By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
Batac
City—Due to public demand, the Sangguniang
Panlungsod here passed a resolution requesting Mariano Marcos State University
(MMSU) through the President Shirley Agrupis to offer maritime/seaman and criminology
courses.
Batac Sangguniang Kabataan
federated president and council ex-officio member John Gabrielle Dominique M.
Daguio and Batac councilor Bismark Angelo Quidang sponsored the said measure,
with all who voted in favor it becoming co-sponsors.
Upon the motion of Mr.
Daguio, all members present during the session approved the measure on
its second and final reading.
According to Mr. Quidang,
only private higher academic institutions offer said courses in the entire
province of Ilocos Norte.
He added that with state universities
now offering free tuition fee and if MMSU and other education officials grant these,
“dagitay arapaap dagitay kalugaran tayo a kayat da met iti ag seaman
ken kayat da met iti rumang-ay iti panagbiag da al-alisto laeng nga magun-od da,”
Mr. Quidang noted.
However, Mr. Quidang sees
some hindrances for MMSU as its thrust in their charter say they should prioritize
science and agriculture.
But with MMSU now offering
the law and business courses, he hinted that MMSU officials and its board of
regents may also consider this request.
Mr. Quidang further stated that
students in these courses can also be accommodated as beneficiaries of the
city’s scholarship program.
Batac Vice Mayor Windell D. Chua,
for his part, said that there might be also competition with the schools
offering said courses and that private schools might oppose the proposal.
However, there is now an open
competition in the province’s education thrusts as MMSU began offering law and
medicine courses, both earlier opposed by other schools but was also eventually
approved.
Mr. Quidang added that there
is already a Commission on Higher Education (CHED) technical working group that
evaluates these proposals.
He explained that if MMSU
sees that the proposal as feasible, it will be endorsed and calendared for
discussion at the Board of Regents and if the latter approves, a technical
working group will evaluate, “no saan met la unay maapektaran dagitay
karruba nga eskwela”.
He stated further that if
MMSU accedes to this, it will take them at least two years to implement the
courses to satisfy all the requirements for them.
Based on what Mr. Quidang
gathered, tuition fees for these courses in other universities and colleges in
the province amount to approximately PHP17,000 to PHP25,000 per semester.
“Adu metten iti ag interest nga agbalin a policeman because starting
salary of a PO1 is approximately PHP30,000.00 per month without allowances
ken talaga pay nga agkur-kurang tayo iti pulis as manifested by the chief
of police in Batac,” Mr. Quidang emphasized.
“Ken bayat iti
pinagsorsorsor tayo kadagiti kailyan tayo, adu a talaga iti mangayat nga
agbalin a seaman ta siguro mainspiraran da dagitay karruba da a seaman a dadakkel iti bal-balay da ken no tay da,”
Mr. Quidang added.
MMSU President Agrupis,
meanwhile, welcomed the proposal proposals but stressed that this will not
happen in a short period of time.
Mrs. Agrupis said there are
processes they need to follow for them to offer additional courses.
She said this includes a
feasibility study and other requirements much like what they did when they
offered the law and medicine courses. She stressed that it took MMSU years to
implement them.
She also said that MMSU will
also need additional faculty staff, buildings and facilities.
She also not4ed that it will
be CHED which will decide whether that can offer the said courses or not.
Comments
Post a Comment