FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Whats the connection between the SIP and the SBM?

SIP is an important element of SBM. 1) It further devolves governance

of basic education to schools because they are given the responsibility
to plan for interventions to address their own problems; 2) It empowers
school teams and personnel because they are the ones who will plan
and implement their own school improvement projects; 3) It expands
community participation and involvement because the different
stakeholders are involved in planning; and 4) It makes the delivery of
education services more responsive, efficient and effective
because through proper planning, schools are able to immediately address
the problems which are unique to their learners contexts.

QUESTIONS ON THE SIP ENHANCEMENTS:

What were enhanced in the SIP? The planning process or the
templates?

Both the planning processes and templates were enhanced. Planning tools
on Continuous Improvement (CI) were incorporated in the SIP Guidebook
and templates were updated and made more comprehensive.

Is the enhanced SIP prescriptive or suggestive?

Most parts are prescriptive because we are still guiding the schools on how
to do the enhanced process but we ensured that there are spaces for
flexibility and for the schools various contexts. For example, the School
Report Card indicates the minimum number of school information that
should be reported. However, schools may add other school information
that they think are important to report to stakeholders.

What are the existing policies that have been aligned to the
SIP process? How were they aligned?
To ensure the relevance and consistency of existing DepEd policies
to the school planning process, the following policies were aligned
with the enhanced SIP process:
DepEd Policies

How were they aligned with

Enhanced SIP Process

DepEd Child Protection Policy

(DO. No. 40 s. 2012)

The child protection policy

implementation checklist can
help in assessing how childfriendly the school is.
Information on this can
influence which PIA to prioritize.

Early Registration (DO. No. 1 s.

2015)

Child mapping can be done

together with early registration
activities

Student-Led School Watching

Provides additional data on the
and Hazard Mapping (DO. No. 23 schools vulnerability to risks
s. 2015)
and disasters. Information on

this can influence which PIA to

prioritize.
Results-Based Performance
Management System (DO. No. 2
s. 2015)

The key result areas included in

the OPCRF of the school should
be anchored on the SIP. Also,
teachers and staff involvement
in the SIP should be included in
the IPCRF.

SBM Assessment (DO. No. 83 s.

2012)

This information should be

included in the School Report
Card

QUESTIONS ON THE SIP PROCESS AND TIMELINE:

What if the schools have already prepared their SIP? Should
they repeat the process or include only the enhancements
that were not included?

There is no need to repeat the process. The school can apply the
enhancements (e.g. by doing the listening to the voice of the learner or
process mapping) on the step they are currently in.

What do we include for the 2016 AIP? (For schools following

the Calendar Year)

Schools should include the preparatory activities indicated in the

enhanced SIP Guidebook, spill over activities or projects from the previous
year, and centrally-led projects. When planning for these activities, it is
recommended that the school improve these activities using the tools in
the enhanced SIP process.

Should schools revisit or revise the SIP only after the threeyear cycle?

Dont wait for three years until you revise. If by going through the
enhanced SIP process you saw opportunities for improvement, you can
revise your plan through the AIP which is done each year.

QUESTIONS ON SIP TEAMS:

Does a Project Team really have to be different from the
School Planning Team?

The School Planning Team can also be the Project Team especially for
schools with very few teachers (e.g. Multi-grade schools).

Why create several teams? Does the school head with team
have to be different from the school planning team?

The school head with team is organized to do data gathering. The school
planning team, on the other hand, may be bigger and is composed of
different stakeholders from different representations (e.g. parents,
barangay representative, IP representative, Muslim representative, etc.)
which the school head cannot always compel to do the legwork for
gathering data.

Why is there no SGC in the enhanced SIP?

The SGC is invited to take part in the planning process. There should at
least be one SGC in the SPT as stated in the Guidebook.

QUESTIONS ON DATA TRANSPARENCY:

What does TRANSPARENCY of data and information at school
mean?

Full disclosure of data and information available at the school. This

includes proper documentation of data gathering and generation methods.

How will data transparency affect school planning?

Transparency of data and information will allow stakeholders to see the

actual situation of the school for them to be able to provide the right
solutions to the current needs or problems in the form of goods or
services.

QUESTIONS ON DATA GATHERING:

Is it necessary to gather the data in Annex 1?

Yes, because Annex 1 acts as an organizer and it tells you what data are
relevant in planning. The school already gathered most of these data.
There may be challenges in organizing all the necessary data but know
that you will only do the data gathering once in every 3 years.

If my school has a better data organizer, can I use this

instead of Annex 1?

If your data organizer includes the same data found in Annex 1, we

encourage you to use the tool which works best for you.

When do we collect primary data?

Exhaust availability of existing (secondary) data first. If secondary data is

not available, thats when you collect primary data (e.g. when the
barangay does not have data on children in the community, thats when
the school should do child mapping)

QUESTIONS ON CHILD MAPPING:

What if the Barangay LGU does not have available data on
the number of children in the community?

In case said data are not available, the school in coordination with the
District Office can organize a team of teachers, barangay personnel, or
other volunteers to conduct a mapping of the children in their community.
The Child Mapping Tool found in Annex 1B of the SIP Toolkit can help
the school accomplish this. It is important to coordinate with the District
Office because the District will orchestrate the child mapping of different
schools to avoid overlapping.

When should we do child mapping?

The school will only do child mapping if the barangay does not have data
on the children in their community. If the data is not available, the school
should do the child mapping in January together with their early
registration activities.

How relevant is child mapping to planning? How flexible is

this tool?

Child mapping is important in planning because the data that will be

gathered from it will help the school know how many learners should be in
school but arent and the reasons for them not being in school. This will
inform the interventions that the school can do. Data from child mapping

will also help the school anticipate for incoming enrolment. All of these will
help the school in its planning.
The school can use other tools for child mapping as long as they get all
the important information regarding children in their community.

What if I do not have enough staff to do child mapping?

Then it is an opportunity for the community to get involved. Talk to the

barangay and even to civil society organizations or NGOs to help you.

Are there any incentives for teachers to do child mapping?

Schools may request service credits from the Superintendent for the child
mapping activities they have done. The child mapping activity can also be
included in the IPCRF of the teachers.

QUESTIONS ON PRIORITIZING IMPROVEMENT AREAS:

How do we identify the improvement areas from all of the
data we have gathered?

By checking school data against division targets

By checking pressing, alarming, stagnating, or worsening school areas

What improvement area should we prioritize?

By using the rubrics in prioritizing PIAs, you will know what PIA you should
prioritize.

Who is in charge of prioritizing?

The School Head will be in charge of prioritizing since he/she is the head of
the SPT and the PT.

Should classroom problems be part of the SIP?

If your identified Priority Improvement Area is related to teaching and

learning, then classroom problems will be part of what you will have to
analyse for your SIP. You might think that classroom problems can already
be addressed by teachers and it might seem too small to include in a 3year plan but know that to be able to create good programs or projects
that address our issues in teaching and learning, it is important to pay
attention to what is happening inside the classrooms.

QUESTIONS ON LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF THE LEARNERS

AND STAKEHOLDERS:
When do we conduct home visits? What are the incentives?

You can conduct home visits when it is not possible to talk to the student
in school or when you want to check on the condition of the student at
home or when you need to talk to the students parents but they are
unavailable to go to school.
Incentives for teachers can be service credits upon approval of the Schools
Division Superintendent. Teachers can also include it in their IPCRF.

QUESTIONS ON MAPPING SCHOOL PROCESSES:

How do we choose the process to map?

By listening to the voice of the learners and stakeholders, you should be

able to identify the process that affects the PIA.

In process mapping, should we map the ideal process?

No. The actual process should be mapped in order to understand what is

really happening and to be able to identify problem areas/storm clouds.
This requires that the process be observed whenever possible.

What are storm clouds?

Observable and measurable problems in a process.

Why do we have to choose a specific storm cloud/area of

focus?

You have to select a specific storm cloud, called an area of focus, from
among your storm clouds so you can aim your improvement efforts on a
particular problem rather than attempting to solve all the problems at
once.

How do we choose a specific storm cloud/area of focus?

Addressing the area of focus should have a clear effect on the PIA

What are some of the common school processes that the

Project Team can look into?

Teaching-learning process
Measurement and evaluation process
Admission and enrolment process
Attendance Management process
Assessment process
Instructional Supervision Process
Professional Development Process

QUESTIONS ON ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS:

Can you cite something as root cause even when you didn't
see that in any of your data (e.g. data from interview,
process mapping or direct observation)?

No, the root cause should also be evidenced-based.

Is the root cause a solution?

The root cause should not be a solution. Rather, it should lead to a

workable solution to help address the focused problem.

In cases wherein an area of focus has several root causes,

which root cause should we address?

The selected root cause should have a workable solution.

Compared to addressing other root causes, addressing the selected root
cause should yield the best result in improving the problem area.

If there are a lot of possible solutions to the root cause, how

do we prioritize?

In prioritizing which solution to implement, the school has to consider the

capacity and context of the school. The school may also use the criteria
found in the PIA Rubric.

QUESTIONS ON FORMULATING AND TESTING SOLUTIONS:

Should schools create a project design for all solutions? How
do we select solutions?

Because the implementation of project design involves the use of

government funds, it is necessary to develop a project design to ensure
transparency. Developing the project design will also make monitoring
and evaluation easier because you have documents to refer to. In
selecting a solution to implement, please review the tips in formulating
solutions found in the Guidebook.

Should all solutions be tested?

No, some solutions do not require testing especially those that involve
infrastructure.

In testing our solution, how do we compute for the number

of learners that we should get as sample population? How
long should the testing be?

There is no hard and fast rule as to the number of learners who will
undergo the testing of solution as well as the duration of the testing. The
circumstance of the school, the problem, and the solution should always
be considered.