DepEd-Ormoc finds pre-school non-accredited

ORMOC CITY, Philippines – The fate of the pupils presently enrolled and of those who had just graduated from this private pre-school in this city is now jeopardized, because their school records could not be credited for entry to the higher grade level.

This was after City Schools Division superintendent Sol Lumarda informed The FREEMAN that the 3-year-old Sts. Peter and Paul School House (SPPSH) has no accreditation from DepEd and thus could not issue a valid certificate of completion for its preschoolers.

“The certificates of completion and other records of those pre-schoolers coming from non-accredited schools will not be recognized when a child enters Grade 1. If a child fails in the initial assessment of incoming Grade 1s, he/she should be enrolled again in kindergarten despite him/her having a certificate of completion from non- accredited schools,” Lumarda said.

According to Lumarda, there are only three authorized accreditation agencies, namely: DepEd, CHED and TESDA. “We have only 17 accredited private schools in Ormoc, with two new applicants. Hence SPPSH can’t be called a school but a learning institution with no mandate to accept kindergarten pupils,” she said.

Examining further the SPPSH documents, Lumarda did not discount the possibility SPPSH might be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lumarda however pointed to The FREEMAN the official name of the institution as printed in its statement of account, which she said that SPPSH is a school house and tutorial, but not a “school.”

“Whether there is pending application, it is still not approved. Therefore it’s not yet valid, and the status of toddlers coming from this institution will not change (to a valid one),” said the DepEd official, adding that SPPSH, located at San Pedro Street in this city, is not in the official list of DepEd’s accredited private schools.

Lumarda had also instructed Daria Cecilio, DepEd’s in-charge of accreditation of schools, to intensify the monitoring and campaign against non-accredited learning institutions, saying that the public must know this matter so that the pupils’ parents will be aware of it for them to save time and money.

The FREEMAN tried to contact SPPSH via landline phone Tuesday afternoon, right after the interview with Lumarda, but nobody answered.

The SPPSH is run by couple Aires Salino, the school’s academic who is also a teacher under the City Schools Division, and Orlando Salino, the school’s administrator.

The school’s non-accreditation was discovered when Lumarda attended to a complaint from the parents of two preschoolers, a boy and a girl, who left school for home after their SPPSH teacher did not allow them to take the final examinations for failure to pay the school fees on top of a graduation fee.

The incident happened on Monday when the teacher told the pupils they could not take the tests due to the unsettled accounts. Citing school policy, the teacher even refused to accept the partial payment of the boy through his accompanying nanny.

On order of the school administrator, the children were allowed to take the exam later, but not without the trauma and bruised confidence as the girl continuously cried on her way home alone.

Lumarda told The FREEMAN that SPPSH grossly violated DepEd Order no. 15 series of 2010, enjoining schools to allow students with unpaid fees to take their final exams. - THE FREEMAN