A GIANT step towards accessible free college education is expected to be realized in the next school year 2023-2024 following the passage of an ordinance on Monday establishing the Pangasinan Polytechnic College (PPC) in the province.

The ordinance cited the PPC’s advocacy to supplement the existing traditional educational institutes of higher learning in the province that “will focus on applied skills training relevant to the needs, aspirations and the development of the province’s emerging and transforming diverse economic and industrial landscape.”

PPC will primarily provide higher technological and professional instruction and training in the fields of agriculture, agribusiness management, community development and welfare, culture and arts, and other relevant fields of study; to undertake research, extension services, and production activities in support of province’s development.

In brief, PPC will  serve as the hub of the education ecosystem in Pangasinan.

Vice Governor Mark Ronald Lambino, who moved for the passage of the ordinance, said the establishment of the PPC is one of the campaign commitments of then candidate Ramon Guico III.

He said the ordinance was passed after 10 months of consultation with different experts from the University of the Philippines, University of Baguio, private institutions, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) who helped craft the charter of the PPC.

“The college that we are going to establish will be designed that it will be accessible to all Pangasinenses who are in need of tertiary education. But unlike most colleges and universities, we will be imploring a ladderized system where there will be diploma courses, certificate courses even vocational programs to help them already to jumpstart their possible careers after they graduate senior high,” Lambino said.

Lambino said the first campus will be opened in Lingayen at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center where there are already facilities and rooms that can be retrofitted or converted into classrooms.

He said Gov. Guico wants to have three campuses: one in Lingayen, another in central Pangasinan and another in eastern part of the province, all fully owned by the provincial government but it will also have its own board of regents.

PPC will be the first college fully-owned and run by a provincial government in Region 1, other government-owned colleges are funded by local government units and will seek to duplicate the feat achieved by University of Eastern Pangasinan established about 17 years ago with only 200 or so students, and has since grown to 10,000 or 12,000 students today. (Eva Visperas)

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