innovations

Given a chance, you are called to fill in the position of CHED/DepEd director. You are given a limited time frame of three (3) years to make an abrupt education innovation producing an outcome of quality education and develop high standard of educational leadership. How will you do this?

If I will be given this chance, I will start equipping myself with the necessary skills for me to be able to handle such big task. I will consult people who have experiences that can contribute to my self – growth. I will attend various seminar workshops that will teach me something that will benefit the institution as a whole. I will make lots of readings about articles and books that will teach me how to deal with my people better and how to influence them in a way that will benefit the whole school. In short, I have to start from myself. I have to be knowledgeable enough about the world of education and must be well – skilled on how to lead and deal with people. In that way, I can fulfil everything that I will plan.

After equipping myself with the necessary skills to manage and lead people well, I will now train the people who will handle the different committees. I will send them to different conventions and training workshops that will equip them with valuable skills, attitudes and knowledge that will eventually be used to produce something that of real quality. Training them will empower the whole educational community. New skills will be added to them and they can also meet other people whom they can have positive connections that can benefit the institution also in the future. This way, the people will grow professionally. This will also increase their confidence in themselves because of the different workshops and exposures that they will experience. In a way, the people will also be obliged to work hard for the institution since it will be the institution that will sponsor their professional growth in exchange to their great contribution to the company. Of course, I have to inform also my people the benefits that they will get out of the different tasks that will be given to them. Don’t be hypocrites. We all work because we aim for something, and usually it’s on the financial side. If the employees will have something to look forward to, they will be well motivated to work hard to achieve it. They have to feel that they are part of the company. They have to be involved not only in the service part but also to the company’s achievements and success. If they will really feel that the growth of the company means their professional growth and financial stability also, and then even that entails a lot of work, they will go for it. So again, after equipping myself, I will go down to my people and lay to them my great dreams for them and for the institution.

When we talk of “quality”, we pertain to a degree of excellence, something superior in kind. Aiming for quality education is quite hard since it entails a lot of techniques and strategies, various activities, educational innovations and an excellent manpower to execute properly the mentioned tasks. Quality teaching plus quality school equals quality education. Meaning, for us to achieve a quality education, one must have teachers wherein their common goal is to give quality teaching and this will be accompanied by a quality school which will give the best equipments and structures that will aid in achieving quality education. They should be together otherwise quality education will be hard to achieve. The best facilities will be useless if the teachers are not committed. In the same way, teachers that are truly dedicated but the place where they will conduct their lectures is not conducive to learning and there is no enough equipment and facilities such as computers, speech laboratory, etc. to aid the holistic development of the child will find it hard to develop a 21st century learner.

So regarding my 3 – year plan to make an abrupt educational innovation, I will have the following project proposals:

PROJECT
TIME FRAME
OBJECTIVES
RESOURCES/PEOPLE INVOLVE
POSSIBLE OUTPUT/ RESULTS
Human Resources Development Program
6 months
To equip the people with valuable knowledge and skills that is beneficial to the school’s growth.
To provide the teachers and school staff a training workshop that will prepare them on how to achieve a quality education.
All administrators, faculty and staff.
Will hire professional and experts when it comes on the following areas:
Classroom Management
Teaching Strategies
Teaching Methodologies
21sy Century Education
The use of Computer technology in Education
Child psychology
Guidance and Counselling
Leadership and Management
Interpersonal Relationship
Curriculum Development

All school personnel will be ready to handle different situations and projects for the benefit of the school in totality.

Personalized Curriculum
18 months
To develop and improve the current curriculum in terms of the subjects to be taught and the skills and concepts to be discussed in a certain period of time.
To decongest the current curriculum.
To include only the concepts and skills that are useful to the choice of specialization or field of work that a student will have.
To have more focus on the mastering of the skills and not on the theorems or definitions.
To increase the exposure of the students on how to do the job by giving more time on the “on – the – job – training” programs.
As early as grade 7, the students will already choose a curriculum based on their preferred job in the future.
Increase the awareness of the students to the needs of the society as well as the different values and attitudes that they have to possess for them to reach success.

All administrators and teachers.
Experts in curriculum development who will serve as consultants.
Human resources department representatives of every company that will help in absorbing the students during their OJT.

The students will not have job mismatch anymore since even during their high school days they will be exposed already with the real job/work as early as grade 7.
Subjects that are not related to the filed that the student will pursue will not be given anymore. Because of this, all subjects to be taught to them will have a direct link or connection with the kind of job that they want for themselves. In short, no subject will be useless in the future.
Students will be more motivated to learn because all the subjects included in their curriculum are their interests.

School Preparedness Program
12 months
To prepare the school for the implementation of the new curriculum.
The school must have the necessary facilities that will be used by the teachers to teach the students.
The school must have connections already to different industries so they can help also the students in looking for a place to have their OJT.
The school must conduct seminars to the community regarding the new curriculum to be implemented and discussed to them the advantages and benefits that the students will have.
To conduct series of seminars among students to help them decide with regards to the job that they want to pursue someday and to expose them with the different industries in the market.

All administrators, faculty and staff.
Community
Local Officials
Different companies and industries

Parents and students will be aware of the new curriculum.
Students as early as incoming grade 7 students will be exposed to different jobs in the market and will be able to decide what kind of curriculum will fit them.
Companies will be able to help students reach for their dream job by training these would be employees of their company during the OJT proper.
Awareness and acceptance form the community plus the involvement of local officials and the different companies will help in the realization of this new curriculum.

The new curriculum envisions developing students who are really capable of doing a particular job. Nowadays, there are lots of students who are graduating in college but do not have the necessary skills for a particular job. It is only during the company’s 3 or 6 – month training period that the applicant will be taught how to go about the job. So what happened to the numerous concepts and skills that the students learned from high school to college?

The new curriculum that I am proposing will prevent this situation. A grade 7 student who dreams to be a doctor someday will only have the subjects that are prerequisite to medicine. Although medicine will be needing mathematics also but this student will not anymore undergo some difficult math like trigonometry or number theory. The math subjects that will just be included in their curriculum are only those concepts and skills that they can use when they become doctors someday. Meaning, from grade 7 to 12, students will take up only those subjects related to the job that they want to have someday. That will decongest their curriculum. If the students will have fewer subjects to deal with, most probably they can focus more on their chosen field. Besides that, the students will be well – motivated since as early as grade 7 they are already planning for their future. They will be more eager to study since they know that what they learn from grade 7 to 12 will be used really in their chosen career or job. Not unlike today that students keep on asking if they will be asked to get the square root of a number if they will be an entrepreneur someday. This curriculum will somehow decrease the dropouts that the education world is experiencing. Thus, the government must really support this. They have to help schools in implementing this kind of curriculum. Students also will be trained to be more responsible for their future since as early as high school students they will undergo a series of OJT and they will be given allowance for this. In this way, they are learning and at the same time they are earning for themselves.

This curriculum also will develop leaders in the future. Those students who will be successful in their chosen field and are already working and absorbed by a certain company will be the new trainers of the students and they will be paid for this. In this way, the students will be more motivated to pursue their studies since their mentors were once the students of the same curriculum where they belong. Through the school and the company’s partnership, students will learn a lot about the real world since they will be exposed at an early age. Proper values also will be taught to them especially the values that will lead to their success.