A Visionary Perspective towards the Realization to Excellence

Every educational institution harbors a vision of excellence; molding its learners to build a rigid foundation of their capacities in order to excel and succeed in their endeavors. However, the challenge lies with this: How is the institution going to realize the vision of sustaining its journey to excellence in an enabling environment and not just to see it in a superficial perspective?

                Siquijor State College, as one of the educational institutions in the province of Siquijor aims to produce highly competitive students not only in the academic aspect but also in its various extracurricular activities which enable students to manifest their talents and abilities in the different fields. Especially now that there is an evident increase in the rate of students who enroll in the institution due to the K to 12 curriculum as well as the provision of free education in the tertiary level, the challenge to accommodate and sustain the educational needs of the students also increases. It is, therefore, a challenge that educators need to pay careful attention to.

                In the context of pedagogy, the approach given to the students must be holistic. That is, it must not only focus on developing the students’ knowledge and understanding within the content area they prefer but also to other areas they might as well find interest during the process. In today’s modern world, attitudes and behavior among the students are becoming modern too. They are expected by the society to actively perform their role as the “hope of the nation” and as the recipient of free education. However, as millennial, they are becoming obsess to modern technology that they sometimes forget to consider both its positive and negative effects. Even with the rise of modern technology, everyone must not simply neglect the importance of the traditional method and must still give credits to its contribution to the prosperity of today’s society especially in the educational sector. Without technology, people before were still successful; some examples include those great writers and famous inventors who merely utilized their own creativity to make things. Considering the continuous development of technology today, some teachers find it challenging to undergo transition from the traditional process of teaching to the highly required modern way which is more on student-based approach. However, in many ways, this kind of approach would be very beneficial to the students for it requires them to critically think for solutions and also to increase their ability to access for various sources.

If the institution aims to provide an atmosphere that is conducive for learning, it is efficient to utilize new trend of approaches that would fit the needs of the students. Of course, how could one provide an enabling environment if the institution would be staying inside the box where new sets of ideas are not being embraced? Nevertheless, it is more efficient to properly integrate the use of both the traditional and modern approach so that teachers who are not adept in using the technology could start building a stronger bridge for the gradual transition as well as for the students to also appreciate the traditional way while at the same time embracing the modern world. Through the aid of technology, it would be the role of both the teachers and students to actualize the objective of inquiry based learning which would gradually shift from conventional way to the new one. Thus, teachers and students must conform to an effective interaction for the ideal teaching process to be fully applied. This clearly shows that as the journey of every educational institution continues, changes in the pedagogical approaches and processes must be expected.

                With the many changes and challenges which the institution needs to cope up with during the course of fulfilling its endeavors, the teaching force and staff as well as the students must acknowledge and perform the holistic approach to sustain its growing needs and to be able to provide a conducive and enabling environment for learning. In its journey, whatever difficulty Siquijor State College would be facing, it should strive to discover its silver lining. That is, using creativity and critical thinking in making the difficulty as a way to open a new door that would lead to the realization of its vision— excellence.