THE controversy over the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED’s) discontinuance of the senior high school (SHS) program in state universities and colleges (SUCs) betrays the lack of a well-defined roadmap, House of Representatives Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan said on Tuesday.
“It has become apparent that the CHED from the start never had a roadmap with respect to the SHS programs of SUCs,” Libanan said.
“They should have drawn up a clear roadmap defining the desired outcome and outlining the steps needed to get there,” Libanan said.
The CHED has come under fire from several members of Congress for requiring SUCs to abandon their SHS programs.
The commission has justified the move by simply arguing that SUCs need the legal basis and the funding to sustain their SHS programs.
Libanan, however, said: “Many SUCs are already considered autonomous institutions that exercise independent control over their academic programs.”
“There are also SUCs, particularly those in the provinces, that might deem it necessary to have their own ‘feeder’ SHS programs to supply them with high school graduates for specific college courses,” Libanan said.
“If this is a question of funding, we must also stress that Congress still enjoys the prerogative to provide appropriations on a case-to-case basis,” Libanan said, adding that the subsidy for every SUC is itemized in the annual budget.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers earlier accused the CHED officials of creating another problem for the education sector and overly focusing on minor technicalities.
Barbers said that the CHED should be helping out the Department of Education by sustaining the SHS program in SUCs.
