THE PASIG City Science High School and the Regional Science High School for Region VI, two of the top performer schools in the country listed by the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2018, said that empowering teachers and peer mentoring are crucial in the deliv-ery of quality education.

The representatives of the two schools said that these two factors led to their outstanding per-formance in the PISA 2018.

Pasig City Science High School Principal Charlie Fababaer said that the school focuses on em-powering teachers and encourages them to share their best practices among themselves.

Fababaer shared that their school’s approach creates a playground of creative thinking and holis-tic development for learners, thus boosting exposure to national and international mathematics competitions and scientific projects.

“While our school is student-centric, we are also giving primary importance to our teachers. We are using In-Service Training and Learning Action Cell sessions as our primary actions in en-hancing their content knowledge and pedagogy, including classroom management and other as-pects of teacher quality,” he said.

He explained that during professional development sessions, teachers “talk about the things that are working inside the classroom.”

“We [also involve] them in our planning activities so that they would feel that they are empow-ered,” Fababaer said during the Updates on Education Quality Press Conference on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ma. Santia Arboleda, principal of the Regional Science High School of Region VI, highlighted the importance of peer mentoring, where top class performers are encouraged to guide other students.

The RSHS Region VI alumni are also invited to be a part of the coaching system to help graduat-ing students prepare for their college entrance exams.

“We cannot do these things alone. To involve the stakeholders in the preparation for PISA 2018, the school held an orientation with the parents where the parents gave a positive response in supporting the school, [and] for technical assistance, the DepEd Division of Aklan [has] also ex-tended support,” Arboleda said.

With the support of DepEd and various stakeholders, the PCSHS and RSHS-VI believe that the country’s preparation in the next round of PISA in 2022 will serve as an investment in education.