Special Topics

2. Mechanics of Implementation
1. Independent Learning ReadinessAssessment
Learners who wish to participate in the Open High
School Program shall take the Independent Learning
Readiness Assessment to be administered by the
school, the results of which shall be the basis for
placing them in the appropriate learning mode:

3. a. Learners, who are not yet ready for independent learning,
are placed in the transition program which will provide a
bridging curriculum focused on the development of the
learning-to-learn skills.
b. When the learners are assessed to be almost ready for
independent learning, then they may be placed in the
blended learning program when undertaking the required
curriculum.
c. Learners who are ready for independent learning may do
the entire curriculum on their own, or be home-schooled,
with the option to seek teacher’s guidance or help from
experts or resource persons in the community.

4. 2. Learning Contract
once the learners get into the program, they and their
parents/ guardians are oriented on the mechanics and the
requirements of the curriculum including assessments.
3. Curriculum
The core curriculum prescribed for those in the formal
learning system is the same curriculum that learners in the
Open High School will go through, the only difference
being the mode of learning.

5. 4. Working withTeacher-Facilitators
When the learners’ readiness to learn independently
has been established, they are given the modules (or access
to the online learning resources when these are available)
which they can take home.
5. Assessments
Assessments are a critical component of the learning
materials.

6. Issues and Challenges
The Open High School was designed originally as an
alternative learning system for those who are unable to start or
complete secondary education due to problems of time,
distance, education design, physical impairment, or financial
difficulties, and for those living in areas of conflict. This design
inadvertently created the impression that he program was for
at-risk students only.
The system is learner-centered and makes use of a wide range
of teaching-learning strategies through a combination of print
and non-print media.

7. Lesson and Insights
The program was initially micro-tested in a number of schools and
was subsequently revised to address some implementation issues. The
revision were based on lessons and insights gained from the micro-
testing.
One critical lesson is that self-directed learning, as a basic feature of
the Open High School Program, is ideal if students can indeed learn on
their own. This implies that a lot of capacity-building will need to happen
before learners can be certified as ready for independent learning.
Experience has shown that those children who drop out or who are out-
of-school are usually incapable of learning on their own. Thus, as a safety
net, the program provides tutorials and intensive teacher guidance and
monitoring until such time when the learner can demonstrate capacity
for independent learning.

8. Automatically putting at-risk students in the alternative delivery
mode of learning on the assumption that this is what they need in
order to complete their basic education outside of formal school
structure suffers from a too linear view of the problem of school
dropouts. Research has shown and, as our experience in working
with public secondary schools reveals, that the problem is brought
on by a host of factors, hence the dropout intervention cannot
certainly be limited to how education is delivered.

9. What has emerged from the experience of public secondary
schools and their communities is an integrated, systemic and
collaborative approach to dropout reduction that recognizes
that uniqueness and capacities of schools and its personalized
and customized to the needs of at-risk students as it addresses
the specific causes of dropping out.

10. Necessarily, schools must own the program. Normally, schools
would be assigned to participate in the try-out. We learned, however,
that success rate can be high if the schools themselves volunteer to get
involved. Thus, when the program was revised, the criteria for
participation were likewise refined and true enough when the invitation
was issued to the field, many schools even from far-flung areas signed
up.

11. Moreover, in order to ensure that the program is sustained,
the community must be made to own it. The public schools do
not have the resources to support multi-channel learning. Thus,
it will benefit the learners if the school can establish partnership
with non-government organizations, the local government unit,
and the parents for additional resources for learning. One of the
requirements asked of participating schools is the certification of
financial support from the local government unit. Another
requirement is that the community must make available to the
learners its facilities for off-school learning. In addition, parents
or guardians are required to co-sign with the learners the
learning contract with the school in order to establish joint

12. Lastly, a rigid monitoring and evaluation system must
be in place in order to ensure that learners have mastered
the tools of learning how to learn and that they have the
capacity to benefit from the system. It is not enough that
learners are given the materials for learning. The school
must be able to keep track of the learners’ progress and
apply the appropriate intervention when necessary.

13. 1. Schools is no longer a place, but a process that can take
place anytime, anywhere and which must be made available to
anyone. School is an open learning system that will make
education accessible to everyone, and will recognize learning
regardless of how and where it is acquired.
2. Learners who wish to participate in the Open High School
Program go through the following steps:
a) Take the Independent Learning Readiness Assessment
 Learners, who are yet ready for independent learning, are
placed in the transition program which provides a bridging
curriculum focused on the development of the learning-to-
learn skills.

14.  Learners who are assessed to be almost ready for independent
learning, they may be placed in the blended learning program, a
combination of school-based, face-to-face learning and distance
learning or home schooling.
 Learners who are ready for independent learning may do the entire
curriculum on their own. Or be home-schooled and may seek teacher’s
guidance or help from experts or resource persons in the community if
they want to do so.
b) Sign the Learning Contract
 The learners and their parents or guardians sign a learning contract
with the school after they have been oriented on the mechanics and
requirements of the curriculum.

15. 3. Learners of the OHSP go through the same core curriculum as the
formal school system. They are subjected to the same guidelines on
assessment and grading system.
4. OHSP is not only for students at-risk. It is for all students including
high-performing who actually are most ready for independent
learning.
5. For OHSP to succeed, the following conditions are necessary:
a) The learners must be ready for self-directed learning.
b) The program must be owned by the school and community.
c) A rigid monitoring and evaluation system must be in place and so
the school must be able to keep track of the learners’ progress and
apply the appropriate intervention when necessary.