Young Scientists Enrichment Program (YSEP)

The World Economic Forum reports that the realities of the 21st century will require the children of today of jobs that have yet to exist and digital/social-emotional skills in the coming years. The Philippines will be among the countries that will have difficulties in facing these realities as it has been noted that it is lacking and late in innovations in learning systems. While it already came in last place in reading and second to the last place in Science and Mathematics according to the 2018 findings of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we also have to brace for the negative impacts of prolonged school closures brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines had the worst COVID-19 outbreak, and it had to implement a nationwide shutdown of schools which started on March 16, 2020 and remained to be the case until early 2022. Recent PISA results in 2022 also did not show promise as the Philippines continued to rank low - 77th out of 81 countries globally. The Philippines ranked third from the bottom in Science, sixth from the bottom in Mathematics, and sixth from the bottom in Reading. 

According to experts, the Philippine education system is 5-6 years behind. Educational technology reforms by the Department of Education (DepEd) to integrate innovations in learning are, nevertheless, already underway. However, the lack of sufficient technology infrastructures and experience and expertise among public school teachers to support widespread EdTech use remain to be a major challenge. 

This would have been an opportunity for afterschool programs to complement the efforts made in formal education. While studies show that technology-enabled afterschool programs are effective in fostering 21st century skills among the youth, equity of access to these afterschool learning opportunities is similarly a huge problem especially in underserved areas in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there are 2,615 establishments recorded under the industry class of "Other Education Services" as of 2018. Because this is still a broad class consisting of various types of learning centers, we can infer that the number of afterschool program providers may even be significantly lower. Furthermore, these providers are largely concentrated in big cities. While there may be tutorial centers in the rural areas, they may have even less innovations in teaching and learning approaches. Therefore, equitable access to innovative learning opportunities is similarly a huge problem especially for students in the provinces.

If we wish to bridge the learning gaps in the Philippines, innovative learning programs must be supplemented and complemented to the formal education system.

In 2019, Studentship Philippines partnered with an award-winning educator and launched its pilot afterschool Science Program in Southern Philippines called the Young Scientists Enrichment Program (YSEP). Ninety percent (90%) of the paying enrollees were interestingly public-school students who would later on become winners in various local and national competitions. We learned that given access, many students in underserved areas would have been interested and would have availed of new opportunities to satisfy their curiosity and to embark on new and exciting learning experiences.

In line with its mission of bridging these learning opportunities to more of these students, Studentship Philippines has prepared an innovative, novel, and free solution. In partnership with the Department of Education Region XII, Studentship Philippines provided selected public elementary schools in Region XII a “lite” version of its Young Scientists Enrichment Program (YSEP), with the parents having the option to voluntarily avail and purchase premium features at minimal costs.

The lite version of YSEP is a 10-month, online and free Science e-learning course package featuring educational images, texts, videos, animations, and interactive formative assessments that the students can access anytime and anywhere through any device with internet connection. Through the internet and applications with offline capabilities, participating students may use their mobile device and access the studentship.ph platform which houses a proprietary playlist of Science lessons. This innovatively complements and supplements the efforts of the teachers in inculcating the necessary Science learning competencies and skills to the learners. When the learners complete each lesson and quarter, they receive Digital Completion Badges for free. Then, the parents have the option to purchase the physical Button-Pin Quarter Badge as reward to their children for their accomplishment. At the end of the school year, program completers will receive Certificates of Completion co-awarded by the Department of Education and Studentship Philippines. 

Students who would like to go beyond the lite version may optionally enroll in the premium version called YSEP PLUS at minimal cost. YSEP Plus is an exciting and extra-challenging hands-on learning opportunity that is supplemented to YSEP Lite. Studentship Philippines facilitators visit the school at the end of each quarter to conduct enrichment activities to learners. Activities include but are not limited to mini-experiments where learners are given the opportunity to investigate and explore more Science concepts, tinker with various tools, accomplish advanced projects, and answer worksheets. At the end of the school year, program completers of YSEP Plus will receive Certificate of Completion PLUS Medal of Completion. Learners may optionally enroll to YSEP Plus at an affordable participation fee.

Our solution primarily serves public school teachers and learners. In its pilot run, we are serving up to 50 public schools in Region XII - South Cotabato, Cotabato Province, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani Province, and General Santos City. This school year, we have more than 6,000 learners and around 200 teachers accessing to and learning from the program.

YSEP gives more life and introduces innovative learning experiences in teaching and learning Science. It allows the infusion of the modern approaches of blended learning contrary to traditional pedagogical approaches. Through YSEP, teachers' workload have been lessened and teaching the lessons have become more flexible. In times of class suspensions and holidays, learning in Science does not stop as the teachers and learners can access YSEP anytime and anywhere through the use of their digital devices. Furthermore, learners benefit from the program through the following:

1. YSEP is designed to heighten the learner’s curiosity and interest in Science.
2. The contents and activities of YSEP are aligned to the Department of Education curriculum, and serve as a great support and complementary material to their lessons at school.
3. The added Studentship advanced curriculum helps the learner earn more knowledge, skills and competencies.
4. The practice quizzes provides learners opportunity for mastery learning.
5. The rewards system of YSEP through badges, certificates, and medals encourage the learner to accomplish the lessons and activities.
6. The use of technology in accessing YSEP lessons allow the learners to develop 21st century skills and learn independently.

Ultimately, the program hopes to accompany the Department of Education in its efforts to improve the learning experiences, learning outcomes, and successful acquisition of the relevant competencies and 21st century skills among learners while helping the teachers improve and lesson the burden in their teaching strategies. This is especially true in underserved areas such as in Southern Philippines.

True to its mission of enabling learning despite barriers in distance especially in underserved areas in the Philippines, we are proudly based at the heart of South Central Mindanao.

The Founder and CEO grew up in and takes pride at being a product of both public and private schools in Southern Philippines. He spent his early education years in joining and winning at various competitions and initiatives sponsored and organized by the Department of Education. His personal experience on how learning opportunities are mostly concentrated in big cities such as Metro Manila and not in his home community particularly prompted him to found Studentship Philippines and develop technology-enabled learning programs such as the Young Scientists Enrichment Program (YSEP), and address barriers in distance especially for teachers and learners in underserved areas. For his efforts in bridging innovative learning opportunities to his home community, he has been hailed by the National Afterschool Association USA as the sole Filipino and international honoree in their roster of 2020 Next Generation of Afterschool Leaders. Among the recent achievements of the Founder/CEO relevant to this Solution is being one of the Top 10 Awardees of the BPI Foundation and Bayan Academy’s BPI Sinag Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, a nationwide competition for social entrepreneurs. He also emerged as the Mindanao Area winner of the Philippine Franchise Association NxtGen in Franchising Competition, and was able to bag support from the Miriam College Technology Business Incubator, Accenture in the Philippines, StartUp Village, BPI Foundation, and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for his educational innovation projects.

Our Chief Academic Officer is 2016 winner of Metrobank Foundation’s Search for Outstanding Teachers, the most prestigious award for teachers in the country and personally presented by the President of the Philippines. Also a proud product of public schools, the Chief Academic Officer is a strong advocate of uplifting the educational outcomes among learners in public schools and improving the teaching competencies of teaechers in underserved areas in the Philippines. She is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Certified Google Educator Level 2, Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, and Distinguished Lasallian Leader who has significant experiences in academic leadership by playing a lead role in a number of instructional materials/curriculum development projects and has produced a number of exemplary instructional materials. 

Our team of Teacher-Facilitators are homegrown licensed professional teachers and education professionals based in Region XII and are just minutes or hours away in supporting our partner schools, teachers and learners.

We believe that the Pilot stage best encapsulates our current standing given the following facts, developments and figures:

1. Our operations primarily rely on the startup grant funds that we won in various incubation programs and competitions, and on bootstrapping.
2. We have developed, at most, a working MVP which is fully functional and already delivers the basic features necessary to implement the program.
3. We have only fully implemented the pilot phase of the program in the recent school year.
4. We have identified up to 50 partner public schools for the MVP-testing and market validation; 40 of which were successfully onboarded and are currently accessing the free version of the program.
5. Out of the 40 onboarded partner schools, 12 (30%) have already availed the premium/paid version of the program in the pilot year; the remaining schools expressed promising interest in availing the said premium/paid version in the next and following school years.
6. We have yet to collect, interpret, and study preliminary data, results and impacts from the current deployment year.
7. We have gained early traction and are geared to improve and upscale our marketing efforts.
8. We have yet to fundraise for program development, expansion, and impact.

We believe that the guidance of an organized and reputable program such as the Solve would help us better stand firmly on our feet and clearly see our north star as an organization for impact. We hope to be guided by Solve in improving our team, operations, and especially our solution. In particular, we hope that we could work together in studying the preliminary data and impact of our solution's pilot implementation, improve it, and navigate it towards a better course. Furthermore, we hope to be connected to Solve's network of like-minded individuals and organizations who believe in our vision and are delighted to work with us in our mission. The funding would also be of great help in helping us sustain our early traction, market validation, and impact.

Our solution provides access to more learning opportunities among underserved areas in the country, and introduces blended learning approaches to traditional pedagogical approaches.

We hope to actively provide access to learning opportunities to underserved areas in the Philippines, and work with the Department of Education in successfully improving the learning outcomes, acquisition of necessary competencies, and development of 21st century skills among learners.

2 full-time executive staff

3 part-time support staff

3 contractors

10 on-call teacher-facilitators

Studentship Philippines initially launched an early version of YSEP in 2019, accommodating public school students as its first in-person cohort. While the progress was promising, it was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. YSEP was rebooted in its latest version in the recent 1-2 years.