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Marcelo H. del Pilar National High School

The public school system in the Philippines was organized under the direction of Dr. Fred W. Atkinson, who assumed the position of General Superintendent of Public Instruction on September 1, 1900. He drafted the first law providing for a general system of public instruction, which was passed with few modifications on January 21, 1901, and provided for elementary education, then comprised of a four-year primary course and a three-year intermediate course. On March 7, 1902, the law authorizing the establishment and organization of provincial schools of secondary instruction was enacted. The provincial government was in charge of the financial management of the schools, which were co-educational and usually mixed boys and girls in the same classes.

Instruction in the high schools covered literature, history, science, business or civil service, agriculture and education. While English was the language of instruction, students also had the opportunity to learn Spanish for business or social reasons. During the Spanish regime, a large stone building had been erected for a public school, but it was destroyed during the Philippine revolution which began in 1896. In 1904, a new building for the Provincial High School, the predecessor of Marcelo H. del Pilar National High School (MHPNHS) was erected in the US-established Capitol area of Bulacan province. Inaugurated in 1906, it was hailed by the Director of Education as “the best and most modern schoolhouse in the Philippines.” In 1951, the school’s name was changed to Marcelo H. del Pilar High School in honor of one of the nation’s heroes and revolutionaries. In 1979, the government under Governor Ignacio Santiago bought a 9.2 hectare lot in Sta. Isabel, Malolos, Bulacan, where the school transferred in order to accommodate a growing student population.

At present, the school has more than 10,000 students who hail from different towns in Bulacan. Its curriculum, like other public schools, is mandated by the Department of Education to possess the following features: 1. Filipino, English, Science, and Mathematics are the basic tool subjects and indispensable learning areas in the curriculum. 2. The fifth learning area is the Makabayan (Patriotism), a cluster of subject areas, which is envisioned as a “laboratory of life” or practice environment. The core subjects of Makabayan include Social Studies, Home Economics, Physical Education, Health, Music, and the Arts. Ideally, Makabayan entails the adoption of integrative teaching which would enable the learner to personally process and synthesize a wide range of skills and values, whether cultural, aesthetic, athletic, vocational, politico-economic, or ethical. 3. Values-formation. 4. Emphasis on the learning process and integrative modes of teaching. 5. Increased time for completing tasks in order to achieve mastery in competencies.

School profile

Exchanges

This school will carry out an exchange with the Gymnazium J. Chalupku in Brezno, Slovakia in 2009.