Buses, dormitories for CDO senior high school students

Bobby Lagsa

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Buses, dormitories for CDO senior high school students
Cagayan de Oro is one of the 10 cities that will pilot the implementation of the senior high school program in June 2015, a year ahead of other public schools in the country

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – What will it take to implement the K to 12 senior high school program in Cagayan de Oro smoothly? It’s buses and dormitories, according to local government.

The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 requires two years to be added to the Philippine basic education system. The first batch of students under the program will enter senior high school’s grade 11 in 2016, and grade 12 in 2017.

Cagayan de Oro is one of the 10 cities that will pilot the implementation of the senior high school program in June 2015, a year ahead of other public schools in the country. (The others are Quezon City, Catbalogan, Himamaylan, Tagum, Sorsogon, Marikina, Cebu, Dipolog, Dagupan, and Santa Rosa.)

In Cagayan de Oro, not all of 39 high schools will offer the 4 tracks designed by the Department of Education (DepEd) under senior high: Academic, Sports, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, and Art and Design. (INFOGRAPHIC: 10 things about K to 12)

For the city, this poses a problem: how will students get to the schools that will be offering their preferred tracks?

For example, Balubal High School and San Simon High School have been identified to offer the Agriculture strand under the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track. These schools are in the outskirts of the city, with vast campus grounds sufficient for farming activities. (READ: What senior high school tracks fit your locality?)

To solve this problem, the city school board pledged that it will acquire school buses to transport students to their schools. 

“We will also build dormitories for the students who cannot afford to travel each day to schools,” said Dulce Potenciano, an education official from the office of Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno.

Potenciano said Cagayan de Oro was chosen as one of 10 pilot cities in the country to implement senior high school under the LEADERS (Lead Educate Advocate Design Effective Responsive Senior High School) program of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP).

Equipping teachers

DepEd is building 148 classrooms for the 17,100 high school students in the city, in addition to at least 309 classrooms, which have been built by the city government since 2013. At least 40 more classrooms are on the way.

PREPARING FOR SENIOR HIGH. The new Canitoan High School in Cagayan de Oro. Two more school buildings are being constructed to house more students in the city. Photo by Bobby Lagsa

The 309 classrooms from the city cost a total of P420 million, funded by the local school board.

New high school campuses have also been built in barangays were there used to be no high school.

Mary Ann Allera, senior high school coordinator of DepEd Cagayan de Oro, said the city is now ready to implement the K to 12 program, with allocated funds for needed equipment. (READ: Suspend K to 12? But PH ready for it – Luistro)

The city has at least 1,200 high school teachers, but Allera said DepEd will hire additional teachers and college instructors to teach in the SHS program.

“We now require Masters or PhD degrees for them to teach at the senior high schools,” Allera said.

The city also sent at least 60 teachers for training to upgrade this skills, while other teachers took TESDA courses for their NC II certifications.

Industry partners

The city government also tapped and sought the resources of businesses and enterprises to help meet the challenges of the program.

Potenciano said companies in the city, such as Toyota, pledged to help in the on-the-job training of students who will take the Automotive strand, still under the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track.

“Other businesses has been tapped and will discuss where they can come in the program,” Potenciano said. “We would like to create partners and linkages, for the K to 12 program.”

To give parents and stakeholders a clear understanding of the implementation of senior high school in 2016, a conference is slated in the city on April 21.

The conference aims to show the successes of the 10 pioneer cities nationwide in their preparation for senior high school, and to forge partnership with the different establishments.

Educatio Secretary Armin Luistro and Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, who is also LCP national president, will join the conference. – with a report from Jee Y. Geronimo/Rappler.com 

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