The SYP House System: How It Works
As Pisay transitions from four batches to six, the administration faces not only the task of fitting two additional batches. It also faces the task of creating new rules and a structure to accommodate them.
The house system is one of the many changes introduced for the Senior Year Program (SYP). According to Sir Fortunato Tacuboy, the Division for Student Affairs (DSA) Chief, the house system was meant to become a structure to accommodate “new realities” for the Grade 11 and the Grade 12 students.
When asked about the purpose of the house system, Sir Tacuboy answered, “Well, first, [the Grade 11 and 12 students] could already be mixed with each other because they might have mixed classes. Second, we’re looking at the Grade 12 [student]’s mentoring the Grade 11 [student]’s in terms of experiences [and] the programs that they are into. We’re looking at the houses as an opportunity for them to have mixed activities.”
The houses were made as a means to foster camaraderie between the two SYP batches. Sir Tacuboy mentioned that although houses are not obligated to hold activities, they are encouraged to organize small scale activities, such as barbecues or movie screenings.
“Of course, they’re still welcome to propose major activities,” he clarified. “I think that it’s a good venue for [the Grade 11 and 12 students] to look for possible partners and collaborators for their SCALE projects.”
The house system will be headed by the house coordinator, a position currently held by Ms. Ligaya Cion of the Filipino Unit. The house coordinator acts as batch adviser for both years.
The system will also be headed by two student prefects, the batch presidents of the Grade 11 and the Grade 12.
Additionally, each house will have a teacher supervisor, a prefect from the Grade 12 batch council, and a vice-prefect from the Grade 11 batch council. They will be responsible for organizing house activities.
“We tried to accommodate the house structure within the existing batch council. Because otherwise, we’d have too many officers and there may be concerns with regards to conflicting responsibilities,” Sir Tacuboy noted.
In the case that batch council officers from the same house are elected, they will be reassigned to separate houses. The distribution is important so that each house gets a prefect and vice-prefect from the batch councils.
Sir Tacuboy also explained that each Silid will randomly be placed into a house, with three Silids each house from Grade 11, and four Silids each house from Grade 12.
As this is the first year of “full implementation” of the SYP program, Sir Tacuboy reminds that many of these changes are still being evaluated.
