CHED consultant sees need for skill-based curriculum

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Erwin Vincent Alcala, a member of the technical panel for accountancy education in the Commission on Higher Education, pushed for an educational system that goes beyond learning by the books, but also hands-on training with ethical values in school and workplaces, as well as community service.

This was the gist of Alcala’s announcement during the press briefing at the official launching of the new name of the school, he is heading, from Saint Paul School of Business and Law (SPSBL) into St. Paul School of Professional Studies (SPSPS), located in Palo town of Leyte.

SPSPS, which started as St. Paul’s Business School of Tacloban in 1994 and then renamed to SPSBL in 2012, now enjoys the fame of being one of the country’s top five producers of certified public accountants.

Alcala, a reputed international accountant, said a new curriculum in accountancy in SPSPS will be out in 2018 after the K to12 transition. “We consider the skills requirement globally, the reason why we were provided with the global skills requirements, which we incorporated in the new curriculum of the school.”

Alcala—president and board of trustees chairman of SPSPS, and concurrently its vice president for academic and research affairs—said the new curriculum will be implemented on the first semester of school year 2017, earlier than 2018, as programmed.

As of this time. the SPSPS faculty and staff are in the process of getting accreditation from the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU), and also for ISO certification from the International Organization for Standardization and, if ever, the first institution in Eastern Visayas to achieve such..

SPSPS had produced 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th and 18th placers in the Accountancy board examinations in recent years. From around 3,000 enrollees in 2013 before the super typhoon Yolanda, the school now has about 4,000 students, said Alcala.

Some of its graduates have also passed global certification examinations with flying colors, such as Certified Internal Auditor (Global Top 5), Certified Information Systems Auditor (Global Top 1), Certified Management Accountant, Certified Forensic Examiners, and over 10 placers and top 20 scorers in the CPA licensure examinations.

Alcala added that SPSPS is now opening its satellite program in Japan to cater to the educational needs of children of “Japayukis” or women who are wives of Japanese men but could not afford to send their children to college.

The SPSPS is now also extending services to the community, as its corporate social responsibility, and reaching out to the poor residents of three adopted barangays in Palo town—Campetic, Pawing and San Fernando—by helping jobless women in livelihood endeavors, such as bag production.

“I want SPSPS to go beyond classroom activity and I believe we need to do more by offering ourselves to the community not just to the students inside the classroom for us to make a difference,” he said.

Alcala said his leadership has been guided by the principle, “Wisdom and Service by Grace of God,” attributing to God everything that SPSPS now possesses.  (FREEMAN)