Assessment of Technical Vocational Education Programs of Davao Del Sur School of Fisheries

Aims: The study generally assessed the Technical Vocational Education Program of Davao del Sur School of Fisheries.

Study Design: Quantitative-descriptive correlation.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Davao del Sur School of Fisheries in Davao del Sur, The Philippines. The study was conducted for 10 months.

Methodology: This study used the universal sampling for both sets of respondents; the teachers of TVE program and the Grade 10 students. There were 32 teachers and 322 students participated in the study. The Technical Vocational Education program was assessed in terms of library facilities and internet connectivity, Science laboratory facilities, TVE laboratory facilities and the use of information and communication technology. These were correlated to the academic performances of the students.

Results: The findings of the study showed that in terms of population, 322 students were enrolled in the TVE program; majority of these students took the food processing technology course that comprised 39.45%. In terms of teachers’ qualification, 32 were Bachelor of Art or Bachelor of Secondary Education graduates. There were 18 out of 32 teachers who were teaching in TVE programs and the rest taught in other related courses. For qualification to teach in the Program, one- third of the total faculty was handling fish culture, while two third was teaching outside the flagship courses. In the assessment of the support learning facilities, the library, internet connectivity, science and laboratory facilities were described as “moderately adequate”; the TVE laboratory facilities was described as “very adequate”. In the assessment of the ICT in instruction, it was described as “very effective”. The study found significant relationship between the academic performance of the TVE students and the support learning facilities and between the academic performance of the TVE students and the used of information and communication technology (ICT) in learning.

Conclusion: The school needs to maintain its support learning facilities and information and communication technology so that it can produce more competent TVE students. However, the school may look into industry partners so that actual application of students’ theoretical knowledge may be put into action. Moreover, tracer study may also be conducted to find the competitiveness and employability of the graduates.