Aiming High For Senior High
BY: Sally S Feria
Head Teacher I
San Antonio Integrated School
May 7, 2018
The recently concluded SY 2017-2018 catered the completion of the first batch Senior High School students under the K to 12 Curriculum. More than a million grade 12 students graduated the last two years of the curriculum from the projected 1.5 million enrollees in June 2017. In June 2018, the figure for Grade 11 and grade 12 enrollees are expected to double based from the same projection in 2017.
Admittedly, it is yet unripe to determine the success factor of the graduates in terms of acquired competencies. For now, nothing is at hand than to aim high for the senior high given the frameworks, the curriculum guides, and the general philosophical foundations of the K to 12 Curriculum. What is there to aim for?
The two year of senior high school in the adapted curriculum banked on the idea as preparatory years for college or getting ready for employment, and or entrepreneurship. With that, senior high students are provided with tracks and strands to choose from, in reference to their chosen career. Tech-voc courses and tracks are also made available for the learners to be more globally competitive, should in case they opt to join the mainstream labor force. National Certifications from TESDA are provided accordingly.
Another feature to achieve such goals is the Immersion Program. Grade 12 students are tasked to expose themselves to actual job scenario of not less than 80 hours. This preempts their actual employment after graduating where observation of actual career and employment in a particular establishment, understanding the processes and systems of an organization or establishments, performing appropriate jobs in the immersion area, are the very purposes of such “OJT-like” major requirement of the curriculum.
These are the highlights of the senior high, particularly the grade 12, needing elevation to a higher level this coming school year.
Aside from these, harnessing the teaching – learning process is also a major task to accomplish. In doing so, tenets like learner-centered, outcome -based, experiential learning, performance based approaches, are to be further enriched with ICT integrated structured learning activities in different learning areas.
In gist, the teachers who are the front-liners and major characters of the learning process have to take a step higher, learning from the flaws of the previous years.
Meanwhile, all these have to go with furnishing the facility with rather up to date and adequate tools and equipment, particularly the tech-voc related tracks and strands.
In such manner, it is assured that quality education will be at hand.