Agency

Philippine Science High School – Southern Mindanao Campus (PSHS-SMC)

Summary

Pakiglambigit Outreach Program is a program of the Philippine Science High School Southern Mindanao Campus (PSHS-SMC) that enhances the teachers’ pedagogy and inspires grade school pupils to reach their ultimate academic performance and cultivate their interest to study in PSHS. The program targets Grade 4, 5, and 6 students of public elementary, with a sizable portion of the student body belonging to Indigenous People (IP) groups.

This program was adopted from the “Tunong-Dunong” of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). A unique feature of this program is that it targets students and teachers from schools with sizable indigenous population.

Background and Problem

Most of the students in the feeder schools belong to the Bagobo tribe. Other tribal groups are represented including the Aetas, Maguindanaos, Manobos, Tagabawas, Maranaos and Tausugs. Belonging to poor and marginalized communities, these students will otherwise suffer from poor education. The PSHS SMC Pakiglambigit Outreach Activity seeks to significantly improve the National Achievement Test (NAT) performance of the pupils of its feeder schools, produce at least one (1) principal qualifier in the PSHS System National Competitive Exams, and enhance the teacher-participants’ pedagogy and content knowledge through the workshops conducted.

Solution and Impact

This program supports teachers’ pedagogy in public schools to help their students achieve better results in NAT and to hone students to qualify for PSHS Scholarship. PSHS-SMC specifically targets public elementary schools with a high number of children from indigenous communities in Southern Mindanao. Sessions are conducted on the PSHS-SMC campus. Participating students and teachers who are coming from far-flung areas are ferried to and from the Campus.

The pedagogy needs of the teachers are identified through the needs assessment survey conducted during the program’s first session. The result of this needs assessment survey helps PSHS-SMC identify in-house experts who will provide coaching to the teachers in certain fields of expertise.

With a focus on Science, Math & English, two volunteer PSHS scholars are assigned per subject area as student-facilitators to the top male and female students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 of the participating schools. These student-facilitators provide reinforcements in the discussion of certain topics and provide hands-on and fun-filled activities for the pupils to better understand the lessons. Two (2) more students serve as logistics/documentation committee members.

All in all, 15 feeder schools are currently involved in this outreach activity. The Pakiglambigit Outreach program runs seven (7) months every school year.

This outreach activity has been running for more than a decade now, and in its years of implementation, a significant improvement in the National Achievement Test results was noted. In addition, the number of outreach participants who made it as principal qualifiers in the PSHS National Competitive Exam significantly increased. To date, thirteen (13) beneficiary students were eventually accepted as PSHS scholars.

Milestones

Pakiglambigit Outreach Program is among the finalists in the GBPR 2018.