While there is nothing to stop school owners in the Philippines from adding the word “international” to the names of their schools, Domuschola International School has every reason to do so.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) has just this month authorized Domuschola to teach its Primary Years Program (PYP), with immediate effect, for pupils aged 3 to 12.
IB is a highly reputable, widely recognized, nonprofit educational foundation with one simply stated mission: “To provide high-quality international education for a better world.”
To realize its mission, IB teams up with schools and governmental institutions in different countries, as well as international organizations “to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment.”
Domuschola is one of only two schools in the Philippines recognized as an IB World School. As such, it conducts a curriculum framework consistent with that of 3,145 similar schools across 140 countries.
“This means our program is recognized around the world,” Domuschola directress Jenny Mapua Banal explains. “This ensures seamless adaptability for IB students, especially those who are children of the growing mobile population of parents who are diplomats, who are expatriates or who are part of other international and multinational organizations.”
She notes that becoming an IB World School is closely tied to their vision of providing world-class yet affordable education.
“We believe from the bottom of our hearts that an international education should not just be for the elite,” she adds.
School fees for one year at Domuschola are, on average, lower than at other internationally recognized schools in town, whether local or multinational. Some of the premier Catholic schools, with 35 or more students per teacher per class, may charge a bit lower, but then again Domuschola keeps the class size to 15 students, a learner-teacher ratio that no doubt is considered a luxury in overpopulated Metro Manila.
“Unlike traditional systems that rigidly revolve around the teacher, it is the students who are at the center of the learning process in an IB school,” says Perico Pineda, Domuschola’s PYP coordinator.
“Our students are encouraged to propel their own learning by applying thinking skills critically and creatively,” he adds. In other words, they are active inquirers and investigators, not passive empty boxes waiting to be stuffed full with facts and formulas by the teacher.
While IB schools extensively explore a home country’s culture and language, the umbrella curriculum remains focused on an international perspective of learning and teaching.
“Students at IB schools feel at home no matter where they come from or transfer to because the program is designed to nurture a coherent culture of international awareness,” says Banal.
According to the Domuschola directress, under the IB learning environment, students are groomed to be life-long explorers and discoverers because “the knowledge they pick up today may not be all that relevant or valid by the time they finish.” It is important to develop in the students a craving for continuous learning, she adds.
Students do not need static dead-end knowledge, she stresses. “Our children will be graduating into a world that’s very different from the one they live in. They will be holding jobs nobody has yet configured,” she says. “So, here at Domuschola, we are teaching them how to fish, rather than just giving them fish, as the saying goes.”
A banner on one of the walls at Domuschola, which is located within the Philippine Sports Complex in Ugong, Pasig City, proclaims “Be the Change.” Those words sum up much of what drives and inspires Domuschola.
“We want to contribute to the leveling up of the quality of education,” says Banal. “We believe that improved standards in one school will ultimately inspire or encourage a chain reaction of improvements in other schools and, ultimately, in the entire education system. And that will be a big day for all of us to cheer about.”
Domuschola Internationalis is at Dorm 1, Philippine Sports Complex, Molave Street, Ugong, Pasig City. Call (632) 6359743, 6352002 or 4826250. E-mail info@secondmom-domuschola.com.