Thursday, May 18, 2006
42 more students fall prey to unaccredited course
By Barbara Carla R. Quiero
A TOTAL of 42 graduating students of the ABE International College of Business and Accountancy were not able to graduate last March due to the school's alleged lack of course recognition.
City Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta said she received a letter from lawyer Cyrus E. Torreña, the counsel of the 2006 graduating students, who requested the councilor's assistance in behalf of the 42 students.
"Supposed to be ga-graduate sila ng end of SY 2005-2006 only to find out nga ang kurso pala nila ay walang Commission of Higher Education (Ched) na recognition," said Acosta, also chair of the City Council committee on education.
Torreña said the students approached him about their problems on the first week of March 2006.
The students, Torreña said in the letter, were enrolled with the ABE International College of Business and Accountancy for the past four years.
"All of them, as per evaluation of subjects/courses taken, they are scheduled to graduate at the end of School Year 2005-2006. Unluckily they learned that the most of the degrees that ABE International School of Business and Accountancy had no Ched recognition," Torreña said.
Torreña said a meeting was already held last March 11 between Ched officials, the students represented by Torreña and AMA Educational System (AMAES) representative Ernesto Raphael Robillo as ABE Davao is a member of the AMA Educational System.
During the said meeting several agreements were made. Among them were allowing the students to graduate on the course taken, regardless if the course is recognized or not provided that all requirements are met.
In the crediting of subject, the evaluation should be liberalized. A matrix presentation or report on the subjects taken, grades and the individual status of each student to graduate should also be submitted to Ched.
Then, the students sought the help of the councilor on the implementation of the said agreements.
"What irks me is bakit nangyayari pa rin ito hanggang ngayon? Ano ba talaga ang kulang? Kung sabihin mo batas, meron naman," Acosta said.
In a committee hearing called by Acosta Wednesday attended by Torreña, the students, and Robillo, the latter when asked why the course is still not recognized by Ched, said it is only the Ched and ABE officials who can answer the question as he is an official of the AMA Computer College (Amacc) and does not know anything on the matter.
ABE Davao and Amacc are both members of the AMA Educational System.
He, however, said the reason why the students cannot yet graduate is caused by the erroneous accreditation of subjects, rounding off of grades and improper curriculum implementation.
This, after ABE stopped its operation last year and the students were absorbed by AMA Computer College (Amacc) last November. Thus, the problem started with the transfer of documents from school to school and evaluation process.
"Promotion reports incomplete, wala ang ibang grade sheets ng students sa matrix submitted by the dean, meron din ibang students when evaluated, still has subject deficiencies," Robillo said.
"But, what we are doing now is making sure that these problems are fixed before allowing them to graduate," he said.
As of the moment, Robillo said, they are evaluating the subjects taken by the students so they can graduate together with the AMA graduating students.
"They had to go another re-evaluation process. AMA is doing its best to help these students graduate," Robillo said.
During the committee hearing, Ferdinand D. Macol, dean of ABE during its operations, was invited to join the said meeting to help shed light on the issue but he begged off from attending the hearing.
Macol in his letter to Acosta, dated May 17, said he is not the appropriate person to be asked on the issue since the problem confronting AMAES with respect to ABE Davao is an operations problem, which is outside the scope of his responsibilities.
He added that it is still premature to tackle the issue in public since Amacc is doing its best to address the problems of the ABE Davao.
"We need Macol to clear out some problems dito," Robillo said, which was also agreed by Acosta.
She said her committee prefers that Macol attend the said hearing as he is one of the officials of ABE Davao.
Robillo said Macol resigned from ABE but is still to be cleared by the AMA Educational System.
Meanwhile, of the 42 students, 25 are already recommended for graduation while 17 are still not sure as their records are still to be evaluated and they still lack some requirements.
On Friday, Robillo said they will forward the recommendation to AMA Educational System central office in Manila for final approval.
If approved, Robillo said students can graduate this June 9.
Acosta, however, said June 9 is still a long time. Together with the students, they pushed for a May 29 graduation.
Acosta said she will write a letter to the top officials of AMA Educational System to fast-track the said approval.
She added that she will go to Manila on Monday to personally follow-up the approval so the students can graduate on May 29.
Robillo assured that what happened in ABE Davao will no longer happen. He said the Ched recognizes courses in Amacc in the city.
"If there were problems before, I assure it will not happen anymore," he disclosed.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 18, 2006 issue)
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