K12’s senior high support private schools

EDUCATION 

Gina P. Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- With private schools having to source their  own income, the senior high school  program of the Department of Education’s K12 curriculum has proven to be a good source of  finances for private learning institutions.

There are five private schools offering senior high school in Mountain Province namely St Mary School in Sagada, St James High in Besao and three in Bontoc-  St Vincent's High , Xijen College and Mt Province State Polytechnique College  (MPSPC) .  

Former SMS principal Nemia Lite and now with the Dept. of Education-Mountain Province division  said senior high school is indeed helping much in the  financial upkeep of private schools. Lite helped in the application of SMS and her alma mater St James high school get registered as partners of Dep Ed in the department's senior high school program.

A  P17,500 subsidy per  student is given as educational support fund to a  Grade 11 and 12  student.

For St. Mary’s School of Sagada, senior high school students avail of the government assistance to students and teachers in private education through its education service contractive program for its P20,000 per student tuition fee. The government  gives P17,500 for students who finished in  public school and  P14,000 for those who finished in a private school. 

Private schools are suffering from financial  deficits through the years but have managed to  get through with support from donations from their respective alumni, parents and teachers,  and friends.

Enrollment before 1995 showed SMS had been  enrolling some 300 to 400 students per  year. The establishment of nearby Sagada National High School in 1995  however drastically brought the enrollment down by  half. While enrollment has  shown  a significant increase in 2006 due to aggressive  recruitment and promise of scholarship programs, enrollment  reached a 145 to 170 enrollment through the years till  it reached  208 in 2016-2017 due to the opening of senior high school it was learned. 

With the incorporation of senior high school, finances has somehow  alleviated  the  private learning institution’s  perennial deficit for the past years, SMS principal Raquel Killy said.  

There are 64 senior high school students of SMS. Of the 64 are 26 Grade 11 students who have enrolled in science engineering and math (STEM) one of four strands of  senior high school.  Others are  registered  in subjects covering humanities and social sciences (HUMSS). 

Science and math has been the focus of  SMS for quite some time with enough computers, hooked to the internet, and equipped with chemistry and  biology  laboratory.

Killy  said there is still a need to improve the facilities of the school as additional classrooms  to anticipate the coming in of Grade 12.

SMS though managed to  keep to its  toes and forwarded  a P12,000  tuition fee with  subsidy from the government of 6,000 and increased to the current 18,500 with 6,500 to 8,500  subsidy from the  government of what is called ESF for its regular junior high school.

With an P18,500 tuition fee which increased through the  years,  students  receive  subsidy from  government  assistance program  to students and teachers in private education through its   education  service contracting program. the subsidy is  8,500 for grade 7 and 8; and 7500 for grades 9; and 6,500 for grade 10.

Of the current 208  enrolled students less the 64 SHS students  are 62  directly sponsored students  either by alumni or their  relatives. Of the 62 are 19 indigent scholars availing of  financial grants from sponsors. Killy hopes  direct sponsors shall  pay their pledges promptly to  avoid deficit.

Parents who pay tuition of their  children amount to some P10,000 to P12,000 per  school year less government subsidy. There are some 130 students who pay the full tuition fee less the  educational school fund of

P6,000  year.

St. Mary's School  was founded by American missionary Rev. John Staunton in 1904, which was then referred to as a mission school of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) financed by her mother church Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA).  The  ECP became administratively and financially autonomous in 1990 making the school face financial constraints since then. 

As part of its financial upkeep from student's tuition fees, the school gets subsidy from Dep-Ed and pledges from alumni and friends. Same is true with sister school St James of Besao.