with a state college that can better provide quality education. Local colleges often lack the expertise of providing quality education, as administrators appointed by the local authorities, rather than bona fide academics, often run them.

On the other hand, many state colleges and universities in the country have satellite campuses. However, these satellite campuses are only limited in populated urban centers due to the limited funds of the concerned state tertiary institutions. They cannot easily establish a satellite campus in every locality that needs them, as their expansion and additional funding are always subject to approval by the national government. Only the community colleges in Zamboanga del Sur are inclusive for all poor rural youths. The JHCSC assure them of quality tertiary education run by academics and supported with sustainable public funds from the locality. All municipalities have one community college as a satellite campus of JHCSC that provides affordable quality education to them. Only in Zamboanga del Sur that a synergistic partnership is created between the local government units and the local state college (JHCSC) to bring quality tertiary education right at the doorsteps of the poor rural youths.

This Re-Engineering Education Partnership, however, succeeded after Governor Cerilles had surmounted two difficult obstacles. The first obstacle is the policy of the national government to be the custodian of education funds. Even if it has already devolved the education service to the LGUs through legislation -- Republic Act 7180, it retains control with the education funds. The revenue allotment, given to the LGUs, is not even enough for infrastructure, personnel, and other social services. Because of this, only LGUs with large local revenue collection, often found in urban centers, would take education as a priority project. It took a lot of effective leadership and clear vision of Governor Cerilles during consultations to convince the municipal mayors to be part of this synergistic partnership. Also, Cerilles helped them raised their local income by installing a province-wide computerized system of assessing and collecting real property taxes that prevent wastage, fraud, and corruption. With better local income, LGUs could easily set aside funds for the partnership.

Another obstacle is the lack of funds and resources of the JH Cerilles State College to engage in such a partnership. The additional local funds raised by the LGUs from the real property taxes addressed this problem. The JHCSC Administration only had to ensure quality education by hiring good teachers, providing the curricula, and supervising the community colleges. His being the founder of the said state college and principal part of its board of directors also helped a lot in convincing the JHCSC Administration to spread the school in all towns of the province. In spite of these obstacles, Governor Cerilles was able to materialize his vision of putting up a community college in every municipality of the province.

OUTPUTS

Equipping the faculty and staff for quality education

To ensure that the students received a quality education, the JHCSC chose teachers and staff who could efficiently fulfill their teaching obligations in the community college. Only the passers of the board exam for teachers were hired to teach at the community college. The faculty members, as well as the supporting administrative staff of the community colleges, are also required to pursue continuing or postgraduate education to improve their capacity to teach and serve at their respective assignments. The teaching force and the support staff either take a master’s degree or a doctorate program. To date, among the 215 faculty, 17 individuals are doctoral degree holders, and 105 individuals are master’s degree holders. Because of the continuing education of the faculty and staff, their capacity to deliver quality education improves. The quality of education shows in a large number of board passers among the JHCSC graduates in the licensure exams in different fields. There were several times that JHCSC graduates were among the top passers of the said exams. After all these years, the quality of education that the JHCSC faculty and staff deliver has become evident.

Enrollment

As the community colleges expanded all over the province, the enrollment in tertiary public education spiked, taking on board the poor rural youths on the path out of poverty. College enrollment increased at around 540% on average per year since the start of JHCSC. Starting from 1154 total enrollment in 2001, the cumulative number of enrollment until the latest academic year has now reached around 105,000. This enrollment trend means a cumulative number of enrollees of around 37,700. This trend also means an average of mean 2,200 new enrollees has added up to the roster of students every year. The sharp increase of enrollment began in 2005 when the JHCSC started to expand its community colleges in different municipalities. Since then, thousands of students, who belong to the vulnerable sector of poor farming families in the countryside that includes the indigenous people, have enrolled in college. They have taken the following courses: agriculture, teaching, nursing, engineering, criminology, law, among others. As more youths are poor, and an additional number of public community colleges opened, enrollment in public tertiary education has substantially surpassed than their private counterparts. In the past, most of the poor rural youths could only reach high school, as the chances of going to college were very slim. The expansion of community colleges opened the gates of opportunity to the poor rural youths to wake up from hopelessness, develop themselves through college education, and prepare themselves to break free from the vicious cycle of poverty.

Graduates

Because of the expansion of the JHCSC community colleges, the landscape of college graduates in Zamboanga del Sur has changed. The average percentage of increase in graduates of the JHCSC system per year is around 760% or around 1350 individuals. Before the start of the expansion initiative, the average number of graduates of the JHCSC system was only around 170. Since the start of the expansion initiative in 2005, the JHCSC graduates have reached a cumulatively total number of 18,874 individuals. Meanwhile, the official statistics of the national government shows that the JHCSC produced more graduates than all the 15 private tertiary schools combined in Zamboanga del Sur from 2010 up to 2015. There were 59,058 and 70,482 academic degree holders in 2010 and 2015, respectively (succeeding official statistical data are not yet available), meaning that there is an increase of 11,424 graduates in those five years. Since the graduates of the JHCSC system was 7,467 in those five years, the statistics mean that the JHCSC system contributed 67% in the number of graduates in that period. The stated data show that the expansion of community colleges has not only increased the number of graduates within the JHCSC system, but it has also enabled the JHCSC system to surpass the number of graduates of all the private schools combined in the province in a given period. Overall, Zamboanga del Sur has produced more college graduates from poor farming families than from those who can afford private education. This substantive quantitative change of several graduates consequently has a significant positive impact in terms of employment opportunities and poverty alleviation of the province.

IMPACT

Increase of Employment

Official statistics of the national government reveal that employment increased from 2010 to 2015 in the province (succeeding statistical data are not yet available) at the time that JHCSC also increased its number of graduates as stated above. Data show the number of employed individuals increased to 1.8% that is from 348,594 to 355,122 individuals, an additional of around 7,000 additional employment. Since the JHCSC system contributed a substantial number of competitive graduates, that is 67%, to the total number of graduates in the province during the 2010-2015 period (succeeding official statistical data are not yet available), it implies that many of the JHCSC graduates were among those who got employed in the province during that period. This assumption does not yet account the number of JHCSC graduates who found work outside the province or abroad during that period. With an academic degree from a reputable institution, JHCSC graduates have a good chance of getting employed. By helping the poor rural youths in the province become professionals, the community colleges have paved their path as productive members of society earning a decent income for their family and contributing positively to the local economy and nation-building, in general.

Poverty Alleviation

Official statistical data show that poverty alleviation happened among the poor people in Zamboanga del Sur, majority of which are poor farming families in the countryside from 2012-2015(succeeding official statistical data are not yet available). There was a 7.3% decrease in poverty incidence from 25.9 to 18.6. The statistics may seem to be a small percentage of difference, but they involve thousands of families, especially farming families if translated into real numbers. Secondly, the income gap decreases to 2.7%, from 23.6% to 20.9%. It means that there were less impoverished families so that the gap between the rich and poor became narrow. Lastly, there was .9% decrease in the severity of poverty, from 2.1 % to 1.2%. It means that the suffering of those who remained poor was no longer that much.  Given the increase of graduates and employment as stated above, we can, therefore, say that this poverty alleviation statistics is a positive impact of the expansion of community colleges in Zamboanga del Sur. After the youths got employed and earned a better income for their families, poverty alleviation followed.

REPLICABILITY

This kind of educational partnership should better be replicated in the localities of any developing country so that millions of poor rural youths could break free their farming families from poverty and contribute to nation building. The formula of this educational partnership is simple and easily found in any developing country. It is about creating collaborative synergy between a local government that has access to local funds and can even raise sustainable revenues and a state or public college which has the technical and workforce resources to run a school and deliver quality education. Its main objective to capacitate the poor rural youths to become professionals and ready for employment opportunities is also desirable in any locality or developing country that shares the same problems of poverty. Any locality or developing country would surely be grateful to share the same positive impact, such as: to make the poor rural youths economically productive and to alleviate the poverty situation of the millions of farming families If only this kind of education partnership is replicated elsewhere, the world would surely be a better place to live in.