Private schools in Mandaue City unite to address education concerns

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

MANDAUE CITY— The Mandaue Organization of Private Schools Administrators Inc. (MOPSAI) composed of educators, learning institutes, parents and other stakeholders called on all private schools in Mandaue City, Cebu to unite to address their common concerns as the government is still apprehensive to resume physical classes.

 

According to some parents, educators, psychologists, and pediatricians, they are concerned about the holistic and healthy development of children given the limited mobility and physical peer/social interactions while screen time is not effectively regulated in blended learning.

Newly-elected MOPSAI president Marivic Bathan said that there is a strong need for all private schools to collaborate and come up with synergistic programs address the impact brought about by the pandemic to the country’s education system.

“There is a need to get our acts together now,” Bathan said as she cited a World Bank report that 80 percent of Filipino students fall below the minimum proficiency levels based on the three assessments the Philippines participated in: the Program for International Student (Pisa) in 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2019, and the first cycle of the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) in 2019).

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a learning crisis affecting all countries globally, according to the World Bank.  At the peak of school closures in April 2020, 94 percent of students or 1.6 billion children were out of school worldwide, the World Bank report said.

The WB report added that around 700 million students today are studying from home, in a context of huge uncertainty and with families and schools having to navigate across options of hybrid and remote learning, or no schooling at all.

Bathan stated that just like those in other countries, private schools’ enrollment had decline tremendously even as they must cope with holding classes online. 

With the possible resumption of physical classes, both private and public schools must implement measures to comply with the health protocols. These are among the concerns, administrators are facing.

Bathan believed that through MOPSAI, private schools in Mandaue City have a unified voice, more specially when there are many changes in government regulations because of the pandemic.

She said that because of the crisis, private school owners and administrators realized that they need to co-exist and complement each other to foster professional growth and development in education.

The organization has also come up with several key strategies that will benefit its members. These include fostering camaraderie, nurturing independence, coming up with innovative development program and encouraging growth mindset.

MOPSAI had also been working with partners such as the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI)-Center for Leaders to help build stronger bond among the members, develop the organization’s resilience, facilitate in drafting the MOPSAI’s strategic directions, and provide webinars which prepare school administrators for the resumption of physical classes.

MOPSAI and RAFI Center for Leaders had conducted several webinars such as PLANdemic: School Reentry and New Normal Operations Amidst COVID-19 in November 2020; Resilient Teams virtual learning session on February 10 and 24 2021.

These webinars aimed to guide MOPSAI members on how to reopen safety; Return to School Roadmap that provides a checklist to determine the readiness of schools for the resumption of physical classes. The checklist includes governance, wellness, instruction, facilities, school operations, technology, and linkages and partnership.

The organization has also become an avenue for dialog and conversation between private schools and DepEd, Bathan added.  The private schools need DepEd to guide and help them as they prepare for the new normal.

She added that DepEd will require private schools to register their students in the DepEd Learner Information System where learners are given a permanent learner reference number (LRN).

Aside from preparing for the resumption of physical classes, MOPSAI also urged members to study their curriculum to determine if it should be changed. Private schools must revisit their curriculum to determine if this still meet the needs of their students, Bathan said.

Bathan said, the new set of officers have committed to help MOPSAI members attain their aspirations for their institutions.

For the school year 2021-2022, MOPSAI officers include Ms. Bathan as President with Annie Abucay, senior high school principal, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu and Gloria Deniega,principal of the University of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, as vice president and secretary, respectively.

The other officers are Dr. Maria Alma Flores, Academia de San Jose PAASCU and PCSS compliance supervisor as Treasurer; Gregoria Flores, president of Intellisense Institute of Technology as Auditor; and Dr. Eudes Dayanan, Principal Trade Tech International Science Institute, and Jerome Tago, OIC School Head of the Center for Health Care Professions Cebu Inc. as Mass Media Officer. (Photos: MOPSAI/Google Images)