UNIVERSITY Secretary General Fr. Jesus Miranda Jr., O.P. said private schools should pursue innovations but remain anchored on the basics, amid the drop in enrollees due to the implementation of the K to 12 curriculum.
In his opinion piece published in the Sunday edition of The Manila Times on July 15, Miranda urged schools to be more “explorative and daring” in offering programs that would attract more students.
“These trying times call for tough decisions on the part of private tertiary educational institutions. Schools need to be more creative, explorative and even daring as regards possible offering of programs to attract more students and arrest the downslide of enrollment. However, trying times also call for the organization to be strongly moored on the basics once again,” he said.
READ: DIFFICULT TIMES? Schools need to be moored on the basics
Innovations can keep schools “afloat financially and morally” by investing on quality faculty members, researchers and students, UST’s secretary general said.
“Institutions need to spend time and effort to get the best teachers, school personnel, researchers and even students. They have to formulate the best policies and to make sure that these are implemented,” he said.
Miranda also stressed that good leadership and management of schools translate to quality education as it “provides the vision, sets values and models the behavior that makes a desirable culture.”
“[Good leadership] crystalizes the value proposition of a school, which would make potential students and their parents be convinced that they would want to be a part of the school and its vision. [I]n the end, good leadership in schools means good quality education. People are willing to pay for what is good,” he said.
Schools should not veer away from the basics of managing educational institutions, he stressed.
“In these trying times, while it is important to soundly manage again schools, school leaders must also give a hard look on investing in leadership. Innovations may be a necessity, but it will be regrettable to ignore the basics at one’s own expense,” Miranda said.
The K to 12 curriculum required two additional years in secondary education, cutting enrollment in college programs for the years 2016 to 2022.
Freshmen enrollees in the University totalled 13,578 students during Academic Year 2015 to 2016, but went down to 4,121 enrollees in Academic Year 2016 to 2017, the first year of implementation of the K to 12 curriculum. Marem A. De Jemel
