By Raymart Escopel
ILOILO City – In preparation of the foreseen impact of K to 12 program among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), in partnership with the Industry Tripartite Council (ITC)-Education, will be holding a pre-summit activity on August 22.
Dubbed “A Pre-Summit: Mitigating the Impact of K to 12 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),” the said activity is in response to the mandate of DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz in laying down the foundation for an upcoming Summit proper on September 12 aiming to find out strategies, solutions, collaborative agreements, or plans of actions among the stakeholders in the implementation of the said program.
In a press release from DOLE-6, Baldoz directed the Department’s regional directors to hold a regional Education/Academe ITC consultation or summit through a Memorandum dated July 18.
The pre-summit activity has the goal of orienting the education industry stakeholders on the DOLE-Department of Education-Commission on Higher Eductaion-Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Joint Guidelines and other relevant issuances.
It also aims to gather and consolidate inputs and or comments on the proposed standard Transition Plan of Private HEIs and proposed Transition Fund Bill that will ease the impact of the K to 12 program to both the management and the teaching and non-teaching personnel.
According to DOLE-6 Regional Director Ponciano Ligutom, the pre-summit activity is expected to be participated by about 100 educational institutions coming from the different parts of the region.
He said that through the said activity, they would be able to surface all the issues and concerns of labor and management from the private HEIs in the implementation of the program.
It also wants to strengthen the collaboration of concerned government agencies and stakeholders to resolve their concerns in the Summit Proper.
With that, he hopes that the pre-summit activity would be of big help for the tertiary institutions including their teaching and non-teaching personnel for them to address their issues and concerns as they will be affected during the transition period beginning 2016.
An estimate of 2,000 college teachers and 1,000 non-teaching personnel in Western Visayas will be displaced on the transition period of the program starting 2016.
As a result, HEIs, both private and public in Western Visayas are also expected to drop in terms of college enrollees starting 2016.
For inquiries about the pre-summit activity, you may call Danny Espinosa of DOLE-6 at telephone number (033) 3206904 or mobile number (0917) 327 6818./PN
