Saturday, October 6, 2007

ACCREDITATION: NO LONGER A SPECK IN KASC’S VISION

By Marciano A. Paroy Jr.

Only into his first year at the topmost seat of the Kalinga-Apayao State College (KASC), President Eduardo Bagtang has engineered a series of developments through his leadership savvy – the most notable of which is his recent drive to have six programs simultaneously submitted for accreditation.

For several years now, the state college had been making attempts to meet accreditation standards – and Dr. Bagtang’s predecessors at the management helm had indeed done their best to make the leap. The dawdling process somehow got the necessary shove it needed when Dr. Serafin Ngohayon of the Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry (ISCAF) sat for a brief period as the Officer-in-Charge from November 2005-March 2006 – a fleeting stint in his career which has earned him a place in KASC history for having masterminded the accreditation process for the Teacher Education programs of the state college, and getting the nod for Level 1 status.

Inspired obviously by such feat, Dr. Bagtang immediately put accreditation right into the apex section of his concerns when he took over the reigns from Dr. Ngohayon in March 2006.

What Dr. Ngohayon did in such a transitory span of time, Dr. Bagtang did in about the same duration – not for one or two programs, but for six programs!

Last December 2006, accreditors from the well-revered Accrediting Agency for Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACUP) came and dug into the documents, pored into the minute details and concerns, raised areas of contention, and inconspicuously jotted down texts and figures into their notes.

And by January of this year, the convoluted mixture of text and figures finally got quantified and qualified. AACUP weighed in, and gave its approving nod to the six programs: BS in Forestry, BS in Agriculture, BS in Agricultural Engineering, BS in Commerce – Management, AB Political Science, and AB History.

It’s about time really. What it obviously needed was the committed ascendancy which Dr. Bagtang displayed – so stirring enough for his human resources to respond and shoot for his vision.

A remarkable accomplishment, from whichever angle one may look at it.

“Now that we have crossed the first stage, we shall keep up with the pace set forth by the President,” Dr. Carmelita Ayang-ang, Vice President for Academic Affairs, remarked. “I have no doubt that with the leadership he exemplifies, the process of accreditation shall be a continuous endeavor until all of the programs shall have passed the levels needed to be attained.”

Accreditation, of course, is but one of Dr. Bagtang’s numerous plans for KASC. Adept in financial management, which has incidentally earned him his post as Auditor in the ASCU-SN, he may yet resolve how to better manage the finances of a cash-strapped institution like KASC.

As he has announced during the recently held Foundation Day of the school last January 26, “We shall look at one direction, and we shall tread the same path that leads us all to that which is but a mere speck in our far-reaching vision.”

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