How Naga high schools stack up

AFTER seeing a snapshot of how Philippine localities compare in terms of academic performance, how would local high schools, public and private, match up?

The image to the right captures their relative performance in the National Career Assessment Examination conducted among 4th year high school students last December.

Again, some quick observations:

1. Public schools can hold their own against private sector counterparts. This is especially true at the upper end of the spectrum, where special public high school programs (the science- and arts-oriented curricula of Camarines Sur National High School, as well as the city's own science high school, where admission policies are stringent) bested their private counterparts.

2. The Camarines Sur Polytechnic laboratory high school (formerly BCAT) and Cararayan National High School are the surprising revelation in this exam, owing to their strong performance in the middle range. They have performed better than my alma mater, UNC, as well as the other public high schools, including the regular curriculum of Cam High.

3. The situation is somewhat reversed in the lower end, as public schools like Concepcion Pequena and Tinago did not fare as well as their private counterparts.

I have reservations, though, whether a special program for the differently abled, (read: the Naga SPED), should be assessed together with all the rest. My sense is, they have special needs that deserve special attention.

If at all, the results point out which ones need to exert more efforts to do better, and where government can focus its resources to support them. The respective school administrations should take the initiative here, as exemplified by Tinago High which called a PTA meeting after these results became public.

Your own take on this data will be appreciated, as usual.