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.
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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