The university continues to produce winners as Red Duane V. Oligo bagged the grand prize in the T-shirt Art Design Category of the 2018 Vision Petron National Student Art Competition.

Kultura ni Juan, Oligo’s winning entry that detailed the different Filipino cultures captured the votes of the judges.  “I just think of different Filipino cultures that goes with the theme,” he said in a short interview. This year’s theme is Tuklas Kultura– experience and rediscover Filipino culture at its best.

He is taking up Bachelor in Industrial Technology major in Civil Technology. He persistently pursued his passion after failing once. “I did not make it when I was still in high school, I tried again and I made it this time. I am happy that my work was chosen among 306 entries nationwide, “he said.

Oligo received cash prize and Napoleon Abueva trophy during the awarding ceremony at Metrotent Convention Center, Metro Manila on November 28, 2018.

This is the second consecutive year that ISAT U students brought home major awards in this competition. Last year, the BS in Architecture students took the grand prize in Video-making Category and were semi-finalists in Painting-water based media and T-shirt Art Design categories.

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Dr. Raul F. Muyong  attended the United Nation Education Scientific and Cultural Organization-International Center for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC) 2018 East and Southeast Asia Cluster Network Consolidation Workshop at Seoul, South Korea on October 24-25, 2018.

The UNESCO-UNEVOC and Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) organized the meeting to create opportunities to strengthen the Asia-Pacific Regional Network. It also aimed to unite the experiences, capacities and potential in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the region with the global TVET. The move supports the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Center for TVET’s medium-term strategy (2018-2020) to guide and gather potentials and create opportunities for individual UNEVOC network members to address common issues faced by TVET Institutions.

Among the issues dealt with are the growing concerns of adapting to the multiple demands associated with increased employment and relevance of skills and qualifications to the labor market and technological revolution. Other tackled issues are on sustainable development, technological advancement and the demand for skills.

In the workshop sessions, Dr. Raul F. Muyong was elected Chairman of the group that handled TVET Attractiveness and Quality, Career Guidance. He led  the discussion and made sure that the issues to be addressed  were identified as well as the potential collaboration projects that the UNEVOC Centers can develop and its modality for collaboration, projected output, capacities built and opportunities created.

Dr. Nemia H. Mabaquiao Director for National and International Affairs, also joined the meeting and actively participated in the topic Greening TVET. Dr. Mabaquiao said that ISAT U committed to promote Greening TVET plan for 2019-2021. “For our part, we will submit available teacher standards and share best practices, Training Methodology by TESDA used in teaching TVET and push for a Skills Olympics as part of our commitment to the network, “she said. “ ISAT U is also facing a tough challenge of holding the International Conference 2019 with the Colombo Plan Staff College in July next year. “ Dr. Mabaquaio added.

The ISAT U as UNESCO-UNEVOC Visayas Center was the only UNEVOC Center in the Philippines to participate along with representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. KRIVET is the Cluster Coordinating center in the region.

“We are here this afternoon and we are targeting specifically the academic sector because you young people who will decide are the most skeptical voice if we’ll do change the constitution,” said Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) as he starts discussing the impact of the federal government to higher education. Organized by the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution and CHEd RO 6, the forum was held at Iloilo City on October 29, 2018.

De Vera emphasized that under the draft constitution the power on education will be shared by the federal and regional government. The regional government will be given power to make education more responsive to the local needs of the area. If given the mandate, regional governments could focus their materials (textbooks) on the local context of the region. He added that local government could also give more priority to the needs of the SUCs.

On the other hand, he mentioned some negative aspects of the system, “National standards will be lost if local is given exclusive rights. There will be also be disparities across nation-between the rich and the poor regional governments. There is also a tendency that ethnicity will be given more priority than nationality.”

In Malaysia, according to him, local governments do not have power over education, there are just implementing agencies. If that is done in the Philippines, other regions will not have priority, slow in decision-making and little resources will be allocated.

To maintain balance, it was proposed that the federal government will determine the quality standards, equivalencies and professional standards, science research and teaching, assessment of the performance of the educational system particularly on internationalization and policy direction. The accreditation of institutions for free tuition and financial assistance and loans of the students, recognition of safeguard institutions, open and distant learning, and recognition of foreign degrees were also included in the powers of the federal state. “Promotion of scientific of marine reserve and technological development including the promotion of other kind of research will be with federal government. State colleges do not have financial capacity and clout to invest in such substantial amount in science and technologies,” De Vera added.

Regional government, on the other hand, will have the power on governance and running of public institutions including research, libraries, archives, adult education, arts and culture, preservation of monuments, sports and youth welfare. Recognition and authorization of private higher education, admission policies, and administration were among the powers for the local government.

One of the crucial discussion was on the direction of the SUCs. De Vera said that the basic economic activity in the region will be highly considered in the changes in the educational system. Western Visayas is identified in agriculture, agroforestry and agro services. He clearly stated that, “we will now match the competencies of the state universities and the needs of the region. The local state and universities is to produce the manpower needed by the federal state. The program in connection to economic activities should be developed and put before other programs.”

Programs that are out in context on the economic activities will be affected, “yung mga programs na hindi naman kailangan ng federal state essentially, you start closing that out,” he advised. This is to safeguard cases of misdirection. “Example, the SUCs produces more teachers but the manpower needs of the region is more agriculture graduates. Cases that also leads to misdirected funding and government subsidy,” De Vera clarified.

University presidents, key officials, faculty, staff and students of the different state universities and colleges (SUCs), local universities and colleges (LUCs) and private higher educational institutions in Western Visayas attended the meeting.

The other speaker was Atty. Antonio B. Arellano, Commissioner of the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution.