PARTNERSHIP THROUGH IMMERSION

ROLANDO P. PANTIG

The Department of Education is doing its best to make education quality with a great impact to learners in all walks of life. As part of the K to 12 Curriculum, the department set a standard for every Grade 12 students to enable them to be prepared either work, college, entrepreneurship. Mainstreaming to the Vision of the department, whose values and competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to building the nation. As stipulated under DepEd Order No. 30, s. 2017, Work Immersion is a key feature of the SHS Curriculum. It can be conducted in different ways depending on the purposes and needs of learners. One of the goals of K to 12 Program is to develop in learners the competencies, work ethic, and values relevant to pursuing further education and or joining the world of work. To achieve greater congruence between basic education and the nation’s development targets, work immersion, a required subject has been incorporated into the curriculum. This subject will provide learners with opportunities as to become familiar with the work place; for employment simulation; and to apply their competencies in areas of specialization/ applied subjects in authentic work environments. To achieve these objectives, it is a requirement for graduation from secondary education. Learners are immersed in actual work environments such as workshops offices and laboratories in which their prior training is relevant.

The work immersion focal person together with his work immersion teachers made many ways to look for work immersion partners. Since the senior high school students are considered as underage, the Senior High School In-charge made the initiative to look for partners as early as August of the first semester of the school year, seeing to it that all students are to be accommodated both from private and government institutions. Since the school is located to a farmland community, the SHS Incharge have scouted different institutions from the nearby towns and as far as City of San Fernando and Angeles City just to answer the call of DepEd Kto12 program. About two hundred fifty-three Grade 12 students are to be deployed on the second semester of the school year. Around thirty-six partners were identified to accommodate said students. Required documents were prepared by the immersion teachers before the deployment proper. Since it was the very first immersion for the students, proper orientation, preparation of documents is made as required by the accepting partner institution. A two weeks training must be completed by the students while other partners required students to have it for two hundred forty hours such as that of the Technical-Vocational Strands. Deployment were made from November to February. Partner Institutions have trained the students on the actual field of work whether in General Academic Strands, Science and Technology Engineering and Mathematics Strands, Accountancy Business and Management Strands and Technical Vocational Strands. For students who undergone immersion have learned first hand experienced on the field of work, while partner institutions are very accommodating and willing to teach the students in their chosen field and they are looking forward to be of partners in the coming years. Thus, partnership is very vital to the learning process of the students to be prepared in the field of work, business and college.

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The author is Head Teacher III at Becuran High School