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Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College
May 2007

Towards greater heights through quality and excellence in education

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College is a state institution of higher learning and is the youngest of the five state universities and colleges (SUCs) in Region I. It was created by Republic Act 8547 authored by Rep. Eric D. Singson of the second district of Ilocos Sur and signed into law by then President Fidel V. Ramos on February 24, 1998.

Prior to its becoming a state college, Congressman Singson initiated the integration of five technical-vocational institutions, two national high schools and a general comprehensive high school in the second district by virtue of Repupblic Act 7960 which Congressman Singson also authored in March 1995. These schools were the Cervantes National Agro-Industrial School which now compose the Cervantes Campus of the state college; the former Southern Ilocos Sur School of Fisheries, now the Candon City campus; the former Ilocos Sur Experimental Station of Pilot School of Cottage Industries, now the Tagudin campus; then then Narvacan School of Fisheries, now the Narvacan campus; and former Ilocos Sur Agricultural College, now the Sta. Maria campus. The two general high schools absorbed were the Suyo National High School, Salcedo National High School and the Tagudin General Comprehensive High School .

Of the original eight campuses, two - Suyo and Salcedo - were reverted back to the Department of Education in November, 1997 and October, 2001 respectively. Those that remained with ISPSC are the College of Agro-Industrial Technology at Cervantes; College of Teacher Education at Tagudin; College of Commercial & Social Services at Candon City; College of Engineering & Technology at Santiago; College of Fisheries & Marine Sciences at Narvacan and the College of Agriculture at Santa Maria which is also the seat of the College Administration.

Guided by its philosophy, vision and mission, the College in its turbulent years strove to rise above odds and hardships, including lack of budget to start the operation of a new institution like the ISPSC. The initial operation of the College depended only on the integrated budget of each of the schools/ institutions, thus, the College leadership had to contend with meager resources of the schools it had absorbed. Various programs and projects were set in place to enable the College to implement its mandate to provide tertiary education in its service areas, notwithstanding the lack of funds for the construction of new buildings that will replace old and substandard ones. The acquisition of funds to build much needed facilities for classroom instruction, research and extension and production became the primordial concern of the College leadership. And to succeed, it had to patiently go out of the way to generate support from various government agencies (GAs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civic-minded individuals, alumni and the strong linkages with domestic and foreign funding agencies. Efforts had to be redoubled to strengthen production activities with new projects being undertaken and the old and existing ones resuscitated and improved.

The sudden elevation of the institution into a polytechnic state college did not sit well initially on some educators who even ridiculed the members of the faculty as not qualified to teach in college for they were non-masters degree holders and lacked the needed experience to teach tertiary students. One opinion writer of a local tabloid even came out with an article questioning the propriety of converting the institution into a state college. This and other unsavory remarks did not distract nor hamper the college leadership’s desire to work well to achieve a certain degree of accomplishment for the new college.

PRESENT TIMES

After nine years of being a state college, ISPSC boasts of two graduate school program offerings, sixteen undergraduate and fifteen post-secondary technical courses offered in the different campuses. The high school department which used to comprise majority of the students was reduced to not more than 500 students to conform to the policy set forth by Republic Act 8292 and maintained as the training ground of would-be teachers enrolled in education courses. The College has a total population now of more than three thousand students manned by 214 faculty members with academic rank. In addition, the college has 14 non-academic faculty members and 108 non-teaching staff. The College also employs casual and part- time instructors whose specialization courses are needed for better efficiency and effectiveness.

To better improve the delivery of basic services, the College leadership has to embark on massive training of faculty and upgrading their educational qualification. To this date, it has 24 doctorate degree holders with additional three who were to graduate last March; 66 masters degree holders and all the rests had either finished their academic requirements for the degree in Master of Arts or have taken units beyond their degree course.

In its desire to ensure quality education, the ISPSC has embarked on the accreditation of its Teacher Education Program by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines, Inc. (AACCUP). The Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd), Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) and Bachelor of Science in Home Technology (BSHT) courses in both Tagudin and Sta. Maria Campuses were already visited and evaluated, thus Tagudin Campus has acquired its Level I status and (Revisit) Level 2 status in a span of almost two a half years while Sta. Maria was extended Level 1 status and earmarked for a revisit for Level II this year. More programs are envisioned to be accredited in the near future.

Apart from the accreditation and evaluation of its programs, the College also was subjected to evaluation by the Commission on Higher Education where three experts/consultants came for a week to conduct a thorough evaluation and review of its programs, projects, activities and documented its best practices as called for in the instrument of evaluation. The ISPSC likewise prides itself to be the first SUC in Region 1 to be evaluated in terms of IQUAME (Institutional Quality Assurance for Monitoring & Evaluation). The Self Evaluation Documents (SED) that served as the main instrument used for the evaluation contained five Key Result Areas (KRAs) such as Governance and Management, Quality of Teaching and Research, Support for Students, Relations with Community and Management of Resources. Each of this KRA has its Core Indicator serving as a gauge in determining the points to be assigned in each of the parameters specified in the evaluation sheet. Voluminous documents as called for in the SED have to be prepared to support the self rating indicated therein by selected key faculty and personnel. The evaluators who came during the first week of December, 2006 are experts/ administrators from private colleges and universities from other regions. The result is still awaited although the administration is positive that the College passed the evaluation with flying colors. Both evaluations are pet projects of the Commission on Higher Education to install quality assurance among higher educational institutions.

Research, Extension and Production Programs and Activities

Aside from its primary function to provide instruction, ISPSC is also mandated to undertake relevant researches, conduct extension services, and generate revenue through production endeavors.

Along research, the College earmarked at least 10 percent of its yearly budget for the strengthening the research capabilities of its faculty and in the conduct of researches. The College has also joined hands with other government and international agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Science & Technology, CHED, ICRISAT, and INIBAP to support the conduct of researches. The research unit of the college is currently headed by Prof. Elena Ato, the Director for Research and Extension. Faculty members have conducted several researches mostly along the field of agriculture. Students also undertake researches as part of their training. The commodities being given priority at present includes rice, sweet sorghum, pigeon pea, ground nut, root crops, dragon fruit, banana, and along organic farming.

The College, in partnership with other government institutions and the local government units, also conducts extension services to help improve the lives of people in its service area, particularly the less privileged and marginalized. The following extension programs are being undertaken at present: Banana-in-Every Home Program, Gender and Development Livelihood Program, Organic Farming, Adopt-a-School Program, Community-Based Watershed Management Project, Coastal Clean-up Programs, and others. The Banana-in-Every-Home Program has covered 15 municipalities of Ilocos Sur and two schools have benefited from the Adopt-a-School Program. Hundreds of housewives have also been trained on livelihood capability building. These extension activities are undertaken by both employees and students of the College.

And in response to the decreasing budget allocated by the national government to state universities and colleges, ISPSC is undertaking a vigorous income generating ventures to augment its finances. The production ventures of the College are supervised by the Director for IGP, Prof. Bernadette Calibuso. These ventures include the production of certified rice seeds for distribution to local farmers, production of Trichogramma cards for the biological control of corn borers, mango production, mushroom and spawn production, dragon fruit production, inland fish culture, rental of facilities and equipment, and others. Several facilites have been put up for production endeavors such as the Trichogramma Laboratory, the Bio-N Mixing Plant, and the Fish Fry Bank. Several existing facilities also generates additional income through rentals such as the Farmers Training Center , the College Auditorium and covered court, the Computer and Internet Centers , and the soon to be completed college gymnasium.

FLAGSHIP COURSES

The Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College has six colleges and one Graduate School based at Sta. Maria namely; the College of Agriculture at Sta. Maria Campus; College of Teacher Education at Tagudin Campus; College of Agro-Industrial Technology at Cervantes Campus; College of Commercial & Social Services at Candon City Campus; College of Engineering & Technology at Santiago Campus and the College of Fisheries & Marine Sciences at Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. The Graduate School is based at the Main Campus with an extension unit at the Tagudin Campus.

The main thrust of ISPSC in consonance with the key challenges of CHED along instruction is to provide quality and excellence, relevance and responsiveness, access and equity, and efficiency and effectiveness. And one strategy that is being implemented by the College is the ladderization of its programs as per Executive Order 358. At present the College has 2 ladderized programs (BS Fisheries and BS Industrial Technology) registered with TESDA and 3 more programs are expected to be certified by TESDA in time for school year 2007-2008 which are BS in Information Technology, Bachelor in Agricultural Technology and Bachelor of Science in Home Technology.

The College of Agriculture at Sta. Maria that used to be ISAC has long been offering agriculture & other related courses since it became an agricultural college. It is a recipient of a twenty one million loan grant package from the World Bank Foundation through the Educational Program Implementing Task Force in the Philippines (EDPITAF) in 1990.A part of the sprawling campus houses several structures that were built as a result of the grant given to the college including the scholarship grants of several faculty in agriculture that were able to finished their graduate courses at CLSU.The campus offers Bachelor in Agricultural Technology, BS in Information Technology, Bachelor in Secondary Education, Bachelor in Elementary Education, Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering, Three-year Diploma in Agricultural Technology & other post-secondary technical courses.

The College of Fisheries & Marine Sciences at Narvacan, Ilocos Sur has for its courses geared towards fisheries like Bachelor of Science in Fisheries with major fields of specialization in Fish Capture, Fish Culture & Fish Preservation, However, the campus will now offer the Ladderized Education Program in Fisheries curriculum under Executive Order 358. It also offers the 1st two-years of the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology & Non-degree technical courses.

The College of Engineering & Technology at Santiago Campus offers Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology with various technology courses as majors; Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education with majors similar to that of the BSIT and post-secondary technical courses. The campus will start offering the new Ladderized Education Program under Executive Order 358 in June with the approval of its request to offer the same by the Technical Education & Skills Dev’t Authority (TESDA) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The campus has started undertaking feasibility studies on what possible engineering courses can be opened in the near future.

The College of Commercial & Social Services is located at Darapidap, Candon City, Ilocos Sur. The campus offers Bachelor of Science in Hotel & Restaurant Management, Bachelor in Tourism and the two-year information technology leading to a bachelor’s degree program. It is set to offer the new ladderized Bachelor of Science in Hotel & Restaurant Management in June, 2007.

The College of Teacher Education at Tagudin, Ilocos Sur offers the Bachelor in Secondary Education, Bachelor in Elementary Education, Bachelor of Science in Commerce, and Bachelor of Arts with different major courses. It also offers the first two- years of the Bachelor Science in Information Technology (BSIT). The campus is slated to offer a new course, the Bachelor of Science in Business Management (BSBA) with new major or specialization course. This was recently approved by the Board of Trustees (BOT) in their first quarter meeting in February, 2007.

The College of Agro-Industrial Technology at Cervantes, Ilocos Sur offers the Bachelor pf Science in Agricultural Education, Bachelor in Secondary Education, Bachelor in Elementary Education & non-degree technical courses. The new ladderized education program in Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education is also set to open in June, 2007. The Cervantes campus being located at the farthest & remotest town of the province serves the educational needs of most of the indigenous peoples in the locality.

Source: Manila Bulletin Online