Bishop Cortes to adopt open school program

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  — The Most Reverend Julito Cortes, bishop of the Diocese of Dumaguete, has planned to adopt a modular learning program on secondary education for the poor.

Cortes disclosed that it is his dream to replicate the Open High School Program of the La Consolacion College (formerly the Sacred Heart Academy) in Bais City, Negros Oriental, in the other Catholic schools under his diocese.

The prelate said the OHSP is an “alternative mode of formal secondary education program” which was first introduced at the LCC-Bais City about three years by its president, Sister Carmelli Catan, OSA.

Run by the Bureau of the Secondary Education of the Department of Education, the OHSP provides an opportunity for elementary school graduates, high school drop-outs and successful examinees of the Philippine Education Placement Test to complete se-condary education in a purely distance learning mode.

Under the program, which is available at any time of the year, students are provided printed self-learning modules for their lessons and classroom activities once they start at their own time and at their own pacing, but must complete their higher education within a maximum period of six years.

To date, there are 480 students of the OHSP with ages ranging 18 and above, and who come from the marginalized sectors such as farmers, fisherfolk, sugar cane plantation workers and the Indigenous People of the mountain and coastal areas of Bais City, Tanjay City and Manjuyod town.

The OHSP is offered for free to the students, each of whom is subsidized with P7,500 from the Fund for Assistance for Private Education, Carmelli said, adding that teachers from public schools and involved in the program get teaching credits and honoraria.

After having comple-ted their junior high school years, the students will receive a special order from the DepEd so they can move on to senior high, after which they are conferred with a TESDA certificate.

Cortes said he is hoping that the OHSP can be adopted at the different Catholic schools in the Diocese of Dumaguete, which covers the towns and cities of Negros Oriental from Jimalalud in the north down to Basay, and the entire province of Siquijor.  (FREEMAN)