Engineering Education In The Philippines

Education is the process of acquiring the body of knowledge and skills that people are expected to have. A good education develops a critical thinking encourages intellectual curiosity which lead to lifelong learning. Quality education today is measured by effectiveness efficiency sustainability and relevance. Relevance in education means addressing the needs of the students and the society and preparing the graduates to be globally competitive. The main purpose of this paper is to present the current educational system in the Philippines particularly the engineering education. The Philippine educational system consists of K to12 program and tertiary level. The K to 12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills develop lifelong learners and prepare graduates for tertiary education middle-level skills development employment and entrepreneurship. The last two years of this program is the senior high school where the students can choose from learning areas of core curriculum or specific tracks Academic Technical-Vocational-Livelihood Sports and Arts and Design. Academic tracks include Accountancy Business and Management ABM Humanities and Social Sciences HUMSS Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics STEM and General Academic Strand GAS. The students in STEM strand will continue pursuing their studies to engineering education in the tertiary level. The Commission on Higher Education CHED is the governing body of higher education institutions HEIs in the Philippines. CHED memorandum order CMO No. 37 Series of 2012 gives the policies standards and guidelines in the establishment of an outcomes-based education OBE system in HEIs offering engineering programs. It aims to transform engineering education into an outcomes-based system to meet the equivalent global quality standards. OBE focuses on what is essential for all students to be able to do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. HEIs are now on the process of implementation of OBE. Information about OBE are disseminated to all stakeholders curriculum and course specifications are revised capacity building through seminars and trainings are conducted improvement of facilities assessment and evaluation and continuous quality improvement are conducted for its implementation.