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Choosing a school

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normasa
  11/11/2015 04:00 EST

My husband and I with Our 3 boys are moving to the Philippines. We need some info regarding schools for our 10 and 13 year olds. We need to know which are the best schools regarding international , private schools. Google just gives overall views but we need to know the indepth info regarding choosing a school. We are currently residing in South Africa. Please HELP!!!!!! Anyone

catabisis
  11/11/2015 05:59 EST

I can't help you, but please return here in the future and tell us about the schools here compared to your country.

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poochewer
  11/11/2015 14:24 EST

The Philippines is not a planning type place. I know it sounds crazy, but just come here and then ask around and look around. You see they don't advertise freely here. When you need something you must go on a search mission. There's no shortage of help and advice once you arrive, but no real listings or sites for services and such.

charkee
  11/11/2015 18:54 EST

It depends where you want to live. There are international schools and I know a teacher in one. They offered me a job to teach Spanish for about $400 US per month, which is double the going rate for teachers. The school is south of Manila and remember if the school is only 10 miles away traffic could make it seem 50 miles away.

normasa
  11/12/2015 01:13 EST

Thanks for the info.... The company is placing my husband in Legaspi City and choosing a school is on the top our list. I read about international schools and private schools. Which is better? Is it possible to get into contact with the teacher you know?

normasa
  11/12/2015 01:15 EST

Our traffic is insane here as well. 15min drive can make you drive an hour.

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normasa
  11/12/2015 01:18 EST

My husband will be in the Philippines for a week and checking out the city where we will be residing and go to the schools. Thanks for the feedback. Any feedback regarding schools will be appreciated. Thanks once again

trappedinhell
  11/12/2015 02:12 EST

Like Poochewer says it's best to look for the schools once you've actually settled in Legaspi city. Sunshine International School & Washington International School are up to standards schools in Legaspi City. Plus Legaspi Hope Christian School is also a good private school.. It's best to choose once you're here, and ask the locals in Legaspi. Consider the academic curriculum, facilities, distance & travelling time from your home, and the tuition cost. Plus I don't think it won't be a problem if your 10 & 13 yr old misses one school year. Let them get "acclimatize" with their new environment for awhile (1 year), get the feel of the land. It will be stressfull for them if they're carted to school right off when they get here. There's a lot of places to go & relax in Legaspi, hot-spring resorts, cold-springs, Mayon volcano, etc...It's just like Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa" - at first rejection; then she gradually became used to her surroundings.

shootmedead
  11/12/2015 06:55 EST

I am not going to sugar coat the education system here. If the teachers and professors were so smart, they would be abroad earning dollars,, instead of juts surviving in da feelippines!!!!!!!1
Get a list of the dates the schools are open,, They use every holiday known to mankind to get out of teaching.
Get a list of school supplies and books you need.. They are famous for sending a kid home and then you have to go out and buy materials.
Lots of subjects are immaterial to the course involved. You have to pay every fee known to mankind, before they release the exam results.
All private and international schools here are not accredited by international educational bodies.
Private schools are very expensive here. Also be very careful when the kids are going to and from school.
You will in for lots of headaches and heartaches here

BOBV
  11/12/2015 08:43 EST

Hi Don't forget... when all else fails you have the Parade..

charkee
  11/12/2015 09:51 EST

I can't tell you which schools are better, but I taught Spanish in a public high school and the principle was siphoning off money meant for various programs and students.. She charged parents 500 Php each for installing wiifii and it never happened. Thats 5000 students X 500. she pocketed and nobody does anything about it.

In addition teachers get virtually no support from the admin. Also there are so many days off for teacher's meetings and the slightest threat of a typhoon the schools are out for a week.

I know the Montessori schools do well and the single teacher I know in this school is just about worked to death. But the international school I'm referring to is near Makati and Muntinlupa, far from Legaspi.

Filipinos really place an emphasis on education and the levels I have found here surpass what I find among adults in the USA. I see 4th graders doing math that would stump US. high schoolers and I have not yet seen the "new math" here, thank goodness.

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Walkern
  11/12/2015 16:43 EST

You could add to the list another private school, St Agnes, a long established one , on the Daraga road.
I agree with most of the points made in the posts on this thread. You can only really access schools on the ground here, although you can pick up snippets of student views from the net. School's websites are generally pretty useless.
Our 6 year old grand daughter is now on her third school. The first, advertising itself as Montesorri, turned out to be quite useless academically, although it did socialise her. The second, a larger and much better run school did quite a good job overall. Our main problem there was the undue influence some parents were exerting on the teachers. When our intention to shift school after two years became known our grand daughter's grades were adjusted downwards so she didn't get the top award. Now at a very expensive private school in Manila for 6 months and one finds out things - eg the class size is 35 - a bit high, in my opinion, and it seems there is no bar on teachers being paid by parents to give extra private lessons to their own students!
Two international schools have been mentioned in Legaspi. The main international schools in the country are in the National Capital Region eg Brent in Laguna, the British school, Chinese school etc. They will teach to a foreign or international curriculum. There are also a number of "second division" international schools around - they can usually be identified by their liberal use of top names in the international educational world - eg Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard etc. Tread carefully! My alarm bells also ring when I see names like "Sunshine".
Private education is much cheaper here compared to what you would pay in the UK. The international school fees are much higher, but still cheaper.
Are you a Roman Catholic? I only ask because many private schools here are heavily RC and put great emphasis on celebrating Saints days, celebrating early morning Masses etc. As someone here commented many school days here can be lost to typhoons, but also the year is packed with various celebrations. Our grand daughter's second school shut down for almost two weeks to accommodate a bishop's conference - 3,000 students affected. Make up classes were limited to the top grades.
Regarding your two younger ones, the private schools here will probably arrange an entrance test to place them. There are also varying minimum age criteria.
For the oldest boy I wouldn't recommend he attends University in Legaspi - not because he cannot do an engineering course there - he can. It's just that the best Universities are in the NCR, and nobody abroad knows about Provincial Philippines universities, even where places like Legaspi are.
Although it's more expensive to attend Uni in Manila it's still cheap internationally. A number of my wife's relatives in Bicol have sent their kids to universities in Manila as that is where the standards are generally higher, or at least recognised as such. Just one or two have gone to local Bicol colleges and Universities. In one case it was a girl, of whom the parents were very protective.

catabisis
  11/12/2015 21:20 EST

If you are interested in engineering I am told the University of Bohol is at the top of the country. I don't know what it says about the college. This is the Philippines after all. I

normasa
  11/13/2015 05:00 EST

Thanks. Choosing a school sounds so complicated. Where religion concerns we raise our kids to be God fearing but no specific religion . I noticed the schools are mostly RC. If I may and ask what is the monthly school fees where your granddaughter is?

normasa
  11/13/2015 05:07 EST

NCR ?

Walkern
  11/13/2015 08:43 EST

It's a bit over P100,000 pa. Not really worth paying monthly there - they ask for a big down and you pay a lot more. By contrast her previous school in Laguna (about 10kms from the southern edge of Metro Manila) charged about P50,000 pa at pre-school and it came to the same in total whether you paid each semester or monthly. By the way there can be a number of extra payments and requests for donations made throughout the year. NCR is National Capital Region - basically Metro Manila, ie Manila plus all the other cities, Makati etc etc. There's just a small number of internationally respected Universities there but many below that level. One can get into one of the top Unis from a provincial state school, but the rich make sure their kids attend one of several top private schools in the Metro which have a track record of feeding students to the top Universities.
One of the problems in the Philippines is the general dominance of Manila and its surrounding provinces. I don't know about S.A., but in the UK, and I believe the USA too, good Unis, or should I say those perceived as good, are spread throughout the country.

charkee
  11/13/2015 09:21 EST

I have heard that Filipino engineering degrees are not accepted in the USA, Pinoy engineers that go to the USA have to take some additional courses to qualify. However nursing degrees are accepted straight up in the USA.

I know plenty of medical doctors that got their degree in Mexico or Costa Rica, come to the USA and they are required to take more courses and then they are fully accepted and pass the licensing exams. I know one that didn't speak a word of Spanish when he started... ... double tough trying to learn a language in medical school and he made the grade.

CAteacher
  11/13/2015 15:12 EST

Somewhat like in the States, all schools aren't created equal. A degree from Podunk College in southern Arkansas doesn't open the doors that a degree from Stanford does. My wife graduated in Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology (one of the best in the Philippines) and has worked with three companies here in California. Right now she is Quality Control for an international company that makes positioning sensors for Space X and the U.S. Military. there is a service in the U.S. that vets international degrees for universities and companies..

HMcBride
  11/13/2015 16:02 EST

CATeacher, You right about the prospects for jobs and what school you attended, and, the US looking at international univ degrees. My wife has relatives and friends who have great jobs in CA and they attended PI universities.

LOL, I received my BA from U of MD and it did help me get a top job in DC ahead of other, more qualified applicants from other schools. (But, I had worked for my boss while in the military, previously)
My grand kids there are all in private schools near Alabang and I am hoping they will be in good shape for jobs in their future.....

catabisis
  11/13/2015 16:43 EST

Thanks for the heads-up about engineering degrees here and the U.S. Someone stateside must have seen the yellow block and sent out a warning.
I knew an Estonian woman who went to Germany and obtained a law degree. She had four months to learn the language before starting college. There are some amazing people around.

catabisis
  11/13/2015 16:44 EST

Thanks for the heads-up about engineering degrees here and the U.S. Someone stateside must have seen the yellow block and sent out a warning.
I knew an Estonian woman who went to Germany and obtained a law degree. She had four months to learn the language before starting college. There are some amazing people around.

standupguy
  11/13/2015 18:04 EST

charkee - same is true for nursing degrees. Filipino nurses highly valued, but even with an MSn they still must pass provincial boards. Some do very well once they get their license, A friend of my wife was paid $117,000 annually, for part time nursing supervisor, but quit to go to Medical school.

Walkern
  11/13/2015 18:56 EST

Getting back to Normasa's issue it seems that she has to put her oldest into somewhere like Mapua Institute for a subject like Engineering. Legaspi is a day's drive, which is getting slowly easier each year, from Manila - or an overnight bus trip. Otherwise it's the more vocational type courses locally - then you pass the National Board exam and you might have something that is acceptable abroad - nursing is definitely one of them - there may be one or two other courses that are too. That's if she wants to keep the family all together in the Philippines as obviously there are other options for studying in places like Singapore, Australia etc. Not too far away by air from the Philippines. More expensive, of course.

normasa
  11/14/2015 00:15 EST

Thanks Walkern.... My husband is flying today to the Philippines and is visiting Mapua university in the week, Thanks for the info. Concerning schools I am still a bit confused. Do the Philippines work on semesters. By us we have 4 semesters and each completion of a semester we have an exam to the write.

Walkern
  11/14/2015 19:53 EST

Have experienced both 4 then 3 "grading periods", last year of pre-school and now at grade 1 (6 or 7 yrs old). Exams at those stages made up about 30 down to 20pc of marks respectively..There may well be more on exams further up the grades.They go in for plenty of class quizzes here hough.Generally a bit difficult to know how final marks are arrived at as there are so many put together to arrive at the final grade,
To answer one of your earlier questions you will have no problems contacting the teachers. They are very accessible here. The only issue with that is that some parents try to ingratiate themselves with some amenable teachers so as to eg put up the marks of their academically deficient kid. Behaviour like always going into the classroom with the teacher at the start of the class. We observed one blatant example of that last year where one 5 year old with the highest Gold award from the year before couldn't answer even one of the questions in a Quiz, much to the embarrassment of her former teacher and parent looking on.

eekalnins
  11/24/2015 08:21 EST

Check with the Embassy. They may have recommendations.

Rogerdaisy
  11/24/2015 14:39 EST

when are you planning to move to lagazpi? I do know there is a big international school there. close to the airport. I have not had anyone attend the school so I'm unable to provide you much info on it. but we live in sorsogon city. and would be able to maybe provide you with info on the province.

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