Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie has a BS Agriculture degree in Education; no wonder that in looking at how to improve PH Agriculture, he is also looking at the State Colleges & Universities, SCUs (not sure this is the same as the Commission on Higher Education’s list that it refers to as the Schools, Universities & Colleges. (Top image from Government PH[1], lower image from Coolbuster[2]) In Manong Willie’s eyes, the SCUs are necessary agents in modernizing agriculture, following The Eight Paradigms that he has been espousing that embody his “New Thinking for Agriculture.” (For the list, see my essay, “William Dar’s 8 Paradigms For PH New Thinking For Agriculture[3].”)
Of the SCUs all over the Philippines, I got my enumeration from Wikipedia[4], which does not number them. (I also noticed something peculiar – the Wikipedia list does not include my alma mater, the University of the Philippines Los Baños! (You can ask for my list numbered automatically via Microsoft Word 2016: frankahilario@gmail.com.) Here is my list with the number of SCUs in each region, the highest number first:
12, Central Luzon; 11, Western Visayas; 10, Eastern Visayas; 09, Bicol Region; 08, National Capital Region; 07, Cordillera Administrative Region; 06, Zamboanga Peninsula; 06, Northern Mindanao; 06, MIMAROPA; 06, Ilocos Region; 06, BARMM; 05, Davao Region; 05, Central Visayas; 05, CALABARZON; 04, Caraga; 04, Cagayan Valley; 03 SOCCSKSARGEN.
Note the concentration of SCUs in Central Luzon (12), Western Visayas (11) and Bicol Region (09). To me, this indicates that those regions are much more aware of the need for education than the rest. Any modernizing should start with them.
What do the 8 paradigms and the New Thinking for Agriculture demand intellectually from the SCUs? New Thinking! They need to modernize their education, to emphasize teaching less critical thinking and teaching more creative thinking. More the arts than the sciences.
Within each subject or field, the SCUs need to train the youth, beyond theories & practices, beyond memorizing facts & figures & statements & sequences, in understanding the processes, practices & propositions, and coming out with their own insights.
Now, how will the SCUs teach creative thinking/innovation in each of the 8 paradigms of the new PH Agriculture?
Consider: “Creative thinking tries to create something new, while critical thinking seeks to assess worth or validity of something that already exists,” The Peak Performance Center says[5].
Apply: Let’s take the case of the System of Rice Intensification, SRI, invented by a Jesuit priest, Fr Henri de Laulanie in Madagascar in Africa. Let us try to understand why seedlings planted singly in hills and in squares produce more tillers and, consequently more grains – because each hill has literally as much root territory for growing plants to derive their food, no overcrowding and therefore no competition for nutrients.
That is the science of it. But how did a priest come up with the whole idea of SRI in the first place? Insight. That is the art of it!@517
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