Teachers, guidance counselors, students, get orientation on ‘‘ Drop-Out-Reduction Program’’

Friday 23rd of December 2011

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Dec. 23 (PIA) -- Curriculum chairmen, curriculum guidance counselors, 30 newly hired teacher and a crowd of students of a public school get an orientation /seminar on “Drop-Out-Reduction Program (DORP) and Entrepreneurship,” a program in consonance with the “Education for All” (EFA) agenda of the national government.

The Don Pablo Lorenzo Memorial High School (DPLMHS) conducted a whole day orientation on DORP to give participants a clear and wider knowledge on its content.

DPLMHS Guidance Counselor Roserene Cabanero said “the DORP is one of the programs that will help the EFA rationale which makes the school system as a major source of continued education.”

Cabanero said a high percentage of children who are not in school are most likely to eventually join the ranks of adult illiterates.

Cabanero said the DORP orientation is essential as the “skills to implement the program and resolved commitment to reach out all types of marginalized and disadvantaged children is contributory to the process of creating a child-friendly school.”

The DORP is the Department of Education’s (DepEd) program formulated to respond to the needs of students who cannot report to class regularly because they are working either as part time of full time or for any other reason.

DepEd Press statement reads, “There are about five to six million Filipinos of school age who are out of school. Many are willing to finish high school but are constrained by family, individual, community and school concerns. Rightly so, the DORP focuses on these four risk factors that lead to the dropout problem.

The press statement said The DORP has three major components namely the Effective Alternative Secondary Education or EASE, the Open High School or Distance Education Program (OHSP) and the School Initiated Interventions (SII).

The same press statement explains; DORP was designed to address the problems faced by students which prevent them from completing their elementary and high school education.

The students have a choice among the three modes in continuing their schooling.

One mode is the modular system where teachers use learning modules which the student can bring home for their self study. The content of the modules are similar to the textbooks used by regular students.

The statement further explains that the EASE plan is applied to short-term and seasonal “student at risk of dropping out (SARDO) while the OHSP is recommended for SARDOs who permanently cannot attend regular classes.