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Thursday, September 04. 2008
PROMETHEUS BOUND
By Kim Gargar
Putting a cork on brain drain
Agraduate of BS Biology working as bank teller; a BS Chemistry graduate
teaching P.E.; a physicist fresh from college selling toothpaste and other
products of a multi-level marketing company; a mechanical engineer
assembling electric fans in a Laguna factory; an electronics engineer
soldering TV circuits for a Japanese TV company; a cum laude chemical
engineering graduate titrating every day in a quality control laboratory
for a food manufacturing factory. [Editor’s note: Titration is a simple
laboratory method of quantitative/chemical analysis often used to
determine the unknown concentration of a known reactant. It is also called
volumetric analysis because volume measurements play a key role in the
procedure.]
These are the realities of under- and mismatched employment many science
and engineering graduates in the Philippines have been facing for decades:
as students they went through several years of hard study in high-level
science but end up working to do activities that do not require their
advanced skills. Add to these our medical doctors who after studying for
more than nine years just to add an “MD” after their names are now
starting to prepare themselves to become nurses in America. How about our
few very good high school science teachers migrating to the US to earn
dollars by teaching in public schools there?
The list seems to be never-ending and these specific cases only reflect
the general state of science in the Philippines. A Science Education
Institute survey revealed that only one out of five high school physics
teachers is qualified to teach physics. In another study, a Trends in
International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) survey of 2nd year high
school students, the Philippines ranks 43rd among Asian countries. At the
top is South Korea while Indonesia ranks 36th on the list.
The number of research scientists and technologists for every million
Filipinos is around 100. This is very much lower than the United Nations
prescription for the Philippines—380 for every million. However, even with
the small size of the science and technology sector, underemployment is
one big problem of the sector. This is not surprising as underemployment
in the Philippines is a common phenomena. According to the National
Statistics Office, 6.38 million (18.9 percent of the total employed) were
underemployed in 2007. The actual statistic could be higher.
If a fresh science and engineering graduate is lucky enough, he gets to
teach in universities and colleges and be able to impart what he had
studied for several years. If not, he would go abroad and join research
laboratories in Japan, the US, and Europe depriving the country further of
highly skilled intellectual workforce. Even with a Balik scientist
program, it is hard to have them stay here in our country.
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If not teaching, those with
some sense of patriotism remain in the country as technicians or as
managers (still not a science practitioner) in multinational corporations.
For instance, many graduate Physics degree holders or students from the
National Institute of Physics are now in the production lines of
semiconductor companies where research and development (R&D) activity is
very minimal and limited to improving operations efficiency. They will
soon have to contend with Intel Philippines moving its operations to other
countries.
Many chemical engineers or chemists practice their profession as
consultants to local or foreign chemical companies helping them solve
elementary problems that do not require advanced methods or principles in
chemistry. “Brain drain” does not only happen with people leaving the
country for employment abroad; it is also possible when people’s talents
are not tapped for domestic use.
What we have is an educational system that produces far very few good
scientists and engineers and a working environment that needs less or none
at all. With the rise of call centers and other business-process
outsourcing companies, the underemployment rate is expected to also rise.
Increasing the number of human resources in science and technology is only
one part. There is a move to increase the quality and number of graduate
studies in engineering through the Engineering R&D for Technology project
where nearly P6.5B is targeted for scholarships and infrastructure.
However, the government’s strategic plans on development are not geared
towards building a truly self-reliant economy. These plans have been
tailored for our export-oriented and import-dependent economic model that
weakens domestic production through its policy of opening national
industries to foreign corporations and deregulating and liberalizing
ownership of critical base industries. In such a situation, what need is
there for a highly trained scientist or engineer?
This problem can be faced head on by putting up basic industries to
manufacture goods and materials for domestic needs which will require
science and engineering graduates. This will widen their employment
opportunities as technical workers and be involved in research and
development for local industries and hopefully put the cork on our brain
drain.
Kim Gargar has a Master of Science in Physics from UP Diliman and now
teaches at the Mapua Institute of Technology. He has been active in AGHAM
since 2001.
prom.bound@gmail.com
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