Abstract / Excerpt:

In the Philippines, education is hot commodity, right up there with soft drinks and shampoo. Quantity? We got it! Quality? Ahh, that's another matter. For a teenager contemplating college the choices are many; NOT only which institution, but also what program or major.

At the Ateneo de Davao, once a bastion of liberal, humanistic education, now Business, Nursing d Engineering are currently among the top favorites. And in the Engineering area, ECE (a buzz word r Electronic and Communications Engineering) is edging out the more traditional Civil, Electrical or Mechanical. Since the Philippines is presently the texting capital of the world, small wonder at the demand for chip-doctors to keep the cellphone monster purring.

From an institution's point of view, Accounting is cheaper to offer than Nursing. Given chalkboards and a pile of columnar pads and you're in business, future CPAs are already on your eduction line. But for Nursing, bedpans and sphygmomanometers are a must to have the program credited. Such stuff does NOT come cheap. And ECE, without a playroom and locker chockfull of electronic toys, could never get the green light from CHED.

Yes, the pertinent government boards do have listings of equipment required for program recognition. But quality education itself suggests the need of hands-on experience for abstract concepts. e lecturer can draw on the chalkboard the electronic circuit diagram or, funds permitting, demonstrate circuit's theoretical response by computer simulation. Yet all this can never fully substitute for the actual hooking together of wires and components to find what really happens. The chalkboard is the ivory tower where assumptions are posited, models formulated and abstractions made. The student oratory is the market place where what actually happens only approximately agrees with the theoretical model.

Ahh, chalk is cheap, while laboratory equipment is expensive and breakable. Excellent student oratory equipment is available from first world nations but the costs are sky-high. Even an Ateneo aid NOT afford that!

Some years back, before the Ateneo de Davao turned out its first batch of ECE graduates, members of our Engineering and Science faculties visited several Davao colleges already offering E, to view their student laboratories. We were jealous. Those schools had some equipment but in sited quantities, while we had practically nothing.

Envy is a great motivator. To play catch-up with them we needed lots of new equipment, and t. To provide the quality of engineering education we envision and espouse, we needed much, much ire. We had seen at another school a beautiful set of ten student electronic modules, covering all the ( concepts of one third-year engineering course.

Full Text

In the Philippines, education is hot commodity, right up there with soft drinks and shampoo. Quantity? We got it! Quality? Ahh, that's another matter. For a teenager contemplating college the choices are many; NOT only which institution, but also what program or major.

At the Ateneo de Davao, once a bastion of liberal, humanistic education, now Business, Nursing d Engineering are currently among the top favorites. And in the Engineering area, ECE (a buzz word r Electronic and Communications Engineering) is edging out the more traditional Civil, Electrical or Mechanical. Since the Philippines is presently the texting capital of the world, small wonder at the demand for chip-doctors to keep the cellphone monster purring.

From an institution's point of view, Accounting is cheaper to offer than Nursing. Given chalkboards and a pile of columnar pads and you're in business, future CPAs are already on your eduction line. But for Nursing, bedpans and sphygmomanometers are a must to have the program credited. Such stuff does NOT come cheap. And ECE, without a playroom and locker chockfull of electronic toys, could never get the green light from CHED.

Yes, the pertinent government boards do have listings of equipment required for program recognition. But quality education itself suggests the need of hands-on experience for abstract concepts. e lecturer can draw on the chalkboard the electronic circuit diagram or, funds permitting, demonstrate circuit's theoretical response by computer simulation. Yet all this can never fully substitute for the actual hooking together of wires and components to find what really happens. The chalkboard is the ivory tower where assumptions are posited, models formulated and abstractions made. The student oratory is the market place where what actually happens only approximately agrees with the theoretical model.

Ahh, chalk is cheap, while laboratory equipment is expensive and breakable. Excellent student oratory equipment is available from first world nations but the costs are sky-high. Even an Ateneo aid NOT afford that!

Some years back, before the Ateneo de Davao turned out its first batch of ECE graduates, members of our Engineering and Science faculties visited several Davao colleges already offering E, to view their student laboratories. We were jealous. Those schools had some equipment but in sited quantities, while we had practically nothing.

Envy is a great motivator. To play catch-up with them we needed lots of new equipment, and t. To provide the quality of engineering education we envision and espouse, we needed much, much ire. We had seen at another school a beautiful set of ten student electronic modules, covering all the ( concepts of one third-year engineering course.

Info

Source Journal	Agham Mindanao
Journal Volume	Agham Mindanao Vol. 1
Authors	Francisco Glover SJ
Page Count	2
Place of Publication	Davao City
Original Publication Date	January 1, 2003
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