Lipa City National Science High School

The Lipa City National Science High School (Filipino: "Pambansang Mataas na Paaralang Pang-Agham ng Lungsod ng Lipa") is a public science high school located in Lipa City, Batangas in Philippines. It is a DepEd-recognized science high school and one of three science high schools in the province of Batangas, the others being the public Batangas Provincial Science High School and the private Batangas Science School, both in Batangas City

History

The Lipa City National Science High School started as a Special Science-Math class at the Comprehensive High School of Lipa City, located at Fernando Air Base, which was then the city high school of Lipa. A year later, the Comprehensive School organized the Special Science-Mathematics Class as a scholarship program (SY 1982-1983). The class was composed of 33 students who were selected from 100 applicants from different public and private schools of Lipa City. The scholars were selected based on a given competitive examination.

The class transferred to the Old City Hall Building that same year, bringing the program closer to the heart of the city, thus, making it accessible to its students. Four teachers composed the teaching staff then, with Mr. Jose R. de Castro as the administrator. On August 10, 1985, the program finally was given government recognition under Batasang Pambansa Blg. 232 by Saturnino R. Magturo, then the DECS Regional Director for Region IV.

Since then, the school has made its presence felt. Its students had been among the leaders in many academic and extra-curricular activities in the city provincial and regional levels. For its facilities, which started from the old and dilapidated Old City Hall Building, SY 1987-1988, it gave way to sparkling 6-room building under the Aquino administration. On the same year, its requests to be placed directly under the Regional Office was approved, thus receiving a 3.6M shares of the national assistance, acquired equipments and a 3-room building to house the administrative office and two laboratory rooms.

On May 1998, the school was granted permission to expand its operation by offering post-secondary courses under Government Permit (R-IV) TVE-006, s. 1988. Two junior college courses were offered: Computer Programming and Office Management.

The biggest development in the history of the school since its establishments began in the latter part of 1989, when the City Government, with the help of the Division Office, had set up classes at the Old City Hall with the intention of putting up a General City High School.

Since the class were located right within the Old City Hall compound, DECS proposed an integration, which finally took place on January 29, 1992. The LCSTI became a three-component school; a Science High School, a General High School, and a Tech-Vocational School. This time the school now could boast of new facilities: a library, THE Room, Computer Room, a Canteen and a perimeter fence through the courtesy of the New Engineering Office. The DOST also has played a major role in the academic development of the school, as recipient of numerous laboratory facilities and audio-visual materials. It was during this time that the LCNSHS became one of the DOST Node school (ESEP). One significant donation that the school acquired was the Science and Technology Building complete with laboratory facilities amounting to Php 1,761,689.09 by the Department of Science and Technology in 1996, (ESEP-MHSSLB).

In 1994, the three component schools were given separate entities. The Tech-Vocational School was absorbed by the Lipa City Public Colleges, the Lipa City General High School was made into the Lipa City National High School by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports on July 15, 1997.

In the school year, 199-1995, the Lipa City Public Colleges was placed under the administration of Mr. Jose R. de Castro. Meanwhile, the Lipa City National Science High School was supervised by Mrs. Niceta M. Parilla as Office-in-Charge and the General High School was monitored by Mr. Rodeo M. Gatdula as Teacher-in-Charge of the school for four consecutive years.

In the even of the separation of the three component schools, (1996-1997), the school continued to be under the supervision of Mrs. Parilla with an approved appointment as Principal 1 dtd December 8, 1995 and assisted by Mr. Gatdula having an approved appointment as Head Teacher III, dtd January 12, 1996.

Due to the lack of non-teaching personnel, the principal locally assigned teachers to perform additional assignment since the school attends to its own fiscal matters. The school operation is like a little division in the sense that the DECS, RO IV directly releases an allotted/appropriated fund like Personal Services (PS), Maintenance and Operating Expenditures (MOOE), and Trust Fund/Capital Outlay for the school and its personnel.

Students to be admitted at the LCNSHS undergo series of screening test both oral and written. The school has only one section for each year level. To be retained at the Science High School, a student has to maintain a grade of at least 83% in Science, Math and English, an overall weighted average of at least 85% and no final grade lower than 80% in any subject area.

The performance of the school shows that from SY 1985-1986, the school is always the top school in the division level contests/competitions, belongs to the top 5 schools in the regional level contests/competitions and one of the top 30 schools in the national level. It can also be noted that in SY 1997-1998, the school ranked 18th and SY 1998-1999, it ranked 27th, respectively, in the National College Entrance Examinations in the national level. From SY 2000-2004, the school is always the top school in the Division and Regional Achievement Test results and belongs to the top 20 schools in the National level. Furthermore, in SY 2002-2003, the school ranked 7th in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in the National Level, having a raw score of 119.9 and ranked 8th for SY 2003-2004 and ranked 4th for SY 2005-2006 in the Assessment of Learning Competence in English, Mathematics and Science (ALCEMS) with a 100% overall performance composite score in the three subject area.

Several very notable achievement that the school has accomplished were its international participation in major activities the school had.

In August 1998, one of its graduates, Anna Liza Z. Oliquino was a partn of the Philippine Delagation to the International Science Fair held in Seoul, Korea. Miss Oliquino was chosen after having won in the Nationwide Search for Outstanding Youth Science Researchers (TOYS) sponsored by IntelPhil-DOST for her scientific study entitled "MORPHOLOGY and CYTOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN Solanum melagena aculaetissima and their f1 HYBRID". In Seoul, she was awarded the prestigious Young Scientist Award in the First APEC Youth Science Festival on the same paper by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea.

Another graduate, Real Mame, was supposed to represent the school in the International Physics Olympiad in Bali, Indonesia in July 2002, but because he was already enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila as a full-scholar, he had to turn down the invitation.

With the resignation of Mrs. Niceta M. Parilla as principal on May 6, 2002, Mr. Gatdula was officially appointed as OIC until he was officially appointed as principal of the school on June 23, 2003 and still holds the position up to the present.

The school has 10 teachers to carry on with the academic tasks and other related functions. To develop further the talents, potentials and skills of the students of the school, the school has organized the following clubs: HOW AND WHY CLUB (Science); ENGLICOM SOCIETY (English); PHILOMATH (Mathematics); LIPUNANG ISKOLAR (Social Studies); PILANTIK (Filipino); FESO CLUB (TLE), SPORTS AND CULTURAL CLUB (MAPEH), LINK Club and the Supreme Student Government.

Since 1985 to the present, 70% of the graduates are enrolled at different campuses of the University of the Philippines, and the remaining 30 % are enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle, University of Sto. Tomas, Batangas State University, etc, who were either on full scholarship or partial scholars of the DOST and the local government.

At present, the LCNSHS has a new 3-storey, 12-classroom VSR Building as its main campus. The new building was under the auspice of the Lipa City Government under the former mayor of the city Honorable Vilma Santos-Recto with the help of the former Senator Ralph G. Recto.