An Assessment of the Development of Higher Education Towards Enhancing Philippine Economy

Abstract

Many writers, nationalist or not, past and present administrations and other government officials believe that education is important for a country to develop. But despite this belief, the government has not pursued the kind of development strategy that would allow Philippine education to play its developmental role. In fact, due to commercialization, privatization and globalization, Philippine education has continuously deteriorated in terms of quality, content, emphasis and orientation. And what makes the situation worse is that, within the Philippine educational system; higher education, instead of enriching and inculcating social, economic, political and cultural awareness among students, continues to produce men and women who are ignorant of or know little about nationalism. Thus, what higher education produces are technocrats who are outward-looking rather than inward-looking. This is another way of saying that what higher education produces are individuals who do not know how important it is for them to play their roles in national industrialization. Inevitably, the Philippine economy is badly hurt by this crisis in the educational system. If this unfortunate situation does not change, then not even an ounce of hope is left for this country. This undergraduate thesis is an analytical, conclusive, explanatory and historical-comparative assessment of the development of higher education towards enhancing the Philippine economy. To analyze how higher education has developed throughout the years, this study tackled government efforts in the development of higher education. Likewise, this study analyzed the past and current trends in higher education and their implications on the economy. Finally, this study made conclusions and suggested proposals on howto make Philippine higher education relevant to the economic situation of the country and the means to enhance the economy.