The country needs more research scientists and engineers (RSEs) with advanced degrees to make science and technology work for disaster mitigation and poverty alleviation, ensure a sustainable environment and affordable energy for the future, and produce indigenous technologies to better our lives, said Dr. Emerlinda Roman, president of the University of the Philippines System, an institution under the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST).

According to the 2004 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics survey, the Philippines produces the least number of engineers as compared to other neighboring countries. Japan, Singapore, Korea, and China produce the most number of engineers.

“Each time we produce one MS graduate, Vietnam produces six, Thailand produces 25, and Singapore produces 200,” said Roman.

Moreover, 1,538 of the 1,713 higher education institutes are privately owned and depend on tuition. These schools shy away from research and development.  Roman said that only 11,700 students among 53,487 graduates of engineering pass the government’s licensure exams each year.

“This state of education means low value-added activities in industry which equates to low-economic contribution,” she added.

The UNESCO survey also said that the country spends the least on research and development, whereas, Japan Korea, Singapore and China showed a high expenditure rate on research and development. It can be seen that countries which flourish are those that produce a big number of engineers and spend a lot on research and development.