BALANGA CITY — The Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU) has enrolled under the College Education Behind Bar project 15 persons deprived of liberty from the Marilao Municipal Jail in Bulacan to a four-year course in Bachelor of Science in Midwifery.
BPSU president Ruby B. Santos-Matibag in an interview Tuesday said the project born out of the Health Beyond Bar program is the first in Region 3 and the second in the country, next to Davao City.
She even considered BPSU’s college education project for the inmates as the first in the country being an initiative of the university while Davao City Jail has a private partner and a big school.
“We could be the second in the Philippines but we can say that we are the first because ours is different. We have a different system and ours offer a bachelor degree and certification program,” Matibag clarified.
The PDL-students attend their online classes inside the Marilao Municipal Jail with free tuition and free BPSU uniform while members of the BPSU faculty provide free teaching services from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The inmates were enrolled for the first semester starting Sept. 11, 2023 and considered as BPSU scholars, categorized as belonging to the marginalized sector.
The teachers go to the Marilao jail once or twice a month to check on the students and for their practicum and laboratory requirements.
Matibag said 45 inmates applied for enrollment to the midwifery course but only 15 were admitted. She said they followed the admission policy of the school. Some of the inmates are high school graduates of the Alternative Learning System and some already with college units.
While classes are online, the university president wants the inmates to experience face-to-face graduation depending on the decision of the courts.
BPSU piloted the college education project in Marilao but will be replicated in the Bataan District Jail this coming academic year.
Matibag noted that they decided to undertake the first project in the Marilao Municipal Jail because the warden, Jail Insp. Cliff Richards Torres, is her co-author in a research project about jails and also a member of Health Beyond Bar.
“We will have the second project for the Bataan District Jail this coming academic year. I will have a sit-down meeting with the warden kasi iba yong suporta na dapat nilang ibigay sa programa. It will entail all kinds of resources at iba rin ang ibibigay na dedikasyon para mag-proceed ang programang college education,” Matibag said.
Enrollment for the midwifery course is open to both male and female inmates. Presently enrolled in Marilao are 10 males and five females.
BPSU chose midwifery as the first course. “As the former dean of the College of Midwifery and most members of our team are midwives, it will be easier for us to implement the project. If we observe that there will be no problem, we will undertake the project in all jails in Bataan and in Region 3,” she said.
The College Education Beyond Bar is a product of Health Beyond Bar, a long-term research-based extension program began in May 2014 with Matibag as project leader.
“I started aresearch inside the Bataan District Jail for male and female dormitories that I presented to Region 3 and national offices of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. From that research, I saw the problems inside the jail on the delivery of healthcare system. Health Beyond Bar because I am a midwife/nurse by profession,” Matibag said.
She said she also presented the research to then Gov. Albert Garcia, now 2nd district congressman, who helped her establish a clinic inside the Bataan District Jail in Balanga City.
“I started the program with the Bataan District Jail, now after 10 years, I am serving 26 jails in Region 3 and four in Region 4 and now in the pilot extension program of BPSU on college education for PDL,” Matibag said.
