TACLOBAN CITY – The creation of additional campuses for the Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) is important to address its increasing enrollment.
Thus said House Minority Floor Leader and 4Ps party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan who has co-authored a bill for the creation of satellite campuses of ESSU to be located in the different towns in Eastern Samar.
Under the proposed measure, Libanan seeks the creation of an ESSU campus in Balangiga and the conversion of the ESSU Arteche into a regular campus.
Both bills are authored by Tingog party-list Representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre, and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez of Leyte’s first congressional district.
These bills are already referred to the committee on higher and technical education at the House of Representatives on August 11, 2022.
ESSU, at present, has more than 20,000 students enrolled in its main campus in Borongan City, and campuses located in Guiuan, Can-avid, Salcedo, Maydolong, and a satellite campus in Arteche.
In Guiuan alone, there are over 5,000 enrolled students.
“That is why I co-author bills that seek to create new ESSU campuses. The more campuses we have, the better,” Libanan said.
“But I suggest that there should be no duplication of courses so that our professors and instructors can focus well on teaching their expertise and we can produce better graduates,” he added.
The lawmaker further said that an evaluation must also be done and courses offered are those needed by the country and workforce in the international community.
“We should not only aim for a diploma but we should aspire for what is needed in our community,” he added.
ESSU is one of the state universities in Eastern Visayas and offers graduate courses, and baccalaureate degrees among which are engineering, computer studies, education, agriculture and natural sciences, business management and accountancy, hospitality management, nursing, and criminology.
The university is also offering vocational-technical courses and senior high school.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
