NIT’s ladderization program receives PGMA’s award of recognition

By RODRIGO S. VICTORIA, (PIA Biliran)
August 12, 2006

NAVAL, Biliran – The province of Biliran’s prime institution of higher education has recently received an award of recognition accorded to the first and only government institution of higher learning in the country that successfully implemented Executive Order 358 which mandates to institutionalize a ladderized interface between Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Higher Education (HE) in the Philippines.

The award of recognition was personally handed by no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) to Dr. Edita S. Genson, president of Naval Institute of Technology (NIT) in a ceremony held inside the Malacañang Palace with Director General Agosto Syjuco and few regional and provincial officials of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and national officials coming from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in attendance.

The institutionalization of a ladderized curriculum in higher education under E.O. 358 enables a college student to acquire vocational and technical skills in any of the first two years in college that will ensure the student to land a job even if he will not pursue to higher year to complete his college education.

EO 358 is one of the program components under the 10-point priority agenda of PGMA which is the creation of six to ten million jobs during her administration.

According to Dr. Genson in an interview with PIA, the award given by PGMA is unexpected since the college has just worked and implemented the ladderized curriculum and that the implementation is working well and good.

Dr. Genson said that NIT is offering six model courses under a ladderized curriculum like civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) and the newly offered course in practical nursing.

The college president cited how a ladderized curriculum works which according to her is the new trend and innovation in higher education by presenting the course in practical nursing as a good example.

For the first year, a student studying in practical nursing will undergo the skills and knowledge in caregiving and in one and a half years as medical transcriptionist where these skills will enable them to land for jobs abroad with lucrative pay even if they will not pursue to higher years of the course, Dr. Genson added.

Dr. Genson proudly admitted that NIT is the only institution of higher learning in region 8 either in public or in private to implement first the ladderized curriculum as mandated under E.O. 358.

She added that after the awarding ceremony in Malacañang Palace, many were asking as to how did she successfully implemented the ladderized curriculum in her school.

The NIT president who is banking more of her success because of her strong faith in God and abundance of emotional qualification only replied by saying that if one just kept on planning without implementing the plan, the plan is useless, so work it out because many good and beautiful things will happen.