Question: What do these schools or school systems have in common?
Al Shorouq International School, Alejandro Roces High School, Angeles City Trade School, Asia Pacific College, Assumption Antipolo, Ateneo de Naga University, Bacolod City National High School, Balagtas Agriculture National High School, Bataan School of Fisheries, Bukig Agricultural School, Centro Montessori Internationale, Colegio San Agustin Makati, Davao Doctors College, Don Bosco Schools and TVT Centers, Doña Monserrat Lopez Memorial High School,
Fernandez College of Arts and Technology, Global City Innovative College, Holy Name University, Iligan City School of Fisheries, Immaculate Concepcion Academy, Manila Central University, Marriott School, Mary Help of Christians Schools, MGC New Life Christian Academy, Miriam College, Notre Dame of Greater Manila,
OPOL National School of Arts and Trades, Our Lady of Fatima University, Our Lady of Lourdes School, Palawan State University, Parañaque City Division of City Schools, Philippine Normal University, Philippine Women’s College of Davao, Philippine Women’s University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Rizal Experimental Station and Pilot School of Cottage Industries, Roman Catholic Bishop of Novaliches Educational System,
Saint Jude Catholic School, San Pedro Relocation Center National High School, St. Paul College Pasig, St. Stephen’s High School, Subangdaku Tech-Voc High School, Tagum City National Trade School, The Manila Times College, and University of Makati.
Answer: They are all planning to offer Grade 11 this year or next year. Called “Model Schools,” they are part of the research and development project being undertaken by the government for Senior High School (SHS) or Grades 11 and 12.
One of the crucial stages in curriculum development is testing in actual classrooms. This is one of the things that the offering of SHS ahead of schedule is meant to do. The full implementation of SHS will occur only in June 2016, when the current batch of Grade 7 (First Year High School) students will graduate from Junior High School (Grades 7 to 10). At that time, the Department of Education (DepEd) can then use a curriculum that would have been tested under varying conditions by the model schools.
DepEd has formulated a provisional curriculum for SHS (Grades 11 and 12). The curriculum aims at ensuring that all SHS graduates (and, therefore, all graduates of basic education) will be prepared to do three things: first, to enter college; second, to get employed; and third, to become entrepreneurs. What they will actually do will be up to the graduates themselves, based on their aptitude, financial situation, and dreams.
The curriculum is divided into two main parts: an academic core curriculum for college preparedness and a set of career pathways that students can choose from.
The academic core curriculum consists of the usual DepEd subjects: English, Filipino, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, Health). There are two new subjects, Literature and Philosophy, which come from the current General Education Curriculum of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
The career pathways may be classified into three broad types: Technical-Vocational, Entrepreneurship, and Others.
Examples of Technical-Vocational pathways are Internet and Computing Fundamentals, Welding, Plumbing, Technical Drawing, Home Management or Housekeeping, Cooking or Food Processing, Electrical Installation and Maintenance, Dressmaking and Tailoring, Crop Production, Animal Production, and Caregiving. TESDA has a number of other options for SHS.
Students who want to set up their own business will be helped by various business organizations, coordinated by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), which has identified courses such as financial literacy, product development, and market competitiveness assessment.
Lumped into “Others” (because they have little in common) are specializations such as Arts, Foreign Languages, Journalism, Philippine Languages, Security, and Sports.
Most of these career pathways involve actual immersion or on-the-job training (OJT) in companies or organizations. They are, in other words, meant to be practical courses, with real-life experience in careers that students may eventually choose for themselves.
What are the model schools offering as career pathways? Here are some examples: Commercial Cooking (Bukig), Fish Products Packaging (Bataan), Food and Beverage Services (Rizal), Computer Aided Drafting (Tagum), Light Vehicle Driving (Roces), Bread and Pastry Production (PWC), Risk Reduction and Disaster Preparedness (Bacolod), Choral Music (Miriam). DepEd requires model schools to consider institutional capability, acceptability to students and parents, and relevance to the local context or community.
The consortium formed by Asia Pacific College, Don Bosco Schools and TVET Centers, and The Manila Times College offers a BPO-oriented ADM Higher School, in cooperation with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines. In addition to the subjects in the draft curriculum approved by the government’s Sub-Technical Working Group on Senior High School, the ADM Higher School offers these subjects: Fundamentals of Business Process Outsourcing, Service Culture, Business Communication, and Principles of Systems Thinking. In the last 15 weeks of Grade 12, students will work full-time in a BPO company. Another innovation of ADM Higher School is its guarantee of employment for graduates: the final exam of the two-year course is the screening done by the BPOs themselves.
If you are a high school graduate with no immediate plans of going to college, contact any of the model schools. At the end of two years, you will be employed, will be an employer, or will be a college student. It is all up to you.