Usapang MedTech 2019: Expectations, Envision, Experience

REFLECTION

Usapang MedTech 2019 was a seminar held on the 14th of March, 2019, the Thursday of
the annual Pharmacy Week of the Faculty of Pharmacy. It revolved around the idea of
expectations, envision, and experience. ​Its speakers shed light on how the new academic
curriculum or program, K-12, which helps develop the existing educational system of the
Philippines. The K-12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education – six years
of elementary, four years of Junior High School, and two years of Senior High School. Its
primary objective, according to the Department of Education is “to provide sufficient time for
mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary
education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.”

The speakers of the talk/seminar emphasized the need for good leadership in order to
adapt to our changing academic environment. Good leadership, according to them, is
characterized by direction and vision. It is important for a leader to have a goal or destination,
and of course, to know by what carefully planned means he/she is going to get there. As a
student leader myself, I believe that these two characteristics that make a good leader. In addition
to that, however, an inevitable and integral part of leadership is change, and the ability to adapt
to it. Change leads to growth; and without change, there is no leadership.

As a student from the pioneer batch of K-12 from my high school, I will admit I had a
difficult time adjusting to such major changes. Not only was the new program more difficult, but
the shifting between environments was what bore the majority of the weight on my shoulders.
Having already gone through and completed the program however, I can confidently say that I
have grown into a more skilled and erudite student. Entering college though, it was as if this
standard was expected of all of us. Personally, I related to the speakers saying that the
expectations our college professors had for us coming from the K-12 program was significantly
added pressure. It was daunting to know that there was this presumption that K-12 students are
more mature, thus raising the bar for all of us.

Ferdinand Mortel, one of the speakers, expounded further on the challenges and
successes in the implementation of the new curriculum, and why exactly it was changed. If
students find relevant information to study then it must be added to the curriculum. The very
purpose of the program is the growth and development of the students. Through the
student-centered learning honed by the program, students are able to experience (through
assignments) what they learn in order to become more competent. It is in this way the student
does not only give one form or system of evaluation, but has many avenues for assessment such
as class performance, peer evaluations, and the like.

Rex A. Tiri, another one of the speakers, talked more about expectations being under the
program Medical Technology. He spoke about the need for technical competence upon our
finishing of the program, and its subsequent ethical practice in the actual field. Technical
competence, as he defined it, includes the proper performance and processing of lab testing, lab
results, and quality assurance methodology. By “ethical practice,” he means the becoming of
good citizens and medical technologists in our profession in the midst of all temptations and
adversities.

Ultimately, the K-12 program, aimed towards scholarly excellence, creates more
academically qualified students, given their more extensive and established backgrounds. Now in
the collegiate setting, especially being enrolled under BS Medical Technology, I do indeed feel
more prepared than most, having gone through the STEM strand in Senior High School. It is
there I went through the prior training needed to equip me in the tertiary level and for the rest of
my life as well.

More than the lessons I have learned and skills I have acquired under the new K-12
program, I believe it is the values that were instilled in me that truly prepared me for whatever I
have faced. It served as an effective stepping stone to where I am today. Ironically however,
where I am today is also another stepping stone to where I want to be in a few years time, which
is medschool. I chose to take up Medical Technology as my pre-med course because its
curriculum is what enticed me the most, seeing as it looks as if it will prepare me most for my
med proper. Two years into the university, and I can gladly say that I am not disappointed.
Having gone through two years under the program, I can honestly say that I am satisfied with
what I am learning and how. Both in theory and in practice, I feel like I am being honed to the
best of my abilities here in UST.

Although here in the Faculty of Pharmacy there is also a shift in curriculum because of
the K-12 program, in both curricula, all students still receive the same standard of excellence
promised by the faculty. Although the program was altered to better cater to the students of the
K-12 program, both offer comprehensive training and education. The speakers assured us that
though the new program is an improved curriculum, we students under the old curriculum are not
in a disadvantage.

Personally, I am happy with the program that I am in, even it is the old one. The courses
are comprehensive, and thorough – a good foundation for where I eventually want to be. Insofar,
I feel as if every day in the Faculty of Pharmacy is a step closer to achieving my dream of
becoming the best doctor that I can be. Whether or not I am under the new Medical Technology
curriculum or the old one, one things is for sure, and that is that I am still being properly
conditioned to becoming a competent, committed, and compassionate medical technologist in the
future.