Press Release
November 18, 2010

PRIORITIZE S&T, ENGINEERING PROGRAMS -- ANGARA

Senator Edgardo J. Angara said that the government needs to make a push towards funding programs that would create more Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) holders in science and engineering in order to help make the Philippines more globally competitive.

Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), said that a report by the commission listed the lack of high level S&T and engineering degree holders as one of the foremost reasons why the country is lagging behind in terms of S&T development.

The COMSTE Science, Math, and Engineering Education Panel reported that the numbers show that the PhDs in the country, in comparison to other countries is alarming.

The report shows that Japan has 1 PhD holder per 11,621 people, in the USA there is 1 per 6,533, and Germany has 1 per 3,316. According to data from CHED, there are 941 students taking up their MS degrees and 164 taking up their PhDs in the country which would peg the ratio for the Philippines at 1 per every 54,060.

The same report endorses that government use the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) and the National Science Complex as vehicles to generate the programs and generate more MS and PhD graduates.

The ERDT is a consortium of eight-member universities:

  •  University of the Philippines - Diliman

  •  University of the Philippines - Los Banos

  •  De La Salle University

  •  Mapua Institute of Technology

  •  Ateneo de Manila University

  •  Mindanao State University Iligan

  •  University of San Carlos

  •  Central Luzon State University

The consortium currently has 152 Master of Science scholars, 34 Ph.D. scholars, and has plans to increase the numbers to 171 Master of Science scholars, and have 10 Ph.D. scholars, and five post-doctoral scholars.

The ERDT consortium also targets faculty development, infrastructure development, and research and development (R&D) in four areas: ICT, Semiconductor and Electronics, Energy, Environment and Infrastructure.

New Proposal

COMSTE has is preparing a proposal that would develop new science, technology, and engineering (STE) scholarships with incentives for science and math teachers to address the lack of teachers in the said subjects.

The scholarship program will put a premium on quality science and mathematics teachers by requiring them to hold Bachelor of Science degrees and also provide higher salary grades, equivalent to Special Science Teachers.

The incentives will also target students and attract them to STE courses by offering scholarships ion exchange for 2 years of teaching high school science and math subjects as a return of service (ROS) option.

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