Arroyo forms body to work on quality education in colleges, universities

MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the creation of a six-man special body that will draft a set of guidelines that will ensure quality education in the tertiary level. President Arroyo, through Executive Order No. 705-A, said the creation of the Coordinating Council for Accreditation stemmed from the recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Educational Reform (PCER) for the establishment of a "set of common standards of accreditation per discipline." The CCA will be under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). The CCA shall be headed by a commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education as chairman, with members coming from the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU); the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities-Commission on Accreditation (PACU-COA); the Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities-Accrediting Agency (ACU-AA); the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities (AACUP); and the Association of Local Colleges and Universities-Commission on Audit (ALCU-COA). Funding for the body would be drawn from the Higher Education Development Fund while the secretariat and technical staff would be drawn from CHED. The EO also states that programs, courses and disciplines offered by the schools accredited or member of the five accrediting groups shall be exempted from the CHED's Institutional Quality Assurance Monitoring and Evaluation (IQAME) program which regularly reviews and ensures that courses offered in the tertiary level schools conform to approved standards for quality higher education. - GMANews.TV