FE A. HIDALGO, PhD

Three years ago the, first three-day summit of Alumni – Academe – Industry and Government (AAIG) met towards a strategic move for collaborative and inclusive public and private sector partnership in development. We had high hopes that the movement was the beginning of a more progressive initiative for development and that we will see more progressive initiatives, more fellows and scholars as well. As we move towards more productive partnerships and networks in the immediate future and in the long term journey for progress, our coming together in this second summit is a fulfillment of what we had hoped for the long journey for progress which is here very much today. As we begin our discourse, let me share with you an inspiring quote to begin with. “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” I wish you all a pleasant gathering and a very productive gathering as well. Thank you.

Inocencia Ida S. Tionko, RN, MHPED

Welcome to our third webinar of the National Multisectoral Summit for Educational Transformation: And Academe – Alumni – Industry – Government Collaboration. As we continue with our journey in this summit, we see ourselves moving closer to the achievement of the objective we have set at the beginning that is to catalyze the transformation of the Philippine educational landscape in bridging the academe and industry gap. In the first webinar entitled Transitioning the Graduates to Industry 4.0 Workplace, we learned that we were inspired of understanding, skills and technology can help prepare the workforce for Industry 4.0. The need for addressing the long-standing imbalances and learning gaps was emphasized. Prominent keywords were transform, adapt, co-create, collaborate and reach out. As we journey to the second level that focus on disruptions, disturbances, and disorders of industry 4.0, we saw how the present pandemic greatly affected the industry and the academe, and how particular and effective solutions are imperative to be in place with the support of the government to help our students and organizations adapt and become resilient and agile. And now we are here in the third webinar, higher education in the Industry 4.0 era, and our speakers are challenged to help us answer the question “What is to be done by its sector to catalyze the transformation of the Philippine educational landscape towards Education 4.0?” The third industrial revolution has brought educators to an environment where access to information is immediate and free, shifting the focus toward active learning pedagogies that place a premium on collaboration with diverse teams in a project-based and peer-learning environment. Education experts agree that any educational plan for Industry 4.0 must be built upon the results of the third industrial revolution with its emerging development of hybrid, online and in-person instruction, an efficient and seamless integration of global video conferencing, and a wide array of asynchronous educational resources. Blended instruction and optimization of prepped and online courses will make more efficient learning environments. Traditional undergraduate education through information transfer is no longer a viable form of education to ensure employment and a career. In this context, we must ask, how do we prepare employable and responsible citizens in our tertiary education systems? Michael Peters in his paper on Technological Unemployment: Educating for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, published in the Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, has argued that education by itself will be insufficient to address problems of technological unemployment. Education through traditional institutions of higher education is still important, but their collaboration with industry and governments need to be much more intense. At this point, I am proud to share that in relation to graduates employability, UST ranked second among Philippine universities in this area according to a survey by London’s Quacquarelli Symonds or QS, just released on September 23. This graduate employability rankings evaluate universities according to pipe metrics. Namely, partnerships with employers, graduate employment rate, employer student connections, alumni outcomes and employer reputation. Indeed, this is proof of the university’s performance and commitment in preparing employable and responsible citizens that is required of Education 4.0 for Industry 4.0. Education through traditional institutions of higher education is still important, but their collaboration with industry and government needs to be much more intense. Higher education must change to prepare their workforce in the fourth industrial revolution. The fourth industrial revolution has changed the landscape of educational innovation, the exact impacts of such technologies and society and the planet is still unknown, but the fact that they will bring profound and rapid change seems all but certain. The need for higher education to respond is urgent. Education 4.0 focuses on educational development and skill that has made future learning more customized, hyper-intelligent, portable, worldwide, and virtual. In the future, there will be a lot of changes in ways of teaching and learning, but the logic of education systems should be such that it is a system that conforms to the learner rather than the learner to the system. This is the essence of personalization. May I invite everyone therefore to continue to journey with us in this webinar as we listen to our speakers present the challenges ahead, what needs to be done in order to ensure effective and immediate transformation as we venture to bridge the industry and academe. Stay with us and let us continue to enjoy learning. Thank you and a pleasant morning to all.

Michael Anthony C. Vasco, PhD

For the past 18 months, the world order has been changed dramatically and drastically by the Covid-19 pandemic. It has practically changed and altered our daily routines and work practices. The new normal has posed challenges to education, health care, commerce and trade and the economy. And as we shift to industry 4.0 in the midst of the pandemic, the challenges and issues have become more pronounced, doubly difficult to address. While the pandemic continued to wreak havoc in our health care system and the various social political and cultural domains, and it has also posed great impact to our educational and economic systems, we need to think, to calibrate our strategies to address these challenges. In a recent article published by Bloomberg, as regards the scenario of the pandemic in the next six months and beyond, it was noted that the development and outcome of the pandemic depends much on the level of preparedness and continued sustainability of strategies and solutions to resolve and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.  It highlighted strategies for the health care system to cope with the possible surges so that we can slowly open our economic system and gradually return to our normal work systems in the new normal. The strategies employed by the great economic states proved to be effective. It was achieved through a calibrated opening of their economic and educational systems vis-a-vis the effective calibration of strategies employed in their health systems. It is heartwarming to note that people from countries in Europe, North America and East Asia are beginning to experience their usual work and daily routines in the new normal. People are slowly allowed to attend to their usual functions at work or at school and even attend religious and cultural gatherings. Notable of which was the great cultural gathering at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York to commemorate the 911 event and even the return of Broadway performances to the greater public. More and more countries have allowed some of their students to return to their schools in calibrated manner. In other words, we can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are already going there; it is just a question of time when to reach that goal. With the united efforts of institutions of government and the private sector, I am very sure that we will soon join other countries to perform our usual normal routines in the various domains of work in the new normal. What is important at the moment is to strike a balance between the strategies and solutions we offer to address the problems and issues posed by the pandemic with its possible impact and outcomes. It is in this spirit that i welcome all of you in this morning’s Multisectoral Summit for Educational Transformation webinar part 2, titled Industry 4.0 Disruptions, disturbances and disorders. Thank you and good morning.

Prof. Cheryl Ramos Peralta, DrPH, PTRP

I congratulate the UST Alumni Association Incorporated and the UST Graduate School Center for Continuing Professional Education for this very successful and timely undertaking. The AAIG Summit 2021 with a theme National Multi-sectoral Summit for Educational Transformation: An Academe – Alumni – Industry – Government Collaboration. The University of Santo Tomas is one with you in this worthwhile activity and we are very proud of our alumni’s initiatives in spearheading a collaborative approach to addressing the challenges of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous or VUCA world. The University of Santo Tomas continues to dedicate itself to the formation of competent and compassionate professionals, committed to the service of the Church, the nation, and the global community. In its 409 years of delivering quality Catholic education, UST has produced thousands of alumni leaders who shape the future of society. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a great number of Thomasians serve the country and the world in various capacities and industries, helping us overcome the unprecedented disruptions over current time. In the month of August 2021, the University of Santo Tomas had the privilege of participating in the Technical Working Group (TWG) convened by the Senate of the Philippines to draft an act to create a second Congressional Commission on education to assess and evaluate the state of Philippine education and recommend innovative and targeted reforms in education, otherwise known as EDCOM 2. The Technical Working Group was convened by the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture under honorable Senator Win Gatchalian, joined with the Senate Committee on Higher Technical and Vocational Education headed by a fellow alumnus honorable Senator Joel Villaneva, who was very instrumental to our inclusion as a member of the TWG. The TWG was participated in by policymakers and key players in Philippine education, including the Department of Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Commission on Higher Education. EDCOM 2 recognizes that there is a need for transformative, concrete, and targeted reforms in education and the University is honored to be heard in this forum on behalf of its internal and external stakeholders including the thousands of students and alumni that we serve every academic year. In its position paper to the Senate, UST raised its concerns about learning gaps identified among Filipino students in basic education based on international competency standards, as reported by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) in 2021, which are expected to later cascade toward their capability to perform in higher education and subsequently meet the rigors of the future workplace. These gaps may be aggravated by learning losses brought about by school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as reported by UNESCO, at all levels of education. The impact is expected to be greatest in basic education, but students in higher education may likewise suffer from learning losses due to the absence of opportunity for hands-on practice of skills needed for their future profession and the challenges of rendering adequate validation and assessment of the attainment of learning outcomes. These learning gaps and learning losses may reduce the capability of our graduates in higher education to fulfill workplace expectations, potentially contributing to slow school-to-work transitions and future unemployment or underemployment, as has been reported by PBEd. Given the shrinking half-life of knowledge as published by (angel?) in 2013 in light of the rapidly changing needs of society and industry 4.0, even in anticipation of industry 5.0 as has been recently published by some literature, these learning gaps shall widen exponentially unless arrested in the soonest possible time. Addressing these learning gaps in higher levels of education or within the school to work transition will require additional resources that may not be available to all educational institutions or industries, absorbing the products of our educational system unless adequate government support are made available to both public and private sectors. As it is the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bring significant financial challenges to the private education sector and the economic sector, and government support is crucial to allow them to recover from the impact of this global crisis and help address the skills gap among our graduates. Thus, UST recommended that EDCOM 2 be undertaken as a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary initiative involving legislative, education, and industry sectors, ensuring public and private representations to guarantee a comprehensive assessment of the current status of education at all levels, identify the evolving needs of all involved sectors, establish best practices and develop potential strategies that may be undertaken to solve the current crisis in education. The AAIG Summit 2021 is a valuable step in this direction. This is indeed a great opportunity for feedback and continuing conversation for future engagements and to build a robust ecosystem where fast incubation and birth of innovative pathways lead to inclusive life success and national development. May we develop powerful partnerships that will not only prepare fresh graduates for the world of work but likewise reskill and upskill current professionals to help them adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the workplace. With connection and collaboration, may we address this world with a VUCA solution as stated by Bob Johansen, vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability with agility. Let us create a vision of our preferred future, understand connections by listening to our stakeholders, clearly and quickly make sense of the details of the chaos around us, and adapt quickly to apply solutions. We look forward to meaningful dialogues in this four-day AAIG summit 2021. Thank you very much.

Ernesto Jay G. Adalem, MD, LLB, PhD, DFRIM

First of all, allow me to congratulate the organizers of this timely and relevant webinar series on transformational education, the UST Alumni Association and the Graduate School Center for Continuing Professional Education and Development. But let me start my presentation by saying that I am a proud Thomasian. UST Education High School batch 1987 and UST Medical Technology graduate batch of 1991. I am a medical doctor but right now I’m immersed in running the family owned school, Saint Clare College of Caloocan, as Vice President for Administration from 1997 to 2019, and Vice President for Finance from 2019 to this day. Saint Clare College of Caloocan, a progressive school located in North Caloocan City. Majority of our students from basic education to tertiary levels are coming from depressed communities, the two of the most marginalised barangays in the whole country,  namely, Barangay Bagong Silang and Barangay Camarin. Most of our students can only dream of going to the so-called big schools. Yet they carry within them the same dreams and aspirations of every Filipino youth. Saint Clare College is a founding institution of the Caloocan Private Schools Association or CAPRIS and a prime mover in the Federation of Association of Private Schools Administrators or CAPSA, with more than 15,000 member schools around the country. Let me present to you the rues and concerns in the one sector in Philippine education. The sorry state of our small and medium-sized private schools in the Philippines is one for the books especially during this time of pandemic. Record shows that that last school year almost 1,000 small medium sized private schools around the country closed operations not because the owners no longer believe in the visions and missions for which their schools were founded. But they had to close operations to save on expenses because of the severe impact of the pandemic. We have even seen in new countless numbers of teachers resulting to selling just to make both ends and meet family needs. But despite these pathetic experiences, we in the small and medium-sized private schools remain steadfast to thrive not just survive, to strengthen the fabrics of our mission and vision that aim to produce quality and productive graduates even in the midst of this pandemic.  Towards this end, we manifest our collective appreciation to the organizers of this webinar series in forging strategic pathways for our academe, alumni, industry and government to come together for a common good, a desire to create transformative and transforming educators in our midst. Especially we manifest the following belief statements to the ideas as expressed in AAIG’s manifestation of solidarity from the various education stakeholders. From the ranks of school owners, we believe the task of transforming Philippine education or educational system for that matter is wrong and a tedious process. Educators born, bred and raised within the socio-cultural milieu of that system will find it hard to let go of old habits particularly if over  time they have proven to produce the results that we [?]. But we remain with one heart, one head and one hand in perpetuating the gift of perpetual learning. From the school, the ranks of the school administrators which we belong, we believe on an authentic education reform, renewal and transformation to be meaningful, sustainable. Education must serve society as an instrument for fostering the creation, advancement and dissemination of education and that the triple goals of equity, relevance and excellence must prevail in policy making, planning and practice.  On the ranks of our teachers, we believe in the importance in culcating in our learners the values and principles of life skills for life success, to nurture our learner’s compassionate heart not just thinking and mind and develop essential skills not just academic skills. From the ranks of our students, we believe that every child has genius potentials in more ways than one, that the traditional IQ that we know is limiting a metric in measuring one’s intelligence, for the intelligence as we know by now is a many splendored thing. From the ranks of our parents we believe that while we’re not enjoying the beauty of face-to-face classroom learning due to the pandemic we must maximize the benefits of the heart to heart home learning, understanding fully that technology is a mere handmaiden of civilization. That no amount of technology can substitute for parenting. From the ranks of our non-teaching personnel and all those involved in education, we believe that all those who serve education, the school owners, school leaders and managers, teachers, psychologist, lawmakers, policymakers, government and private educational institution must pour a concerted and continuing efforts into a review and a reformulation of the educational system even beyond Industry 4.0. And finally, we collectively believe that transformative education is a matter of human heart, that quality education thru AAIG 2021 is the bridge we must build for our children. This is the base we shall use of use to cross over life beyond the pandemic. Let this be our task today, our project, our lasting heritage to our children. Thank you very much.

Ernesto Jay G. Adalem, MD, LLB, PhD, DFRIM

(Guest Speaker)

Dr. Jay Adalem, a medical doctor, is a proud product of our own UST High School and UST Medical Technology Department. He is part of the illustrious family that owns St. Clare College and an avid champion of the small and medium sized private schools around the country exemplifying various education programs anchored on the essence of Academe, Alumni, Industry and Government or AAIG collaboration for inclusive and transformative success.