While most private schools are struggling to contain enrolment shortfalls, Liceo de San Jacinto Foundation Inc. (LSJFI) is enjoying the pleasant headache of how to manage excess enrolees as fear of the contagion continues to sweep its market in Ticao Island, Masbate.
Parents interviewed by this website spoke of their uncertainty. “ Why should we risk our children in Bicol when Liceo is here?” posed one in Tigaonon, noting that many students from Monreal have either decided to change course and transfer to Liceo or cherry-pick subjects that will be honoured in Bicol when they move back to Bicol again.
“We used to have a peak of 500-plus enrolees for the first semester, but it appears that enrolees may well run upwards to 700 hundred students,” school registrar Michelle M. Ternal told this website after school managers combed the spiralling numbers of entrance examination takers.
The total of examination takers has thus far reached 824 as of last week, and is expected to still rise as the school continues to explore its capacity with social distancing in mind.
According to LSJFI chief of staff Noe C. Esparrago, the school can only accommodate 70% of applicants who have BSEd Major in English, BSEd Major in Mathematics, BSEd Major in Pilipino, BS in Crimininal Justice Education, AB Major in Political Science, and its latest offering, BS in Industrial Security Management, now in its second year on board.
The upsurge is not only in the tertiary department: The Grade 7 enlistment for the Junior High had to ground to a halt after the 150 seats available for Grade 7 enrolees were swallowed in less than two weeks of what was initially viewed by school officials as a soft opening.
“This is not what we had in mind,” said JHs principal and school vice-president Dr. Monina S. Moya. “We thought that it would be slow and easy, and spread over two months,” she added.
What happened was that there was a rush to enlist, take entrance examinations, and enrol. With the Aug. 24 projected opening of classes still almost two months away, almost 1,300 college students in the four towns of Ticao have already signified their desire to resume schooling.
The figure is almost 70% already of the projected capacity of the school using a modular method and the assumption of a once-a-week face-to-face classes.
“Nonetheless, the situation is still evolving and the actual picture of how the school will operate shall depend on many factors, some of which are still unclear,” stated Dr. Penelope B. Bagobe who has been at the helm of the school for the last eight year.
By Ike Arevalo