Discipline: Education, Management
What does this challenge reflect about the thrusts of Letran as one of the very early tertiary schools in the Philippines? Service to the community is one of the three components of a university. The other two that constitute the tripod of a university is instruction and research. Perhaps we can easily make an excuse for not taking seriously community service and research and for focusing only on its academic thrusts that Letran is not a university. If this is true, then let me just stress this point. With regard to the levels of education, we speak only of three: the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Letran belongs to that level that any university belongs. Like any university, Letran is a tertiary educational institution, so I do not see any reason why Letran should not fully assume the functions of a university, or better still, why it should not aim to reach the status of a university. And I could dare to make this wish with passion because Letran is already a 387 year-old institution, one of the very early, if not pioneering tertiary schools in the country. So I boldly ask the question now: “After almost four centuries of existence, where does Letran stand now in the educational echelon of our country?”
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