UST College of Science academic staff Assoc. Prof. Ma. Ninia Calaca was nominated by the CHED Commission En Banc as the country representative for Higher Education at the UNESCO Sub-Regional Meeting on Education Recovery and Transformation held from October 26 to 27, 2022 in Bali, Indonesia.
Calaca delivered her plenary talk on “Transformation for Future Education: The Philippine Higher Education Experience”. She discussed three major points: (1) The Challenges and Opportunities of the Philippine Higher Education: Initial Results of Rapid Appraisal of Learning Gains, Loss, and Well-being in Higher Education; (2) Catch-up Plan of the Philippine Higher Education to Address Learning Challenges in Higher Education; and (3) the Role of Distance Learning and Trends in the Philippine Higher Education in Post Pandemic.
The UNESCO sub-regional meeting supports the call of the UN Secretary General in its September 2022 Transforming Education System (TES) Summit in New York. It recognizes that education is a foundation for peace, tolerance, human rights, and sustainable development. As the world emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, the Summit has provided an opportunity to mobilize greater commitment, and action for SDG 4 (Quality Education), reimagine education, and accelerate progress on education and the 2030 Agenda more broadly for the remainder of the Decade of Action.
Discussions generated recommendations for the subregion to go forward in terms of priority actions and implementation strategies from the perspective of system transformation and building resilience and improving learning for accelerating progress towards SDG 4.
Calaca is a Member of the CHED Technical Working Group for Flexible Learning, the TWG in-charge of the policies and directions during and post-pandemic, and a member of the CHED Technical Panel on Transnational Education and Distance Education since 2015. She is instrumental to several research works of the Commission during the pandemic, and in determining future directions of higher education.
Initially, Calaca presented ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of the Philippine Higher Education: Initial Results of Rapid Appraisal of Learning Gains, Loss, and Well-being in Higher Education’ in the Philippine Social Development Council – Technical Board Meeting on September 2, 2022 as CHED Technical Expert.
