Impact assessment of extension program of the college of public administration, Cagayan State University, carig campus

Cognizant of the vision of the University in line with national development, it commits itself to transform lives of people and communities through its core functions along instruction, research, extension and production. True to this mission, Colleges are mandated to conduct extension programs, projects and activities aligned to their program offerings. For this instance,.the College of Public Administration embarks on extension program along law, governance and administration. The college envisioned to produce graduates who are socially conscious, responsible and committed to inoculate societal change. To live up to this vision, extension is an integral part of the curriculum intended to expose students with real-life occurrences in the society. The extension banner program of the College of Public Administration is dubbed as “Barangay-based Integrated Capability Program” (BICP). It intended chiefly to provide technical assistance and empowerment activities along contemporary local concerns, law and governance through series of seminar/training workshop with the end view of equipping them right knowledge, skills, attitudes and values towards good barangay governance. The banner program constitutes the project “Citizens Empowerment for Smarter Local Governance”. It was formalized in 2013 through a Memorandum of Agreement with the barangay through its barangay council. This study delved into the impact assessment of the extension program of the college as the program was implemented for five (5) years already. Thus, the college saw its great significance to evaluate how does this program fared well in delivering the identified projects. It also looked into whether the objectives of the program as it intends were satisfactorily attained. This discourse has the following objectives to meet: 1) profile of respondents in terms of age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, occupation, income and language spoken 2) Impact Assessment on the Extension program focusing on these three (3) domains namely knowledge, attitudes, values & skills; 3) Challenges Encountered during planning, implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation phase. The study made use of descriptive research design with survey questionnaire as the main instrument. Guide questions were also utilized to serve as a guide when respondents were personally interviewed. Results of the study revealed that respondents are middle aged, male dominated, mostly barangay official with monthly income below poverty threshold and Ybanag speaking people. Further, the said extension program equipped them with adequate knowledge and skills that have contributed in improving themselves in performing their tasks as barangay officials. Specifically, along crafting of good ordinances and resolutions, use of parliamentary procedures in the conduct of meetings, documentation of activities and fund management. More than this, is the transformation of their values and attitudes towards their work. All these, as claimed by the respondents made their barangay a “model barangay” though there were of course challenges encountered in implementing the program.