Impact of Practicum to Development Studies Students and its Significance to DS

As students of Development Studies, most of us aim to be development practitioners. The practicum program has become a good training ground and capacity-building undertaking for future development practitioners. Development should not be value-free; policies must be rather addressed to specific sectors - to the marginalized sectors. The practicum program specifically brought us to the rural communities wherein we were exposed to myriad of issues that led the farmers to vicious cycle of poverty – the inequitable allocation of land resources and unfair agricultural trade was not compensated with an efficient local service delivery, making rural poverty worse than urban poverty. The integration with the masses, more than being humbling, was an empowering experience. We have equipped ourselves with grassroots level of understanding to macroeconomic issues. I have realized that the key to an in-depth analysis of macro-level issues is micro-studies of local communities; practicum brought us to communities where we did case studies and small research. In our case, the underdevelopment of agriculture sector in District III of Cavite was investigated and the locals, with their vernacular language, discussed how speculative investment, land grabbing, unfair trade and lack of support service create disincentive in farming. This can partly explain why we have country-level low agricultural productivity as revealed by various empirical evidences.

Practicum has been significant to me because it led me closer to social realities – the reality of poverty and inequality. These realities were enough to realize that there really is a need for agents of change and development. The case studies produced in community immersion can be extended into more substantive research work or even an advocacy. My exposure to issues in rural communities remains an inspiration to future research work. The practicum program filled in the shortcoming of the theories. The academe and textbooks cannot solely arm the students with development strategies and solutions; otherwise this development remains academic and moot. Development of practical and actual significance emanates from examination of each community because every community has its peculiarities. This examination is fulfilled by community immersion in practicum program.