BAGUIO Congressman Mark Go’s bills converting two annex schools of the Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) to independent high schools have been approved by the Senate Committees on Basic Education, Arts, & Culture, Tourism, and Finance.
The committees in the Senate have expressed full support for House Bills 7994 and 7995, while Senator Imee Marcos has filed Senate Bill 1610, the Senate counterpart for the two bills.
The bills by Baguio Congressman Mark Go would convert BCNHS annex schools Fort Del Pilar and Hillside into independent national high schools to accommodate more students, as BCNHS is currently stretched thin in accommodating student needs despite augmentation from the annex schools.
While BCNHS only has 9,000 students as of the current day, some of whom are educated in the annex schools, the national high school’s administration is stretched between the main school and all the annexes.
Under the current system of annex schools, there is only the school principal item, and regular teacher items are limited.
Fort Del Pilar annex caters to 800 students handled by 29 teachers in 16 classrooms throughout the five buildings. However, two of the buildings and six of the classrooms are makeshift facilities, and the teachers are on loan from the main national high school of the BCNHS.
Hillside annex caters to 300 students in five classrooms spread over three buildings, with teachers similarly borrowed from the BCNHS.
According to Go, converting the annex schools to independent national high schools will increase the capacity of the annexes and take the strain away from the main national high school.
“Nationalizing these two schools will also decongest BCNHS. Right now we cannot do so because of the limited capacity of these annexes,” Rep. Go said.
