In the 2000 Census, the Municipality Dalaguete in the province of Cebu had a total household population of 49,113 aged five years old or higher. Of these, only 5,895 or 12.01 percent had post-secondary or higher level of education, lower than the province’s 15.24 percent. Furthermore, only 927 or less than 2 percent of the household population in the municipality aged five or older were academic degree holders or with post baccalaureate studies, which is again much lower than the province’s 3.39 percent.
In mid 2000s, the ratio of the number of college students to high school was 0.455 at the national level. It was less than half in Dalaguete. Poverty is what caused many young kids in the municipality not to enter college. The worst part was that going to college was more expensive to them because of the need to go to the city, which would entail more expenses in board and lodging and travel on their part.
Out of school, most the youth in Dalaguete were forced to seek employment even at their young age. However, because of their inexperience and lack of proper education and training, they find it harder to find work or get only small pay when employed with no security of tenure.
One solution undertaken by the municipal government was to offer a Scholarship Program to help qualified students pay for the cost of going to high school and college. Another approach was to establish the Dalaguete Skills Training and Resources (STAR) Center whose graduates are TESDA accredited.
Not content with these two programs, the municipal officials of Dalaguete finally proposed to open up a college right in the municipality with an immediate plan to put up a college building in its newly reclaimed land and requested me to conduct the feasibility study.
I did the study in 2004 and found that the proposed college was feasible. But to avoid politics in the operation of the college, one of the recommendations of the study was to have the college operated by the private sector instead of the LGU using the municipal government proposed college building that it could use for free in the first four or five years and for a reasonable rent, thereafter, as an incentive.
The LGU followed this recommendation and this led finally to the operation of the college by the Cebu City-based University of the Visayas. UV-Dalaguete was born. This is Dalaguete’s version of Public Private Partnership, a system of governance that allows the private sector to collaborate with the local government in meeting its development objectives.
When it finally opened in SY 2007-2008, the college’s actual enrollment exceeded the study’s high enrollment projection by 18 percent and missed only by one percent its medium enrollment projection in its tenth year of operation.
Actual demand for college education as differentiated from the desire to go to college is shown by the ratio of the total number of college students to high school students. At the national level, the ratio was 0.44 or 44 college students for every 100 high school students at the time the study was made. In Dalaguete, it was less than half of the national ratio.
The intended beneficiaries of the project are the high school graduates from Dalaguete and those coming from the neighboring towns of Argao, Alcoy, Boljoon, Oslob, and Santander in the southeastern side of the second congressional district of Cebu province. This was realized.
Present students also include those who enter late in their age in college and those who already have some college education but seek further schooling to gain new knowledge or acquire new skills for personal satisfaction or in preparation for taking new jobs or responsibilities.
The immediate result of the proposed college comes in form of increased number of high school students who are able to enter college at lower cost because of its proximity.
In medium term, the increase in the number of high school students from Dalaguete who enter and graduate from college will increase their chances of being employed locally or outside the municipality.
In the long term, a college educated populace will not only have a higher chances of being employed but also able to demand higher wages or earn more when self-employed using their newly acquired knowledge, skills, and attitude.
Their material needs being met; they will ultimately gain more self-respect, live in dignity, and enjoy more freedom in life. The result will be observed in lower level of poverty and higher human development index (HDI) for the municipality.