Quo Vadis Makati Science?

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, the Makati Science High School opened its portals to the world for the very first time. It welcomed the first batch of parents, students, and teachers, who aimed to live a culture of excellence and to rise above mediocrity in secondary school education. With minds, hearts, and spirits in one voice and in one promise, they created a vision that would reverberate through the years and would inspire generations after generations of high school students to walk its labyrinthine halls and corridors: A World-class Makati Science High School by the Year 2010.

It was a fitting yet a bold and ambitious vision. Our predecessors foresaw the Makati Science that would shine brightly with its sons and daughters at the helm. Our parents foresaw a high school institution that would foster academic excellence and self-actualization among us. Our teachers foresaw a cradle of learning that would transcend human barriers and open itself to the world in the spirit of global unity and international understanding through quality education. Yet, it was a vision that seemed so near through the looking-glass, that is, it seemed so easy to achieve when it is in fact such an onerous task for everyone in this academic community—parents, students, and teachers—who dreamed the same. It was like a bird struggling to fly.

The entire scholastic community wasted no time, skills, and talents in taking steps toward that vision. Since its foundation on May 10, 1994, the Makati Science has produced students and teachers who echoed a culture of excellence in various places and disciplines. From the arts and the humanities to mathematics and science and technology, the academic institution has made its name and the names of its children engraved in almost every known domain in the secondary education.

By implementing strict discipline, the administration of this torch-bearer of learning proved its effectiveness in handling the faculty and the students. Teachers advanced the foundation of the students’ learning that started in their elementary years. Students gave their best to achieve big for this academy deemed as the sprouting pride of the City of Makati. Parents whole-heartedly supported their children and the institution. And little by little, they walked through the paths set by time toward their goal.

The road to achieving the prestige that the Makati Science holds today was never easy. In its 13 years as a special public secondary school, the Makati Science has encountered numerous obstacles in its journey toward academic excellence—sudden changes of administrative powers; complaints from parents, teachers, and students on various pressing concerns; and occasional lack of funding for divisional, regional, national, and international events and competitions, just to name a few. Still, with the common vision upheld by those who believe in the institution and its members, the Makati Science has continued to soar high, above, and beyond the turmoil of the times and onto its present state as the haven of the best and the brightest secondary school students of the City of Makati.

Truly, the Makati Science soars high. It majestically spreads its glorious wings and flies gracefully and gallantly. It shows what it has by winning numerous accolades, be it divisional, regional, and national, toppling other schools that also aim high. Indeed, it has something to be proud of. Now, it is like a bird that marks its place in the vast world. A small place, that is.

But, in the greatest scheme of things, the Makati Science does not aim to compete only among the secondary schools of Makati, the National Capital Region, or the Republic of the Philippines. A world-class Makati Science High School addresses the underscored need for the institution to promote global learning, competition, and faculty and exchange programs, to break away from the conventional and tap the best and latest resources and practices in education. The Makati Science has indeed proven itself to its respective community, but has it broken enough international barriers to be deemed as a world-class school of the future? Robotics, although a promising field, is just one venue, and the school definitely has yet to prove itself in the field of research and extension services, most notably the Intel International Science Fair, among other transcendent disciplines.

In three short years, the entire Makati Science community—alumni, students, and faculty members—will come across the mark where it has set its vision to take form. Will we, by that time, have been able to profess with one voice and one promise that the Makati Science has indeed surpassed the benchmark that it has set? Where do we go as one academic community? Are we moving along the right track and in the right direction toward our vision? Such are the questions that need to be readily addressed, such are the questions that need to be kept burning until 2010, such are the questions that we will soon answer to. We must soar higher and explore not only our local boundaries but also the vast world we are in to claim our own place—the world itself.