Quezon Gov. David Suarez (in green) reads to students inside the library of QSHS while school director Carmela Ezcel Orugo, and provincia...
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| Quezon Gov. David Suarez (in green) reads to students inside the library of QSHS while school director Carmela Ezcel Orugo, and provincial government executive assistants Webster Letargo (left, in blue) and Juanito Diaz (right, in white) look on. (JOHN BELLO) |
THE province of Quezon is investing big time in the education of its youth with the establishment of the Quezon Science High School (QSHS). The school opened in June 2011 in Barangay Isabang, Tayabas City, behind other provinces in Calabarzon in putting up such a school. The province appears to be a bit laggard as it was the last to put up a science-oriented high school in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon).
Its first batch consisted of 80 freshmen students that year. Seven years later today, the total enrollees are 388 with 43 students graduating from senior high school or Grade 12 in April, with 31 of them passing the College Admission Test of the University of the Philippines.
Carmela Ezcel Orugo, Education Program Supervisor of the Dept. of Education Division of Quezon and acting principal of QSHS since day one, stressed that they are focused on academic excellence especially in Science and Mathematics subjects.
“This is the only science high school in the country which offers free dormitory for its students, aside from free meals for them and the teachers. This is due to the full support of Gov. David Suarez to the school youth in Quezon province so we can focus on academic excellence in science and mathematics here at QSHS,” Orugo told Business Mirror in an interview in her office at QSHS on Friday, June 22.
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| The school dormitory where students can stay free. (JOHN BELLO) |
QSHS has a total land area of 19,738 square meters and was started in 2011 with a contribution of P1 million each from the 4 Quezon congressmen. It was converted to a science high school from an originally designed provincial science center as conceived by the late Gov. Rafael Nantes. Since then, under Gov. David ‘Jayjay’ Suarez, it underwent a transformation to become a center of academic excellence for brilliant and deserving high school students of Quezon province.
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| Façade of Quezon Science High School. |
Admission requirement
Edgar Yabut, master teacher in Science who has been recruited from Lutucan National High School in Sariaya to teach at QSHS since its operation in 2011, is one of the 19 teachers at present, along with Orugo, as the QSHS head. Last month, before the opening of classes, he was with 4 Gr. 12 students who were undergoing 2 weeks ‘brain train’ in preparation for college. He offered information about how Gr. 6 elementary graduate students get to be qualified and admitted to QSHS.
The first phase requirement, he said, is the student must have 85% grade upward in English, Science and Math and 83% in other subjects, the second phase is the entrance exam and the last phase is the final interview which included family background investigation and profiling.
There are usually over 600 applicants from all over the province seeking admission at QSHS but only 200 get to be interviewed and only the top 80 are finally accepted.
Yabut stressed that there is no other consideration for admission in QSHS but the result of the examination and they can do nothing if some of the students come from well off family as long as they pass the entrance test they are qualified as the DepEd policy is ‘Education for All’.
He said that the profile of the student population at QSHS showed that 70% come from lower and middle income bracket and only 20% from well-off family.
For school year 2018-2019, there are 80 student enrolees of QSHS for Gr. 7, 78 for Gr. 8, 74 for Gr. 9, 75 for Gr. 10, 37 for Gr. 11 and 44 for Gr. 12.
Modified and advanced curriculum
“We have modified curriculum in QSHS, we offer advanced and enhanced Math and Science subjects compared from the DepEd basic curriculum,” Yabut said adding that their students have become regional and national qualifiers since 2012 in various academic competitions such as in Science Investigative Project and in those sponsored by the Association of Science Education of Phil.
` Aside from the regular academic subjects being taught at the QSHS, there are enhanced elective, arts, computer and research subjects for freshmen students, Yabut said as he cited some subjects being taught to their students such as environmental research for Gr. 8, Research 1 for Gr. 9, Algebra, Geometry, Research 2 and Robotics for Gr. 10, Calculus for Gr. 11, etc.
One product of QSHS enhanced education program is Gwen Leila Abano, Gr. 10 student of QSHS who was selected as one of the members of the Phil. Team to the Olympic Mathematics 3D Cup Pan-Asia Pacific International Invitation Competition 2018 to be held in Hongkong from June 29 to July 3.
Bright and ambitious students coming from poor family feel lucky to be at QSHS because aside from advanced and specialized academic subjects they have no problems where to get their meals during school days as free meals are offered 3 times a day and 1 snack in the morning and another in the afternoon. A 3-storey dormitory built and inaugurated on Nov. 4, 2014 offers free stay for students who reside in far-off municipalities of the province.
Merlinda Endrenal, dormitory supervisor, said there are a total of 157 student occupants at present at the dormitory consisting of 68 girls and 86 boys. She said there are 2 big rooms each for boys and girls and 1 room accommodates 43 ‘dormers’ who are told to be in their room at 7pm.
Payback to the community
Eloisa Marie Tulay, Gr. 12 student from Tiaong town who plans to enrol in UP Los Banos and take up BS Electrical Engineering course, expressed her excitement in behalf of her fellow QSHS students who aim for excellence and in the future aspire to be able to pay back for the community:
“Grade 5 pa lang ako noon pag tinatanong ako kung saan ko gusto pumasok ng high school ay sinasabi ko sa QSHS. Iba po ito kasi tinitingala at sinasabi ‘cream of the crop’. I always try for excellence, na maging better version of myself at once na maka-graduate ako ng senior high school ay duty ko pong ibalik yung buwis ng bayan, parang duty ko pong paglingkuran sila in return at hindi ko po makukuha ang ganitong quality of education kung wala sila sa QSHS.” (I was then in Grade 5 and whenever I was asked where to enrol in high school I always said QSHS. I know it is different and being looked up to and talked about as ‘cream of the crop’. I always try for excellence, to become a better version of myself and once I graduate from the senior high school I vow to pay it back to the community, to make it my duty to serve in return as I could not think to get this quality education if they (the teachers in QSHS) are not there).
Suarez believes that the best investment a government can make is investing in the minds of the youth. He has built some 94 computer laboratories for various high schools in the province since 2013 as part of his administration’s province-wide computer literacy program.
“I place a huge stake in science education for the youth in Quezon province to prepare them for a highly competitive environment of technological advancement in the future,” Suarez, the youngest governor of the province at 34 years old when he was first elected in 2010, said in a media interview about the establishment of QSHS.
For his part, House Minority Floor Leader and Quezon 3rd District Cong. Danilo Suarez, the governor’s father, has pitched in and has granted scholarship assistance of P20,000 each to 43 senior high school students who graduated from QSHS last Nov. 2017 to start off their college education.Armed with the assurance of assistance and the pursuit of knowledge and excellence, QSHS students look forward to bright hopes and unlimited opportunities for themselves and for the province.
Edgar Yabut, master teacher in Science who has been recruited from Lutucan National High School in Sariaya to teach at QSHS since its operation in 2011, is one of the 19 teachers at present, along with Orugo, as the QSHS head. Last month, before the opening of classes, he was with 4 Gr. 12 students who were undergoing 2 weeks ‘brain train’ in preparation for college. He offered information about how Gr. 6 elementary graduate students get to be qualified and admitted to QSHS.
The first phase requirement, he said, is the student must have 85% grade upward in English, Science and Math and 83% in other subjects, the second phase is the entrance exam and the last phase is the final interview which included family background investigation and profiling.
There are usually over 600 applicants from all over the province seeking admission at QSHS but only 200 get to be interviewed and only the top 80 are finally accepted.
Yabut stressed that there is no other consideration for admission in QSHS but the result of the examination and they can do nothing if some of the students come from well off family as long as they pass the entrance test they are qualified as the DepEd policy is ‘Education for All’.
He said that the profile of the student population at QSHS showed that 70% come from lower and middle income bracket and only 20% from well-off family.
For school year 2018-2019, there are 80 student enrolees of QSHS for Gr. 7, 78 for Gr. 8, 74 for Gr. 9, 75 for Gr. 10, 37 for Gr. 11 and 44 for Gr. 12.
Modified and advanced curriculum
“We have modified curriculum in QSHS, we offer advanced and enhanced Math and Science subjects compared from the DepEd basic curriculum,” Yabut said adding that their students have become regional and national qualifiers since 2012 in various academic competitions such as in Science Investigative Project and in those sponsored by the Association of Science Education of Phil.
` Aside from the regular academic subjects being taught at the QSHS, there are enhanced elective, arts, computer and research subjects for freshmen students, Yabut said as he cited some subjects being taught to their students such as environmental research for Gr. 8, Research 1 for Gr. 9, Algebra, Geometry, Research 2 and Robotics for Gr. 10, Calculus for Gr. 11, etc.
One product of QSHS enhanced education program is Gwen Leila Abano, Gr. 10 student of QSHS who was selected as one of the members of the Phil. Team to the Olympic Mathematics 3D Cup Pan-Asia Pacific International Invitation Competition 2018 to be held in Hongkong from June 29 to July 3.
Bright and ambitious students coming from poor family feel lucky to be at QSHS because aside from advanced and specialized academic subjects they have no problems where to get their meals during school days as free meals are offered 3 times a day and 1 snack in the morning and another in the afternoon. A 3-storey dormitory built and inaugurated on Nov. 4, 2014 offers free stay for students who reside in far-off municipalities of the province.
Merlinda Endrenal, dormitory supervisor, said there are a total of 157 student occupants at present at the dormitory consisting of 68 girls and 86 boys. She said there are 2 big rooms each for boys and girls and 1 room accommodates 43 ‘dormers’ who are told to be in their room at 7pm.
Payback to the community
Eloisa Marie Tulay, Gr. 12 student from Tiaong town who plans to enrol in UP Los Banos and take up BS Electrical Engineering course, expressed her excitement in behalf of her fellow QSHS students who aim for excellence and in the future aspire to be able to pay back for the community:
“Grade 5 pa lang ako noon pag tinatanong ako kung saan ko gusto pumasok ng high school ay sinasabi ko sa QSHS. Iba po ito kasi tinitingala at sinasabi ‘cream of the crop’. I always try for excellence, na maging better version of myself at once na maka-graduate ako ng senior high school ay duty ko pong ibalik yung buwis ng bayan, parang duty ko pong paglingkuran sila in return at hindi ko po makukuha ang ganitong quality of education kung wala sila sa QSHS.” (I was then in Grade 5 and whenever I was asked where to enrol in high school I always said QSHS. I know it is different and being looked up to and talked about as ‘cream of the crop’. I always try for excellence, to become a better version of myself and once I graduate from the senior high school I vow to pay it back to the community, to make it my duty to serve in return as I could not think to get this quality education if they (the teachers in QSHS) are not there).
Suarez believes that the best investment a government can make is investing in the minds of the youth. He has built some 94 computer laboratories for various high schools in the province since 2013 as part of his administration’s province-wide computer literacy program.
“I place a huge stake in science education for the youth in Quezon province to prepare them for a highly competitive environment of technological advancement in the future,” Suarez, the youngest governor of the province at 34 years old when he was first elected in 2010, said in a media interview about the establishment of QSHS.
For his part, House Minority Floor Leader and Quezon 3rd District Cong. Danilo Suarez, the governor’s father, has pitched in and has granted scholarship assistance of P20,000 each to 43 senior high school students who graduated from QSHS last Nov. 2017 to start off their college education.Armed with the assurance of assistance and the pursuit of knowledge and excellence, QSHS students look forward to bright hopes and unlimited opportunities for themselves and for the province.
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