Would you be comfortable treated by a new graduate or newly licensed individual in the health professions, e.g. dentist, nurse or even a doctor? I bet, like me, you will also have your reservations. Why?
"Baka pagpraktisan lang ako."
You will have reservations because you might think that he or she will just practice on you. You are not sure whether the person is already capable, let alone competent, to handle the necessary procedure/s.
Sad but true. There is a gap between what the schools are teaching and what they are supposed to be producing. Numerous studies show that health professions graduates do not have the work skills needed to perform the requisites of their profession.
With the implementation of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in the Philippines there is hope.
OBE is a term coined by Spady in 1994 which "...refers to clearly focusing and organizing everything
in the education system around what is essential for all students to be able to
do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. This means starting
with a clear picture of what is important for students to be able to do,
then organising the curriculum, instruction and assessment to make sure that
learning ultimately happens”.
OBE is the kind of instruction and curriculum design used in Europe and America since the 1990s. The awakening of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) may be late in the Philippines but I am glad the time has come to really focus on what ought to be done in the worsening quality of graduates in the country.
In OBE, higher education institutions must first have a clear picture of the competencies should their graduates have when they actually get into the workplace. From there, they will have to design the curriculum and teaching strategies in order to get to where they want their students to be. Students under the OBE will be learning the actual skills and competencies they need in order to perform the job they are training to become.
