01 Apr 2008 by
starlitgrove I am reposting this from the Multiply blog of Tina Bargo, Pisay ‘99.
I am speaking as a Pisay alumna, as a former Pisay faculty member and as a UP instructor.
Getting in Pisay is a privilege. You are not paying for your education, in fact you are getting paid to study. As a student, I’ve worked hard to earn that Pisay diploma. Graduating from Pisay means that you have passed the standards set by the school. I find it unacceptable that someone could earn that diploma even if he got a grade of 5.0.
The grades are based on several components: homeworks and seatworks, quizzes, long exams, class participation and periodic exams. This measures both the intellectual capacity and the diligence of the student. Even if you get low scores in the exams, you get a chance to redeem yourself in homeworks and class participation. Getting a grade of 4.0 or 5.0 means that your performance is bad in all of these components. If you obtained a grade of 4.0, you get one last chance to redeem yourself through the removal exam. This will determine whether you learned enough concepts to pass the subject or not. If you pass, then you get a grade of 3.0. Otherwise, you get a grade of 5.0.
Allowing a child to graduate even if he got a grade of 5.0 implies that the child did not deserve to flunk. You’ve got to be kidding. There are four different levels of failing marks: 2.75, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. If a student got a failing mark on a particular subject, he is required to take remedial classes throughout the entire year to help them improve their grades. Getting a grade of 4.0 or 5.0 in spite of this means that either you really did not learn anything from the subject, or you did not exert any effort at all.
Allowing a child to get a Pisay diploma even if he got a grade of 5.0 is being unfair to the other Pisay graduates. They did their part to get the Pisay diploma, and yet another person could get it even if he did not meet the standards. Why bother with the standards in the first place? This makes the Pisay diploma practically worthless, because anyone could get it. Not to mention that this will also be unfair to the former Pisay students who did not get a Pisay diploma because of a grade of 5.0.
When you get out of Pisay, other people will not care whether you passed or failed in your subjects during high school. Your Pisay diploma says it all, and other people will naturally expect something from a Pisay graduate. At present, my colleagues would often complain that a lot of Pisay graduates are not performing well in their math courses. In fact, I’ve flunked a few Pisay graduates myself. Is this the image that we want to project?
If you could still get that Pisay diploma even if you get a grade of 5.0, what then is the value of a Pisay diploma?
However, in the comments section, Dr. Rafael Saldana, Pisay ‘77 and Board Secretary of the PSHS National Alumni Association, made the following clarification (emphasis mine):
To prevent misunderstanding, some clarifications are in order:
The three students who got a grade of 5.0 in Math (Calculus) will not be allowed to march during the Graduation Ceremony of PSHS Class of 2008. Also, they will NOT AUTOMATICALLY be given a PSHS diploma. The students will undergo a summer remedial program and will have to take an exam. IF THEY PASS the exam, then they will be given a PSHS diploma.
Here is an excerpt from Jessamyn’s e-mail to me:
As decided by the PSHS Board of Trustees last March 28:
Three students with grade of 5.0 in Math will not march in the 2008 graduation, and the students will be allowed to take a summer remedial program and exam, which IF THEY PASS will allow them to get a PSHS diploma — what the summer program looks like is still for discussion at the level of the campus directors in the next Execom meeting — FOR Sure we will solicit initial inputs/ feedback from teachers, alumni, other educators, before the PSHS System will propose what this change in policy looks like… etc…
Dati daw sa DOST-SEI scholarship, when you get a 5.0 you are out –> but now, you can retake the course, and once you improve on the grade, your DOST scholarship privileges are reinstated.
When the DOST scholar is in the 4th year, and is recommended to be disqualified because of failing grades, DOST looks for another sponsoring institution to support the last year of the student’s scholarship. I guess we are going through a similar review for a change in policy because the BOT feels that the 4-year “investment” in the student will be wasted without some program in place.
So it has been clarified that:
1. The three students who got a grade of 5.0 in Math will not be allowed to march in the Commencement Exercises (Graduation Ceremony).
2. The students who got a grade of 5.0 are now being given another chance to get a PSHS diploma (instead of a DepED diploma which has been the case in the past)
May remedial program na rin pala ang Pisay ngayon? Well, as of March 28, at least, to accommodate these 3 students?
Speaking as a child of the 5.0 = FAILURE = KICK OUT years, I also find this so unfair. I had a batch mate who was kicked out because of a 5.0 in Filipino – which isn’t even a Pisay core (emphasis on Maths and Sciences and all that). If I recall the circumstances correctly, he was not a native Filipino speaker – he thought in English even – and he had good grades in his Math and Science subjects. Still, a 5.0 meant failure, so he got kicked out. Was it in our 4th year or 3rd year? Can’t totally recall. If this new policy on remedial classes had been acceptable back then, he would probably have marched with us.
But then I hear about how Pisay is now, and how people question if it’s still relevant as a school, and it gets me thinking about these rigid, almost sacred policies we followed all those years. I am alien to the Pisay my brother experienced – science and tech streams, wtheck are those?![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
unspooling’s comment on the possible causes of the 5.0 made sense – maybe life got in the way. And maybe while this happened, all Pisay cared about was grades, grades, and grades. So now they want to rectify this, be more humane, be more pro-student. Thus the last chance in the form of remedials? I don’t know. But the timing seems so contrived. Decisions on policy could have been made at the start of the school year, not several days before graduation.
