Department of Education

Region VIII – Eastern Visayas

Disivion of Southern Leyte
Sogod District I
SOGOD NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
PROJECT LUWASA

THE AWE – SPIRING STORY IN SAVING SARDO

One of the great challenges educators and educational institutions have to

face revolves around the question of how to keep students enrolled until high
school graduation. The fact that early school departure is no new phenomenon
clearly speaks to the longevity of it as a leading concern within the field of
education. Dropouts may appear small in number but they are preponderant
among students of Sogod National High School. With several factors affecting the
Student At Risk of Dropping Out (SARDO), dropout rate is a perennial problem in
our school. Sadly, the lexical denotations of the term are most frequently saturated
with negative imagery and accusation-filled interpretations. It is for these reasons
that Project Lift Up With Advance SARDO Assistance (LUWASA) came into its
birth. Through the continuous pursuits aimed at gaining richer understandings of
the reasons why students leave and the mechanisms by which our school may
assist students not opting to leave school early is warranted. Furthermore,
ensuring successful high school completion for all students.

The CI Team of our school is always faced with questions coming from the
skeptics. With the influx of SARDO, one can doubt if the team could meet the
desirable result after three years. With God’s guidance and the ardent filled spirits
of the teachers in Sogod National High School, nothing is impossible. What then
is Project LUWASA and how does it work? Project LUWASA aims to save SARDO
(Students at Risk of Dropping Out) by identifying and addressing the factors and
issues which cause students to drop out from school. Project LUWASA with a
theme “Kahigayonan. Kalamboan. Kalamposan Alang Sa Kabataan.”, creates a
huge opportunity for the school to come up with the most relevant and responsive
intervention to solve the problem. With the results the team continues to gather in
the ongoing implementation of the project, the team seeks improvements.

The team was given the chance to create innovations out from the existing
plethora of innovations. A variety of instructional and classroom innovation were.
School Fee Innovation were created by the team to help those SARDO whose
reason of irregular attendance is financial instability. Programs like the (1) Student
Support to Succeed Program and (2) Help me, Help You Program became the
answer of the pressing problem. As once said, “Two heads are better than one”.
With this, a consultant was tapped, an expert in research and quality assurance
serves as an on looker, examining at loopholes and pitfalls that may arise in the
ongoing implementation. Monitoring tools were crafted by the team together with
the expert consultant to assure research based and data driven solutions for the
problems. The results from the monitoring tools were analyzed and became the
basis of the team and the consultant to make breakthrough solutions. The solutions
continue to become offshoot mechanisms that will best serve the problem the
SARDOs may face.

The team is so blessed to have diligent advisers and teachers who work and
do all sorts of follow up, doing all the constant home visitations, counselling,
teaching, and all kinds of means that could save SARDO. The team looked for
sponsors who helped the SARDOs whose reason of irregular attendance are
financial constraints. With the unceasing support of the stakeholders especially the
General PTA, the priority concerns were answered immediately. The GPTAs
support became the backbone of the team from the moment the project was
implemented up to this time. The team was able to gather donations from the
alumni of Sogod NHS like notebooks, pens, papers, bags and other school
materials which abetted and eventually boost SARDOs study habits and academic
performance. Some teachers are also sponsoring some of the SARDOs in their
fees at school. The team’s efforts to perfect project LUWASA perdures to this very
day. The team will never forget the all-out support of the parents of the SARDO
helping us in ensuring that their children will never stop studying.

There is no one magical, quick fix solution to the dropout problem. The CI
Team realizes that the problem is complex and requires a complex array of
solutions. Dropouts have dissimilar characteristics and therefore need different
kinds of programs which respond to their individual circumstances and needs.
Programs, to be effective, need to provide one-on-one intensive attention to at-risk
students, who often must be convinced that they are competent and can be
successful in school. The team hopes that Project LUWASA will continue to
provide solutions to the problems relating to SARDO. The success of this project
will never come into its reality without the help of all those people who worked and
continues to work hard for Project LUWASA. Let us continue to inspire and make
change into the lives of the students.

Let’s keep moving forward.

Last July 5, 2017, the Sogod

National High School’s school
banner team conducted an
information drive about Project
LUWASA where parents also
expressed their support for the
project.
 Regular conduct of
interview of the
Principal among the
SARDO.

Use of gadget in the

special classes
conducted to
SARDO.
 Team Leader
conducting meeting
to the parents of the
SARDO.