GOVPH

Sports education in higher education institutions (HEIs) will enjoy an added boost with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), which will upgrade the skills of tertiary coaches, trainers and faculty members by providing short courses, trainings, accreditation and licensing. This cooperation was forged through the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between CHED Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III and PSC Chairman William Ramirez on 10 March 2021. The Commission, together with PSC, will also formulate a unified tertiary school sports development program to ensure that the HEI's Sports Development Plans are aligned with the national sports agenda and benchmarked with international standards. "We welcome this memorandum of agreement as it will allow us to join forces with the PSC in joint projects that we can initiate to promote sports development in higher education. We commit the support of CHED in all the undertakings on higher education sports development and wellness," According to De Vera, among the priority projects under the program include upgrading skills of coaches in various sports – particularly in higher education institutions and secondary education. The creation of short-term certificate programs like coaching, sports events management, sports medicine and management of sports facilities will also be prioritized. "Last year, we started funding university-to-university linkages between Philippine and top foreign universities to develop diploma and short-term programs for coaches and faculty members," he added. De Vera is referring to the Human Movement Science: A Model for Sustainability (HuMS) Project of UP College of Human Kinetics (UP CHK) in partnership with Universidad Catolica de Murcia (Spain), under the CHED's International Continuing Professional Education (ICPE) Grant. This project aims to enhance the knowledge, global competence and skills of the 456 Human Movement Science professionals from 112 SUCs, align the CHK curriculum with global and local targets, and promote the internationalization agenda of the institution. Ramirez said that the CHED-PSC partnership would create more competitive and excellent coaches and athletes in the collegiate level. "We at PSC are very happy for this historic MoA signing. This gives us the missing link in providing a professional development in continuous sports education and will cater more to the educational aspect of our teachers in coaching," he added. "On part of CHED, we will aggressively continue institutional linkages between the Philippines and the top foreign universities on collaborative research, faculty exchanges, and benchmarking," De Vera said. The signing of the MoA was also attended by PSC Commissioner Celia Kiram, CHED Deputy Executive Director Lily Freida T. Milla and UniFAST OIC-Executive Director Ryan L. Estevez.

The Commission on Higher Education-UniFAST and LANDBANK, as its partner institution, hold a virtual orientation on the new LANDBANK MasterCard Prepaid Card (LMPC) for Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) grantees in public and private oolleges and universities in the National Capital Region. The LANDBANK TES Card is just one of the modalities to be implemented for TES beneficiaries so that they may receive the financial assistance in a faster, easier, and safer way amidst the restrictions of COVID-19