TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, September 15, (PIA) –Trinidad Municipal College defies popular belief that schools run by local governments are financial burdens, when it proved it can be an income generating venture netting the town a total of P11,480,595 in 2014.
In fact, the school has subsidized the town, which is kind of unusual for local government set-up, admits Ttinidad Mayor Judith Cajes.
According to Cajes, the school in 2014 generated a gross income of P23,096,466.00.
And for the marked milestone, the mayor ascribes to a sound fiscal management and implemented reforms as well as calls that allowed the town to run the school like a business.
“And education should be run like it is business because educating our people is a serious business,” asserts the first lady mayor in the town’s 68 years since its foundation.
Started from its humble beginnings as Trinidad institute of Technology in then Mayor Atty. Avelino Puracan and Antero delos Reyes as an offshoot of an idea by Paciano Petarco, the public tertiary institution attracted about few students in vocational courses: typing, steno, bookkeeping, but it had problems.
By 1985, the school obtained a SEC registration for Trinidad Junior College until applied diploma courses went vogue. In 1995 however, school income was obviously not enough to recoup the operational costs including professors’ salaries and benefits.
In fact, due to the strains in fiscal resources in operating the school, the founders were forced to give it up to the local government under Mayor Filadelfo Garcia, since it was a losing business, according to one town councilor who was then among those who took over the school.
Established primarily to cater to a cheap education for the young students in the town, the school, soon named Trinidad Municipal College struggled along the road like most schools owned by government.
Years later, with new administrator and former congressman and mayor Roberto Cajes, authorities admit it was tough making the school generate resources considering that they are offering cheap tuition fees.
At P120 per unit, TMC keeps the record of offering the cheapest tuition fee in all schools in Bohol, and this cheap but education became a magnet attractive enough for the town’s college students, states Jojeline Buendia, information officer.
After the cheap tuition fees, we needed to equip the old and dilapidated school building to allow us more students and equipment necessary for the already growing learning community, narrates Mayor Cajes, who similarly adopted its award winning government fiscal management in the school.
This year, TMC has students from 26 of Bohol’s 47 towns and a city, students from nearby Leyte, Southern Leyte as wll as the far Mindanao, according to Administrator Cajes.
Now serving 3,270 students, TMC has 97 faculty members and 99 classrooms, Mayor Cajes said in her recent State of the Town Address delivered September 1.
Already graduating several professionals who have each carved niches in their choses professions, TMC attempts to build and step up to the challenge of competitive education, wisely investing its Millennium Performance Challenge Fund and Provincial Assistance in building classrooms, revolutionizing through its Computerized Enrolment and Payment Systems.
Recently, TMC celebrates another huge milestone when it beat the national passing average for the Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (BSEd) passing 13 of its 18 examinees in the latest Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
TMC garnered a passing average of 72.22 compared to the national passing rate of 35.70.
Meanwhile, for its Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, the college which is owned and operated by the municipal government pegged a 94.7 passing average over the national average of 34.40.
Over this, in view of the service that the school could give their young students, local officials eye the opening of technical and vocational courses including Hotel and Restaurant Management Services, according to the Mayor’s SOTA. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)
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