University of the Cordilleras

College of Teacher Education

Educational Management 501
Principles and Problems of Educational Management

Removal of Honorarium to the Research Staffs under SALIKHA: CHED-NCCA

Grants for Creative Projects of the K-12 Transition Program

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED), in partnership with the

National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA), has opened the call
for proposals for creative projects designed to mainstream cultural education
and appreciation in higher education. The grants targeted towards HEIs with
faculty or non-teaching personnel affected by the K-12 Transition, who wish to
engage in arts research or creative projects for publication, exhibition, production
or other forms of public use, particularly geared toward advancing Philippine arts
and culture in higher education. The Central Luzon State University submitted their
proposals, and one of our research team leader’s proposal was approved. The
research project that was approved was “Understanding Araquio: Tracing the
Steps, Music, and Visuals. It was a century old theatre play ritual from Peñaranda,
Nueva Ecija. The research team was composed of a team leader, three research
staffs which are experts in history, music and dance and four research assistants
that will assist the team leader and the research staffs. I was hired as a research
assistant on the said institution under this SALIKHA project which was funded by
CHED and NCCA.
On the first quarter of the project, the research team leader together with
his research staffs were receiving honorarium ranging 4,800 - 8,800 pesos per
month which were based on their salary grade. The budget was approved by the
CHED which includes personnel services charges including the salary of the
research assistants and the book editor. On the second quarter of the project, the
honorarium for the research team leader and his staffs were removed. Because
according to the CHED memorandum, government employees were not allowed
to receive any honorarium on the said project.
The removal of the honorarium made the research staffs not fully
committed on the research project that was started. And we, the research
assistants, were taking all the work that supposedly the research staffs should
accomplish like the research outputs and the book that will be publish which will
be distributed to schools, museums, tourism offices and libraries. The job
description for the research assistants was to just assist the researchers on the
project like gathering the data, do field researches, coordinate with the
respondents, accomplish the reports (narrative, financial, terminal, etc), do
clerical works under the project, and assist in putting up the exhibit and document
everything about the project. The exhibit that we’ve conducted went well, but
some of the research staffs were not around. We are also the ones who were
writing their research outputs even it’s not our job to do. On the writing of the
content of the book that will be published, the team leader asked us also to
provide the content and they’ll just only check it. But in reality the research
outputs and the content of the book that we wrote were pending on their tables
and some took weeks to be checked. And also in the end, we are not getting the
credit because our names will not be included in the book. One objective of the
project is to transcribe notations and dances, even if we doesn’t know how to
transcribe because the research staffs are expert on this field, we are trying and
learning how to transcribe those notes and dances because they’re not doing it.
Another effect is that because the research team was composed of Dean,
Director and Professors on the university, they are so busy with their schedules that
they even make us do their clerical works in the university like checking their
student papers and others.
Being on the project for about a year, handling to this change was not
easy. I barely have rest because even during weekends we are working and
travelling doing field researches. But we’ve got nothing to complain because the
project will not continue if we also didn’t commit to it just like what the research
staffs did. We manage to divide all the works and accomplish it at a certain time.
We always remind our research staffs about the things needed to be done even
if they don’t have time for the project. We provide them all the data and the
write-ups.
I have learned on this project how to use my time wisely. Even if it is stressful,
at the end of the day, we are learning from it. Having no background on thesis
writing because during my college days, our final requirement was just a narrative
report of our experiences in student teaching, writing those research outputs is
very hard. The research outputs that I’ve passed on the research staffs were
failed. But after some rejections, now I’ve learned how to write it fully. It makes me
be prepared on the thesis writing on my Master’s Degree here at UC. Doing field
researches also makes the research project authentic because we are validating
all the data that we have gathered. It also helps me discover that there are some
cultures in Nueva Ecija that Novo Ecijanos didn’t know yet. And the project will
be able to disseminate all the information that we’ve gathered about the culture
of Araquio not only in Nueva Ecija but on the whole country.
Working with the researchers in the academe, I recommend that
researchers should be fully committed on the researches that they’ve started.
They shouldn’t left it hanging because they’re not already receiving honorarium.
They can still benefit on the project especially when they published a book. And
the project will help the future generation to be culturally aware in the society. I
also recommend to the future researchers that they should take this researches
seriously because it well help our country to progress and be globally competitive.
To the future research assistants, I recommend that they should be ready to face
the challenges when they enter in the research field. It requires strong
background in research and they be physically and mentally ready.

MICUA, ANGELINE E.
MAEd – Cultural Education