I HOPE you watched or watch my interview with Phinma Education’s CEO Chito Salazar, which aired last Friday and is available on YouTube. I learned a lot in that interview and thank Chito again for his many insights into the now over 20-year journey of Phinma in quality college-level education in the provinces.
Salazar eloquently explained the challenges of educating students who do not come from higher tier backgrounds and outside of major urban centers. There is a need to train and educate them based on what education level, paltry and inadequate as it may have been when they entered and make up for it by graduation. It was a sobering explanation, and I admire what Phinma and their team are doing in not just a critical but essential make or break mission for the progress of the Philippines. Beyond that, they also factor in the circumstances their students are in, which is very different from the way students are taught (successfully or not) in mainstream urban colleges and universities. This has met with considerable and laudable success with many of their students topping or placing the boards for the professions they have chosen.
How successfully? Global private equity giant and pioneer KKR made a substantial minority investment in Phinma Education at a handsome valuation that was a huge premium to the entire company.
Phinma has an open admission system that accepts the students as they are and remedially train them to be able to learn what they need to do, be qualified for the work they are planning to do and pass the boards they need to be licensed to do, whether it is nursing, police or other fields. It means first improving their comprehension, language and math skills to a level not necessarily at urban colleges but to learn their chosen craft, pass the boards and do their jobs well.
Among his many worthwhile observations and innovations was homework. It is common to assign and require homework in most colleges and universities. Given their careful and in-depth understanding of their students, they realized many of them have to help their families in their work or duties at home or live under conditions that make doing homework frankly impractical. They try to encompass all the learning needed while at the school which besides being practical has led to better results and a lower drop-out rate.
Bravo to Phinma for taking on a problem — mass higher education — and addressing it comprehensively, innovatively, and most of all, successfully.
At the end of the interview, Chito mentioned something I had not heard of before, which is his chairman, Ramon del Rosario Jr.’s idea of addressing our education dilemma comprehensively by proposing a BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas)-like structure, including the Monetary Board for education. A fantastic idea that is needed. I did not have a chance to discuss it in detail with either Chito or Ramon.
In the Inquirer of Sept. 17, Ramon del Rosario Jr., chairman of Phinma, wrote a column on this idea of a BSP-like institution and board for education. I think it is a brilliant idea that is not just necessary but compelling given how we have fallen so far behind even our neighbors in education and the subsequent quality of our workforce. I urge you to read that column, and I think we should move to implement it as it is a great idea not just to catch up with the quality of our education but to do so sustainably by both depoliticizing it and handing it to experts to supervise and over the long term. Just like the way the BSP is set up and run. It is also noteworthy that in his column last Tuesday, Sept. 22, Cielito Habito, a development economist whose expertise, insight and integrity is of the highest level, also recognizes the paramount value of education and endorsed del Rosario’s proposal.
I don’t want to summarize the article as it is best to read it, but let me make a few points I found that reflected their deep experience over 20 years in bringing quality and effective higher education to the countryside. I quote the opening of his important column where he clearly sets the context for what he suggests.
“One of the most consequential institutional reforms we have undertaken as a country was the transformation of our central bank. The creation of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 1993 was not simply about creating another government agency. It was about building a professional institution with a clear mandate, highly qualified leadership, operational independence and the ability to attract capable people. Its structure recognizes that monetary policy requires decisions based on expertise and long-term national interest, not the political calendar. This raises a provocative question: What if we applied some of the same principles to education?”
Our legislature and education department would benefit from seeking the advice of Phinma, their chairman del Rosario and CEO for education Chito Salazar. As they point out, education needs experts, funding and a planning horizon that runs decades, so it must be depoliticized as well. Just like the BSP, despite Tiglao’s view to the contrary, I consider the best run and least political government institution this country has. We surely need more institutions like them. The BSP may not be perfect, but to me, it is clearly much less imperfect than other government institutions. We need something analogous for education and enthusiastically agree with Ramon del Rosario Jr.’s recommendation.
The author is an independent director of the state-run Maharlika Investment Corp.