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What We Should Learn From Contests And
Competitions |
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| We
are very proud of what our students are accomplishing on the national stage.
This year, we had 6 grade and high school levels participating in the MTAP/DECS
math competition (NCR) and we also have students qualified for the National
Quiz Bee and even the Palarong Pambansa. Our participation in competitions
beyond Valenzuela and CAMANAVA are truly inspiring -- going from one or two a
few years back to the half dozen last year and to the one dozen this year. It is a fairly recent though accelerating phenomenon which is why it may be opportune to explain our reason for joining such contests. It also explains why, even with all our achievements, we still have no official school transportation unlike the other schools typically present in regional and national competitions. The acclaim and recognition we get from joining competitions is more or less incidental to the real reason we join them. Joining competitions imparts a lot of good values to our community -- both the students and faculty. It teaches them to be competitive, it teaches them the value of hard work, it teaches them how our standards are doing compared to previous years or to other schools, it teaches them team work and fair play, it teaches them how to win without gloating, and it teaches them how to lose with pride and honor intact. All of these are on top of the extra knowledge and training received by those who participate. We have withdrawn and are willing to withdraw in the future, from contests that fail to provide these values. Consider the following: In the 2010-2011 school year, SLCV's room for expansion for the primary and secondary levels is at 150 persons maximum. We cannot expand beyond this without a huge investment in real estate nor sacrificing our mission. If we divide that by 11 grade levels, that translates to a mere 13.6 additional acceptances -- again, maximum. To date, applications have grown by over 100% compared to last year and this is before our record 12 contests outside of CAMANAVA. Surely, if we just wanted marketing, advertising, or profitablity it is easier and less costly to be putting up more tarpaulins or adding 2% to our tuition fee increase. No, it is for the values, skills, and knowledge that the school invests. And it invests heavily, not only in the honoraria of the trainers/coaches but even in the training of the trainers. I hope it is clear that participating in events is a partnership between the school, the parents, the students, and the teachers/coaches. But everyone wins all the time, win or lose, as long as we have our priorities straight in the values we want to impart -- not in advertising, not in winning at all costs, and certainly not in the fanciness of our transport (I hope this also answers why I use my vehicle for shuttling supplies). Since we are on the matter of transport, St. Louis College Valenzuela (or PCTR at the time) was one of the first schools in the area to have official school transport in the 1980s. Indeed, it is from this experience that two former presidents have warned me to avoid acquiring such a vehicle again, if possible. A school bus indeed helps a lot in terms of comfort, convenience, and even marketing. But the reality is that the cost of acquiring, maintaining, and operating it far outweighs its usefulness. Consider that even if we quadruple our participation in national events to 48, there are still 317 days of the year left where we will have to maintain the vehicle and possibly its driver/mechanic. Granted, it could sometimes be used for other revenue-earning measures such as driving farther-flung students to school. Still, we are educators. I don't believe we have the skill or even the inclination to run and manage transport operations. Truth be told, I still sleep better at night knowing our students are driven by their own parents or by those whom their parents trust. Please don't think the financing of bus operations won't affect cost. If any school has to shoulder the burden of busing, this will be reflected in the fees sooner or later and in one way or the other. It is thus contrary to our mission of providing the best, most affordable education we can provide. Let not the issue of official transport detract from the pride we feel in our achievements. On the contrary, we should be prouder. Not only do we get to represent the school and the area, we also have our priorities and values in order. As it says in the song, not only did we do it, we did it our way. We are not, of course, ruling out official transport forever. We cannot rule out the fact that our level of competitiveness has simply made leaps and bounds beyond Valenzuela or even CAMANAVA. But the fact remains that when we look for safe, efficient transport that is affordable and adequately insured from sources outside the community (whose expertise is better than ours), no one other than a few parents has stepped forward and we don't believe the time is ripe to search more aggressively ... not yet, at least. |
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