I HAVE learned a lot in my two years as president of a local university: trifocal does not work, students fall into institutional cracks, and the fact that DepEd, CHEd and Tesda are in silos modes means that there are no integrated solutions made and standard settings have been replaced with regulatory power play, most especially in tertiary education where state universities and colleges (SUCs), local universities and colleges (LUCs), and private institutions are treated as one to the detriment of their reason for being.

We should be producing graduates needed by the economy, be they local or national. And those graduates are grounded in what is needed by industries so that employment is guaranteed in that area. Graduates need to be aligned with the skills and expertise demanded by the economy; this is essential for fostering economic growth and innovation. This involves collaboration between educational institutions, industry stakeholders and policymakers to ensure that education programs are up-to-date and relevant to the evolving job market.