Six medical programs were opened in just one year under the Marcos administration as part of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) thrust to increase the number of public universities offering medical programs, CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera III said on Tuesday.
During a press briefing in Malacañang, De Vera said CHED submitted to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. the Commission’s accomplishment report as the administration completes its first year in office, which focused on six areas with verifiable and measurable success indicators.
“For example, we are pushing for more public universities to have medical programs. There are now 18 medical schools in state universities and colleges where students can get scholarship for their medical education and they will serve in underserved areas after they graduate,” De Vera said.
“Out of the 18, the original number was eight. Under the (former President Rodrigo) Duterte administration, four were produced or four programs are opened in five years; under the Marcos administration, six medical programs are opened in one year. So we really presented those where there was a significant difference,” he said.
According to the CHED chairperson, these new medical schools offer scholarships with their state-of-the-art equipment to produce world-class doctors who will serve the country’s underserved areas.
De Vera also enumerated the six areas submitted to the President that include Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education; CHED’s achievement in compliance to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA); and, its achievements in addressing the nursing education issue.
Expanding medical education to students; CHED’s niche programs particularly on science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and, internationalization of Philippine higher education are also part of the Commission’s report.
In terms of CHED’s achievements in addressing the challenges in nursing education, De Vera said the Commission will particularly come up with long-term, medium-term and immediate actions that can be done to address the shortage of Filipino nurses.
“Those were the six areas that we discussed with the President, and we identified the verifiable success indicators and data to show that in the first year of the Marcos administration, there was a significant achievement and change in terms of the higher education sector,” De Vera said. PND
