WHAT is the role and function of the Senior High School program in relation to tertiary education? This was the last point in my previous column, which I find necessary for clarification among the many gray areas of the SHS program. Related to this is the question whether SHS students should be treated like High School or College students.
The broader context of the foregoing issue is the fact that high school and college do their stuff very differently. Basic education in general requires teachers to pay attention to differentiated strategies, performance tasks and support systems to ensure enhanced pedagogy. The thing called “teacher factor,” for example, is a common issue in high school.
The realities in college are basically different. Once a student enters tertiary education, the burden to pass the subject shifts from the teacher to the student. It is no longer an issue as to how the subject is taught but how the student takes his studies seriously. Accounting students, for example, are expected to study and understand their major subjects “regardless” of how their teachers deliver the lesson.
Those who are more inclined to “strictly” consider SHS as a basic education program have difficulty moving out from the comfort and confines of the high school paradigm. The argument is basically technical in nature. SHS is an integral component of HS and must therefore be conceptualized and performed within that limit. Those who operate or run SHS within this view would end up treating SHS like an upgraded junior high school (JHS) program.
Technicality wise, the above-mentioned view is correct however it is “naïve.” I dare argue that a progressive and forward-looking view is a better reading and interpretation of the role and function of SHS in our educational system. This means that SHS isn’t just designed as the summation or the terminal of JHS.
A better and comprehensive way of explaining the purpose of SHS education is to find its spot in the teleological continuum of education. For example, a good Law School is known by the kind of lawyers it produces. Who are in the best position to teach Law? Of course the lawyers because it is they who know how “real” lawyering is done or performed. Are non-lawyers in a better position to tell law professors how to teach law? Apparently, not.
To expand our analysis, let’s move backward. If Accountancy is the preferred pre-law course then who is in a better position to teach Accounting? Apparently it is the one who is trained or licensed in Accounting. How should a teacher in accounting teach his or her subjects? Should she do it based on the fundamental principles of andragogy prescribed by Teacher Education schools? No or not necessarily. In the end, the measure as to whether Accounting was taught well would be none other than the result of the licensure exam.
So going back to SHS, what is its role in relation to college? The answer to this should be traced back to the very reason why we decided to revise our educational system. Senior High initially paves the way for specialization. And why not specialize? The industrial landscape is changing. We are in a world where we are expected to know something specific but at the same time also pushed to integrate, blend, and interact.
If we are to teach SHS serving its purpose in the light of our current realities we have to look forward in our preparation of students. It is pointless to limitedly conceptualize and define SHS as merely part of HS if by this we mean that it is the culmination of basic education. Precisely, basic education is in the world but it is “not yet” the world.
SHS being the last segment of basic education should already make the student feel the pains of life. It is thus the foretaste of college and ultimately the real world of work and economic competition. Indispensable in the training of SHS students is the development of intrinsic motivation to study core and specialized subjects. This means that they should take their subjects seriously not because they like the teacher but because it is important.
If understood more correctly, SHS is the point of no return that leads to life. The duty of a senior high school teacher is not just to prepare his lessons for students to understand and applaud. More importantly, he must be able to convince his students that they too have the duty to seek to understand even if sometimes the teacher is not worth applauding.