Implementation of the Open High School Program

ABSTRACT

Title :             Implementation of the Open High School Program in

 Selected Public High Schools in Caloocan City North

Researcher : Kristofer E. Canillas

                       kristofercanillas@gmail.com

Degree :        Master of Arts in Education major in Educational

                      Management

School :        University of Caloocan City

Date  :           March, 2015

This study focused on the implementation of the open high school program in selected public high schools in Caloocan City North, more particularly in Tala High School, Camarin High School, Bagong Silang High School, Bagumbong High School, and Manuel Luis Quezon High School. It assessed the status of the implementation in terms of the knowledge in the curriculum, policy implementation, classroom management and guidance, and teacher’s capability and performance.

The study was delimited to the students, teachers and administrators of the open high school program, particularly the 20 percent of the respondents in the five big schools in the Caloocan City North, of which selected schools are 25 percent of all public schools in the area.

The researcher used two methods of data gathering, (1) Interview for the administrators and teachers and (2) Survey Questionnaire for the respondents.

This study hopes to benefit and help the following: (1) students, to air their feelings towards the program; (2) schools, to improve the program; (3) administrators, to create new style and techniques; (4) teachers, to develop and improve their teaching techniques; (5) Department of Education, to formulate effective policy and guidelines; (6) local government units, to create facilities and provide equipment for the students; and (7) future researchers, to use as guide, reference and starting point of their future studies.

This study showed that 60 percent of the teacher-respondents are knowledgeable in the implementation of the program, particularly its vision, mission, goals and objectives, requirements, curriculum and instruction, classroom management and guidance, policy implementation and relation of the local government in the program but 40 percent of them are not. It revealed that there are difficulties in implementing the objectives of the program, finishing it within prescribed period without problems, meeting the requirements and qualification of the students, adjusting curriculum and instructions to the students’ needs and current policy implemented with 67 percent, but 33 percent of them believed that the implementation is doing well.

Most of the schools implemented old curriculum of the open high school program at all levels, particularly Manuel Luis Quezon High School, Bagong Silang High School and Camarin High School but Tala High School and Bagumbong High School implemented both new and old curriculum. They implemented K-12 curriculum for Grade 7 to Grade 9, while old curriculum for the fourth year students, which will be the last batch in where old curriculum shall be used.

This study also revealed that the implementation of the open high school program is effective with the average 70-75 percent but 20-25 percent of the respondents believed that there are problems in the implementation that affect their learning process and these problems from the top to bottom are financial and budget, attitude, module, time and schedule, interest, learning process, chairs, laboratories and computer rooms, policy implementation, curriculum and instructions, guidance and book, teachers’ capability and performance and the least in rank are resources, materials and reference.

Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that 41 percent of the respondents are not knowledgeable in the implementation of the program. This is very alarming because those who teach the students are the ones who do not know the program and it is really a factor that leads to the dissatisfaction in its implementation. Most of the students are satisfied in the current policy of the program but some of the respondents or 15-20 percent of them, sought for the evaluation of the program to avoid the existing problems that students and teachers encountered in the process of implementation.

Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, it was recommended that there is a need for evaluation of the implementation of the program. It is also important to ask the help of the local government units in the open high school program to provide library resources since there is no available public library in Caloocan City North. It recommended for the enhancement of open high school program since it is very helpful to the out-of-school youth and dropout students. It also recommended the orientation for teachers, students and parents on open high school program to clarify misconception and misinterpretation of the program and meet its ultimate goals not only for the students but also for the community.