The RHS Baseline Survey

During the meeting held on 12 July 2008, the SGC received from the school principal the following basic information for the current school year:

1. A total of 8,803 students are currently enrolled in the Caniogan campus. Note that the former annexes are no longer considered as extensions of the RHS main campus. Thus, the number of enrollees are much lower than those of the previous years, when it even reached a high of 25,000. The current statistic is broken down as follows:

a. First Year - 2,608 or 30% of the student population
b. Second Year - 2,221 or 25% of the student population
c. Third Year - 2,140 or 24% of the student population
d. Fourth Year - 1,834 or 21% of the student population

2. Of the students enrolled, 4,325 are boys and 4,478 are girls.

3. For the school year 2007 - 2008, the number of students who did not enroll for the next level is as follows:

a. From 1st year to 2nd year – 304
b. From 2nd year to 3rd year – 185
c. From 3rd year to 4th year – 155
d. 4th year students who did not graduate - 77

4. The current rating for performance in achievement tests is 45.50%.

5. The ratio of RHS students who graduated and went on to continue with college or vocational courses is currently at 60:40, with more students not being able to study beyond high school. With the current student population, this means only 734 students who will graduate this year will likely be able to continue with their studies.

Based on the above data, the members of the council acknowledged that an integrated program is needed to address two basic problems:

1. Keeping students in school until they graduate

2. Providing faculty support to improve the method of teaching so as to improve the quality of education

These two inter-dependent goals need an integrated approach in order to achieve significant and lasting impact towards improving the lives of students of the Rizal High School and, by extension, their families and communities. As a primary objective, the SGC aims to develop a holistic program that will address these twin problems with practical programs that will involve the school’s stakeholders – including the students and the faculty members themselves.

As a starting point, the Council decided to conduct a school-wide survey to determine basic baseline information that will help it to understand the situation, and be better equipped to identify the appropriate approach for the integrated program. The survey will ask these basic questions:

1. Personal information of students, including family size, income and its source. This will help us establish the demography of students of RHS.

2. Skills preference to determine what skills are already available, and what other skills the students are inclined to develop.

3. Problems that students perceived to be as challenges in their studies. This will help us determine what aspects of the school environment need to be addressed for improvement.

4. How much does a student spend to attend school regularly? This will provide us the economic profile of students and how this affects their chances of staying in school.

5. If the student sees the possibility of dropping out of school before graduation, what would have been the cause? The answers will help us better understand the underlying problems of students dropping out of school.

The Council’s Vice-Chair, Ms. Myrna Neri, is currently coordinating with members to fine-tune and finalize the survey form. We are enlisting the help of the schools faculty to administer the survey that will cover the entire student population. Students and teachers of Statistics classes will assist in processing the results. Target survey date will be on Friday, 25 July 2008.

Notice of Meeting #3 - Update No. 4

In order to give way to the Class Presidents' Summit called for by the Rizal High School Alumni Association, Inc., we are moving the meeting of the School Governing Council (SGC) to July 12, 2008, Saturday.

Time, venue and agenda will be announced later.