It is an exciting time in the state-funded tertiary academe because the promotion evaluation of faculty according to the National Budget Circular No. 461 is ongoing, if not already done. Bits of paper that constitute the flotsam and jetsam of academic life are sifted through, checked, collated, and evaluated if they will lead to the number of points needed to have that increase in rank.
How jarring it is when a piece of paper is lost, missing, or lacking those crucial decimals to earn a few thousand more.
It doesn’t matter if you have earned that doctorate degree, if you haven’t had it certified, authenticated, and verified by the registrars and the Commission on Higher Education.
It doesn’t matter how many research projects you lead if it is not published in a prestigious journal.
It doesn’t matter if your publication is cited or not if you miss out on the table of contents of the journal it is published in.
It doesn’t matter if it is indexed in a prestigious journal or not if the editorial board is not known.
It doesn’t matter if you have impacted the lives of professionals or lay people as a resource speaker if you don’t have that attendance sheet or even the slides of the presentation you used.
It doesn’t matter if you have presented at a conference if you do not show that letter of invitation.
It doesn’t matter if you have shared with the community skills to improve their lives if you have been compensated in any form.
It doesn’t matter if you are a lowly instructor, designated to offices, presided over ad-hoc committees, or member of a task force many times over if a piece of paper is lost, missing, or unauthenticated.
It doesn’t matter, if a piece of paper says it doesn’t matter.
What matters is a piece of paper that says you matter.
Such is academic life in the Philippines, where value is placed on pieces of paper or on people who “matter.”
Mark Ronald Manseguiao,instructor and research director,Davao del Norte State College