We respectfully request for this petition to surcease the qualification grades for aspiring STEM students for the reason that this can bring negative effects and be a turning point to the future events and next milestone of the lives of those students who isn’t qualified to take STEM.

            As stated in DO 55, s. 2016, prior to entering SHS, the aptitude of students in select programs shall be measured in order to ensure that they have the potential to complete the program. There will be a required cut-off score for students who wish to enroll in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Strand. The final grade both in Science and Math in Grade 10 should be 85 and above. Learners should also have at least a percentile rank of 86 and above in the STEM subtest in the career assessment exam.

Regional Memorandum No.47, s. 2016, also stated guidelines that shall be observed by Senior High Schools that will offer Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The guidelines are as follows,

A Grade 10 completer should have obtained a general average of at least 85% in Science, Mathematics and English and 83% in the rest of the subjects without grade lower that 80% in any grading period (Reference: DepEd Order No.55, s. 2010, Policies and Guidelines on Strengthening Science and Mathematics Education at the Secondary Level)
Schools should look into the result of the National Career Assessment Examination of a student to help assess their strengths and capabilities;
Schools should adopt the standard Senior High School class size; and
School’s absorptive capacity for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) classes should also be considered.
From our point of view, the memorandum stated above wasn’t justifiable, those students may be failed to get that required grades, but isn’t it the reason why they want to study STEM for them to be able to learn more, to understand the complexity of those subjects better. We also believe that their failure to attained the required grades is nothing compared to their passion to pursue their dreams. Like what Henry Ford once said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

             The question popping in our minds right now is what if, us, the current grade 11 STEM students wasn’t able to obtained a grade 85% and above to the subjects Math and Science, do we get a chance to continue STEM in grade 12 or do we already need to choose another strand? It’s frustrating, knowing a one year full of hardships and sleepless nights just to survive and get passing grades wasn’t enough to achieved our dream to finished STEM will all go to waste.

            We humbly ask for your cooperation and approval to our request to stop qualification grades in STEM this is to help our future engineers, doctors, and many more to fulfill and achieve their goals.

            We would want to end this by sharing some words from Wilma Rudolph, “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”