All Public Schools in San Carlos City ISO Certified

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

First Feat in the Philippines

SAN CARLOS CITY -  Why Pangasinan should be proud of the City Division Office (CDO) of the Department of Education here? It is the only International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certified school in the entire country.

“All schools! Buong Pilipinas kami lahat lang ang ISO nag undergo kami ng process, we started in September 10 last year,” this CDO Superintendent Sheila Marie Primicias crowed recently to this writer the 75 primary and secondary public schools under her watch that were given world class status by the Geneva, Switzerland based entity.

Aside from this feat,  she and her staff processed expeditiously the division office to be an ISO 9001 certified in just 90 days.

VISIONARY – Superintendent Sheila Marie Primicias of San Carlos City, Pangasinan's City Division Office (CDO) of the Department of Education lectures officials of one of the division offices in the country who visited the CDO in the city for bench-marking. They want to learn  how Primicias and staff breezed the twin International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certificates given to the CDO and the 75 government primary and secondary schools in the central Pangasinan city.

“Inuna namin muna ang division 90 days. Kami ang record holder na pinaka mabilis sa process sa buong Pilipinas ng DepEd,” she continued.

Because of their exploits many school officials from other parts of the country visited the SDO here to benchmark.

She cited the officials of the division offices of the provinces of Benguet, Abra, Pampanga, Malolos City in Bulacan, and others visited the division dubbed as the “prettiest” and swankiest edifice among the six SDOs in the gargantuan province of Pangasinan if not in the four provinces in Region 1. The sprucing up of the building ensued under the administration of Primicias.

“Meron kaming protocol officers dito. Libre ang pagkain nila, libre ang jacket nila,” she stressed in the vernacular about the perks she gives to the visitors.

She cited the officials of the DepEd from the National Capital Region, Malolos City in Bulacan, Pampanga, Calamba City in Laguna, and others have visited or will be coming here to emulate how the school here became ISO certified so they can emulate it.

Some of these officials visited Coliling National High School, Agdao Integrated School, Magtaking Elementary School, Bolingit Elementary School, Central I SPED Center, and Central II Elementary School. They also went to Siringan Sanctuary, Science Centrum and Historical Museum.

The superintendent said that by being an ISO certified means being minted with the Quality Management System. It means works are already organized in the offices where they can be accessed immediately. The second ISO certificate of the SDS here was released to the CDO here in January 10 this year.

“Actually una, kaya kami nagpa ISO because hindi ka tatangap ng PBB 2018,” she cited.

PBB is Performance Based Bonus when each of her teachers received 67 percent of  their one month salary if it got the “best” score from evaluators, another percentages of their pay check they will be receiving if the scores are lower than the “best”.

The two ISO certifications, according to Balong Palapag, imply that the SDS and public schools here are able to demonstrate their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements and able to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

Before becoming a superintendent here, Primicias was the acting school division superintendent (SDS) of Pangasinan - 1 that oversaw western Pangasinan and acting Assistant SDS of Pangasinan -2 that handled eastern Pangasinan .