Marianas High School now offers 14 career and technical education programs — video production, photography, yearbook, arts 1 and 2, advance drawing, technicians 1 and 2, air-conditioning repair, accounting, marketing, office procedures, keyboarding, computer applications, and high school 101 course.
MHS principal Karen Borja yesterday said they are responding to the numerous requests from students for career classes.
MHS has 1,200 students.
“We did not reduce the number of our career and technical education programs this year because these courses are being offered based on our students’ requests,” Borja told Variety.
They also wanted to offer a student nutrition class, but they don’t have an instructor for it, she added.
According to a recent Public School System report, of the 220 graduates from MHS last year, 51 — or 23 percent — sought immediate employment.
Borja, however, noted that more than half of their graduates went to college.
At Saipan Southern High School, vice principal Craig Garrison said they are offering seven vocational courses.
“This school year we added our media production class in the early morning to accommodate the enrolled students,” he told Variety.
The other technical courses available at SSHS are ceramics, visual art, computer application, Microsoft application and laboratory, and health occupational class.
“It is without a doubt that vocational educational program plays a significant role for our students…you have to have these components along with the subject areas in order to help and assist them,” Garrison said.
At Kagman High School, principal Alfred Ada said despite the demands for vocational courses, they have to reduce the number of their programs from 10 to five this year to give way to the academic needs of the students.
But Ada said they still offer technical courses.
“We cannot just turn our back to the career technical education program because we do have an obligation to our students who are not interested in going to college after their graduation,” he told Variety.
KagHS has five electives this school year: art, yearbook, woodworking, electronics and JROTC.
“I needed to trim down my accounting and marketing classes because students want to enhance their skills in some other fields like woodworking and electronics,” Ada said.
The school, he added, wants to make sure that its students are taking the required academic courses such as English, mathematics and science.
To graduate, a student needs to take four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, and three years of social studies.
Last year, 27 percent of KagHS graduates immediately sought employment on island. The school had 84 graduates last school year and only 30 percent of them pursued college education.
