Text by Charmaine A. Lingdas
Photos and videos by Prof. Nemuel Fajutagana and Mr. Armando Cervantes
The University of the Philippines Manila National Teacher Training Center for the Health Professions (NTTCHP) honored its latest graduates during the 10th College Recognition Ceremony held on July 23, 2025, at the Manila Prince Hotel. The event was held in conjunction with the Corazon Paulino Gonzalez Memorial Lecture.
This year’s celebration carried the theme of UP Manila’s 116th Commencement Exercises, “UP Manila: Saligan ng Kahapon, Gabay ng Kasalukuyan, Tanglaw sa Hinaharap,” reaffirming the university’s role in shaping the future of health professions education through a transformative teacher training.
A total of 21 graduates were recognized from the following programs:
Four outstanding graduates were also conferred the Academic Excellence Awards for 2025:
Dr. Erlyn A. Sana, Professor and former Dean of NTTCHP, delivered both the recognition message and the Corazon Paulino Gonzalez Memorial Lecture. In her talk, titled “Teacher Training: Systematic, Sequential, and Wider Attack,” Dr. Sana revisited the 1986 WHO declaration made during the Geneva Convention on the establishment of the Inter-Regional Teacher Training Center (IRTTC). The declaration stated: ‘The problem of teacher training for the health professions is of such magnitude and of such central importance to the world community that a systematic, sequential and wider attack must be launched without delay.’
This, she explained, underscored the urgent need for structured and strategic faculty development in health professions education—a vision that institutions like NTTCHP have carried forward since its founding in 1975 by Dr. Corazon Paulino Gonzalez.
Dr. Sana narrated how NTTCHP evolved from a modest office staffed by a single faculty member and one administrative staff into a nationally and internationally recognized center for health professions education. It now offers comprehensive master’s and doctoral programs and holds the distinction of being the only National Teacher Training Center in the WHO network formally recognized as NTTCHP.
She shared that the Center now trains professionals across multiple health disciplines and institutions. “From 3 to 5 new students every semester, our student population grew to more than 200 this year, all distributed into our three programs—from the two master’s to the doctorate degrees,” Dr. Sana said. She emphasized that NTTCHP graduates—her “trophies”—are equipped to become effective health professions educators who design and implement outcome-based curricula, foster learning, conduct research, and lead educational reforms.
She discussed that initially dominated by medical faculty, HPEd in the Philippines has evolved into a distinct academic discipline that operates at the interface of higher education and the health sciences. This year’s graduates represent a wide range of professions, including 10 medical doctors, 5 nurses, 1 medical technologist, 2 dentists, and 3 allied health professionals such as occupational and physical therapists—reflecting the Center’s growing reach and impact in transforming health professionals into educators.
“Thank you to all who persevered to finish this school year in time for my retirement,” Dr. Sana said with gratitude. She also gave special recognition to the pioneering graduates of the MAHPEd program, Maurice Lee Santos and Janice Jill Lao, who were among the first to complete the new master’s track.
Citing health labor market analysis, Dr. Sana stressed that NTTCHP is actively contributing to the call for a systematic, sequential, and wider attack in teacher training. “If NTTCHP graduates do their job well—nurturing their students and helping them realize their full potential as health professionals—you can help prevent attrition in schools, support student success, and contribute to producing a new stock of human resources for health in 4, 5, 6, and 7 years,” she said.
She also addressed the challenge of contributing to the full realization of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act. “Let us approach this the outcome-based education (OBE) way by beginning with the ends in mind,” she urged. “Our job as HPEducators is to intentionally design courses that help students internalize the principles of UHC as stipulated in RA 11223.”
Dr. Sana emphasized that all health science schools are responsible for ensuring students become competent primary care providers, regardless of their degrees or levels of specialization, and that they embrace the primary health care approach. She added that students must understand how UHC functions within a health systems framework, where the six building blocks—(1) leadership and governance, (2) financing, (3) service delivery, (4) access to medicines, technologies, and vaccines, (5) information systems, and (6) health workforce—must work in synergy to create a responsive and efficient health system that does not impose financial hardship on the population.
She concluded by reinforcing the strategic importance of teacher training in addressing the global health workforce crisis, echoing WHO’s original call. With commitment and clarity of purpose, she believes Filipino health professions educators can help bring UHC to life. Quoting a phrase from Former Dean Melflor Atienza, she ended her speech with a message of hope: “Habang may guro, may pag-asa.”
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16YwYdvie4
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1LFqps5xFR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sByF_Uwodj8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW7K1yN7Kd8
