Update on the 'Pisay Diploma' Issue (5/5/08)

TO ALL PSHS ALUMNI:

Please be informed that on 2 May 2008 the PSHS Board of Trustees (BOT) met in PSHS Central Visayas Campus in Argao, Cebu. Dr. Cielito "Ciel" Habito, the official representative of the Alumni Association in the BOT, attended the said meeting.

Below is an excerpt from a report sent by Ciel to the Alumni Association Board Members. This information is being published here in the 'Pisay Alumni Forum and Updates' blog (http://pisayforum.blogspot.com), the official blog of the PSHS Alumni Association, with the permission of Ciel:

"
The most important item on the agenda was the controversial issue on the 3 seniors in the main campus who failed their Math 5. It was affirmed, first of all, that contrary to the wording of the draft minutes of the previous (March 28) meeting, the BOT had indeed decided, not just suggested, giving a second chance to the 3 seniors concerned. The minutes were corrected to reflect this, with careful wording to reflect what I discuss further below.

I conveyed the dominant alumni position, already well-known to the BOT members (Butch Z's letter, not the position paper we had circulated, was in the meeting folder), opposing the "second chance" given these students, citing the common arguments cited in the online discussions that (1) it is deemed highly unfair to former students who never had such a second chance, (2) it compromises the high standards of the PSHS, and (3) it will be perceived as bowing to pressure from the parents who had lobbied intensely with individual BOT members and the school administration.

However, it turns out that there has been a strong sentiment in the BOT for a policy change on this matter, which had been percolating since 3 years ago. One lingering source of discomfort on the part of the BOT is that there have been no such dismissals for failure in Math 5 in the regional campuses, and board members find it awkward that students in the main campus, where admission standards are admittedly more stringent than in regional campuses, would fail to earn a PSHS diploma whereas even the weakest students coming out of the regional campuses manage to do so (passing their own Math 5 in the process).

More fundamentally, there has been an ongoing discussion in the BOT about the essentiality of calculus (Math 5) in the PSHS curriculum. It has been observed that Math 5 has been the perennial downfall of graduating seniors for many years, and this observation must be reflective of a fundamental problem. One BOT member has been persistently arguing through the years that Calculus represents an entire paradigm change in a person's math education, and requires a certain level of intellectual maturity that high school seniors have not achieved. I also confirmed that calculus had not been required in the early batches (i.e. pre-calculus math was the highest math that our batch was exposed to, but not calculus itself.) Moreover, calculus is taken up in the sophomore year for most students at UP, which again suggests that it's a bit much to expect high school seniors to have mastered it. While calculus is offered in the last year of high school in many countries abroad, these are countries with two more years in high school than we have (i.e. RP's basic education of 10 years falls short of the norm of 12 years in other countries).

In short, there has emerged through the years a prevailing sentiment in the BOT that calculus be considered an elective in the PSHS curriculum, but not a requirement for graduation. While no decision on this is being made now, there is a resolve to move in this direction.

With that as context, the rest of the BOT (except for me and Filma Brawner, who had submitted an Execom position paper recommending withdrawal of the "second chance") voted to grant the opportunity for the 3 seniors to RE-ENROLL Math 5 and earn their PSHS diploma if they pass. (BOT members vehemently denied that parent pressure had anything to do with this sentiment.)

I had, by the way, conveyed the assessment made by [a teacher] (without mentioning the name) that these students truly deserved to fail Math 5 because they were grossly negligent and too lazy to even exert minimal effort on the subject, including their removal exam which was already practically a give-away. On this, the other BOT members responded that if that was the case, then these students are unlikely to pass the second chance being given to them anyway.

A BOT member emphasized (and corrected the wording in the draft minutes of the March 28 meeting) that this is not a MAKE-UP, as the students are already deemed failed for Math 5. They are merely being given the same chance that other high schools would grant, i.e. catch up with a back subject by RE-ENROLLING it. The previous instruction by the BOT to the school administration was to consider designing such a "take 2" course for the summer for the 3 students.

It was acknowledged by the BOT that given the short time left, these 3 students may yet end up re-enrolling Math 5 during the regular school-year, and not during the summer. Still, management was instructed to explore the possibility of doing it within the remaining summer vacation. It was also suggested that the management consider, in the interest of fairness, having the final exam to be given the 3 students drawn up and graded by the math faculty from one of the non-Diliman campuses, chosen randomly (say by lot). This was to dispel the possibility that the Diliman faculty may deliberately make the exam too difficult to defend their position.

Nonetheless, this need not stop the students from going to college (including UP), as they can easily obtain PEPT certification from DepEd (i.e. same certification that is given to out of school youth (OSY); Manny Pacquio was the most well-known case). It was reported that 2 of the 3 (...........) had already done so.

One BOT member considered it an insult that a PSHS graduate should have to take that PEPT exam designed for OSY. She argued instead that PSHS obtain authority from DepEd to issue a generic high-school completion eligibility to graduates who fulfill the minimum DepEd requirements even if they fail the more advanced subjects of PSHS, including Math 5 and other still to be determined. Someone pointed out that the DepEd high-school standard was just for a total of 36 units whereas the PSHS curriculum requires far more, at 54 units. Dr. Brawner reported that such request for authority had been made before, but DepEd had denied the request. BOT instructed them to try again, as the context may have been different before.

In the end, the rest of the BOT voted to "NOTE" the PSHS alumni position opposing the majority decision (which I requested to be explicitly indicated on the record).
"

Source: Dr. Cielito "Ciel" Habito, Chair/President, Philippine Science High School National Alumni Association


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