Heart and Hands Extended for Learners' Progress (HELP) in Jose Rizal Memorial School, Division of Calamba City: Significance of the Program in Terms of Dropout Rate and Pupils' Academic Performance

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Studies show that the Philippine Education System is facing two alarming problems: low performance of students and high dropout rate. To address the existing problems, HELP Program was then fully implemented at Jose Rizal Memorial School (JRMS) in SY 2016-2017. The tremendous impact of the program reflected in the dropout cohort report of the school from 3.32% in SY 2015-2016 to 0.65% in SY 2017-2018. The study aimed to determine the significance of the program in relation to the dropout rate and academic performance of the Pupils who are At Risk of being Dropout (PARDOs) during the school year 2018-2019. The research identified the factors that hinder PARDOs from coming to school regularly; suggest appropriate interventions to solve the problem; measure the effect of the program through their academic performance; and determine the number of dropout/s from the learners who were under the program.

METHODS

The researchers used descriptive method in order to answer the questions of this study. There were 121 pupils and 67 teachers that served as the respondents. Self-made questionnaire was used in order to find out the factors that hinder the pupils from coming to school regularly.

RESULTS

Findings showed that financial-related factor is the main reason why pupils in JRMS often leave the school even in the middle of the school year. School-based Adopt-a-Child is the intervention administered by the larger number of teachers to make them stay during the First Grading Period of the S.Y. 2018-2019 and to continue their studies up to the last grading period. Based on the results, 98 out of 121 respondents reached the passing grade while 23 pupils were below 75%.

DISCUSSIONS

The following conclusions were drawn from the result of the investigation: 1) Poverty is the moving factor that contributes to increasing dropout rates in school. 2) Interventions such as adopt-a-child and school feeding program were effective in addressing finance-related causes. 3) Regular class attendance among pupils may not gain them high academic standing in class but will ensure that they will learn. 4) HELP Program was effective and has significance for the First Quarter of SchoolYear 2018-2019 for the PARDOS of Jose Rizal Memorial School.