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| Reference Material |
| RP NEEDS MORE ENGINEERS TO STAY COMPETITIVE Rep. Eduardo R. Gullas (1st District, Cebu) February 12, 2006 The Philippine has to produce more professional engineers, including those armed with post-graduate degrees, in order to take the country to the next level of technical competence and keep the economy competitive in the global marketplace, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said. "Right now, our most productive and fastest-growing industries -- telecommunications, semiconductors-electronics and information technology-enabled services -- are in great need of a steady supply of engineers," Gullas said. "These industries need civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics and communications, chemical and even sanitary engineers, in the case of the electronics manufacturers," Gullas pointed out. "We are way behind our neighbors in producing engineers. For every Filipino engineer that graduates from college, six are graduating in Vietnam, 25 are graduating in Thailand and 200 are graduating in Singapore," Gullas said. "India and China are each producing 400,000 to 500,000 engineers yearly, including thousands with post-graduate education," he added. Gullas, an educator, proposed the establishment of special scholarship fund that would finance the post-graduate training of Filipino engineers here and abroad. He lamented that the country has only "a few hundred" engineers with post-graduate education. He also said the University of the Philippines? capacity to provide post-graduate training to engineers should be reinforced. "The top 10 board passers from each province, in each engineering filed, should be given free post-graduate scholarships at UP, to include free board and lodging and a reasonable stipend," he said. Gullas, meanwhile, stressed the need for the Commission on Higher Education to put in check the decline in the quality of engineering education. He noted that last year, of the 28,916 candidates who took the licensure examinations in electrical, civil, electronics and communications, mechanical and chemical engineering, only 41 percent or 11,282 passed. Professional Regulation Commission statistics show that in the licensure test for electronics and communications engineers, only 33 percent passed, or 2,298 out of 7,065. In the test for civil engineers, only 35 percent made the grade, or 2,871 out of 8,285. In the test for electrical engineers, only 44 percent passed, or 3,834 out of 8,668. In the test for mechanical engineers, only 46 percent passed, or 1,697 out of 3,714. In the test for chemical engineers, only 50 percent made the grade, or 582 out of 1,184. |