School administrators met with the parents of Xavier Senior High School students to elaborate the program structure and academic policies of SHS, and to elect PTA officers on June 18 at the XU Gymnasium.
In his welcome address, Xavier SHS principal Rogelio Gawahan said, “To the parents and guardians of our very own historic batch of senior high school, welcome to Xavier University, the new home of your Grade 11 children in the different SHS tracks and strands.”
“I also invite you all to own XU as your home — our home. Having said that, this meeting with you as our partners, I welcome you with three key points: building partnership, building engagement, and building trust,” Gawahan said to the crowd.
The administrators introduced to the parents the per-strand grading system, code of discipline, formation program, and safety and security protocols of the school.
“We need to strengthen our partnership for an improved educational services delivery and to ensure that your dreams for your children are realized in an Ateneo institution with all the best it can offer for them,” Gawahan expressed.
“We want you to take part in assuring quality transfer of learning through our collaborative efforts in implementing our well-thought-of and carefully-crafted SHS curriculum,” he added.
The Senior HS program comprises the additional two years of basic education in the country, in line with the Department of Education’s Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (Republic Act No 10533). It hopes to form globally competitive graduates who will meet the standards and fulfill the demands of the ASEAN Economic Integration.
Gawahan also encouraged the SHS parents to be more active in different school activities to help ease the transition.
“We will be more than happy to see your commitment in providing 100% support for your children’s academic requirements and formation activities to transform them and live XU’s core values: magis (to do more), cura personalis (care for others), the three Cs (competence, commitment, and conscience) and to become ‘men and women for and with others,’” he said.
One of the most discussed topics during the event was the Tuition Voucher Program of DepEd to offset the cost of school fees in private educational institutions, such as Xavier.
Through the voucher program, a student is entitled to a subsidy worth Php16,000.00 per academic year (divided into two semesters). XU accepts DepEd tuition vouchers in addition to offering more than 200 scholarships to SHS students.
A separate parents orientation on the voucher system will be held on June 25, Saturday.
“We are serving 1,382 for our first batch of SHS for the initial two tracks offering of XU-SHS with 202 scholars or about 15% of the total enrolment,” the principal said.
“These figures already manifest that close to 1,400 families trust XU to having the capacity to address the challenges brought about by the full implementation of SHS as the last stage of the K to 12 curriculum across the country — the Philippine’s newest educational reform.”
For the Academic track at XU, STEM (Science, Technology and Mathematics) has 16 sections, ABM (Accountancy, Business and Management) has ten, HUMSS (Humanities and Social Studies) has six, and GAS (General Academic Subjects) has two. Meanwhile, XU’s Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track houses one class.
After the open forum where parents got to engage with school administrators, the election of PTA officers was held per section and then for the entire batch.
School policies and protocols are incorporated in the 2016 Student Handbook and Planner, to be distributed to SHS students beginning June 22, Wednesday. ∎