Separated by more than 600 kilometers of land and sea, Alabat Island National High School in Quezon Province and Tisa II Elementary School in Cebu have very little things in common except for their visionary principals who believed the schools can do more.
Principal Gregorio Racelis of Alabat Island National High School implemented a comprehensive values-based program that ultimately increased the National Achievement Test Mean Percentage Score by more than 20 percentage points over a span of six years.
Principal Maricon Gumba of Tisa II Elementary School rallied her master teachers to influence institutional change, fixing the physical deterioration of the school, revitalizing programs such as Brigada Eskwela, and developing her own initiatives that led to academic transformation.
Alabat Island National High School and Tisa II Elementary School are two of the seven schools across the Philippines that were recognized by Bayan Academy during the 6th Excellence in Education Transformation Awards on Nov. 19 at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. The awards this year were selected based on exceptional innovation in the field of strategic human resource management.
Other awardees are Palusapis Integrated School, Science City of Munoz in Nueva Ecija; Babag National High School, Lapu-Lapu City; Schools Division of Quezon Province; Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Basic Education, Intramuros, Manila; and University of Santo Tomas Senior High School in Sampaloc, Manila.
