Science and Technology Education Center Lapu-Lapu City Multiple Intelligence

Rehabilitation and Prevention for the Future

     Committee: STEC ICARE Association
     Title: Rehabilitation and Prevention for the Future
     Topic: DepEd Order no.40, Series of 2017
     Country: Philippines
     Delegate: Aleya Oliveron

     As of July 2017, there have been over 5.5 thousand casualties as Rodrigo Duterte leads the Philippine‘s war on drugs. To his praise, the part of the population comprising of drug pushers and users have surrendered, significantly decreasing the crime rate by 26% and the total drug market. In contrast with the people’s views, the president’s war on drugs does not entirely focused on the mere eradication of the entirety of drug addicts. On August 8, 2017, the Department of Education issues DepEd Order No. 40, S. 2017: Guidelines for the conduct of random drug testing in public and private secondary schools. Said D.O. will be conducted for the sake of assessing the prevalence of drug use among secondary school students. With that said, the data gathered through the tests can prove to be beneficial for the prevention and rehabilitation of affected students to avoid having more youth fall victim to drug abuse and dependency. 

     Drug trafficking, abuse, and dependency have been issues in our country for a long time. A staggering 92% of Manila’s barangays suffer from drug-related issues. Our president himself has made claims about the Philippines being a narco-state. To prevent these numbers from rising, it is best to prevent it by doing work with the part of population that is most susceptible to drug influence: students. D.O. no. 40 tests students to assess the prevalence of drug use in schools and provide them with ways to fix any issues that have arose from the use of drugs. Of course, there are going to be people that will be against implementing this order. The sheer fact that youths must submit to surprise drug tests are violations of several human rights such as self-incrimination. Students may also feel that their privacy is being disrespected as leaking of information found in tests are more likely to appear. However, upon reading the whole paper, the D.O. explicitly shows the methods of how the data will be gathered, and how the information will be disseminated and put into use.

     Before any of the tests will be issued, the Department of Health will make sure to inform the students and parents about what sort of tests and processes they will be undertaking. Discussions about the actual test, insight on drug abuse, addiction, dependencies, and several issues will be put to light.

     Confidentiality, being one of the most common ethical issues in the D.O., is emphasized in the memorandum. The actual date of the test will be confidential to avoid the rise of panic and worry among the students and parents. The Department of Health, which will be providing the analysis, will have the results ready within 15 days. Provided that students will undergo said tests, all results will remain confidential and will only be shared by the drug test coordinator to the concerned student and parents. This is for positive and negative results alike. If ever the student does test positive, none of this information will be used against the student in court or in school; no traces of the test results will be reflected on their academic records, and they will not be expelled.

     More guidelines have been prepared for further rehabilitation of students that test positive. An in-depth discussion will occur with the student, parents, and concerned drug test coordinator, where the chances of dependency and methods of prevention will be disclosed. Students will be referred to the Department of Social Welfare and Development or will be provided with private rehabilitation centers if ever parents see it fit.

     It is good to know that the government is looking for safer ways to lessen and prevent crime in our country. Provided that majority of the schools will undergo said tests, this will help the government act more to continue preventing the increase of the population that are reliant on drugs. It will also help the students themselves avoid their own downfall and prevent the country’s as well through newfound awareness provided by the DepEd Order.

Jane Eyre: A Book Review of a Classical Gem

Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. January 13, 1994. UK: Penguin Books. 1994. 448 pp. 978-0-14062-325-3

     “Reader. I married him.” Just from this line and several more in the book, you can tell that this story and method of writing is out of its time. With its contemporary style of writing and wonderful mixture of serious story-telling and scandals, Jane Eyre is truly a classical gem worth giving a nod to every time feminists parade the streets.

     Our tale revolves around the story of a young woman named Jane Eyre, who, as the first edition of the book would claim, the author of the book as it says “An Autobiography” in the subtitle. Jane’s story begins with a clear picture of the abuse our heroine has to go through during her childhood years. Eventually, she escapes this brutality when she is sent to school, where she encounters a new set of problems. Because of this, Jane decides to run off and work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, owned by Edward Rochester; a character of his own unique standards. They find out that they are similar in a lot of aspects, disregarding their age differences. While they get closer, Jane notices strange things in the household, such as maniacal laughter and seemingly spontaneous combustion of things in the house. However, Jane leaves Thornfield to nurse her aunt Reed who she learns is already on her deathbed. When she comes back to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester proposes to her, and she accepts. During their wedding, however, Richard Mason tells Jane that Mr. Rochester is not an eligible bachelor. Mr. Rochester’s wife, Bertha Mason, has been kept by Mr. Rochester in his attic when her mental state went rock bottom. She is also the cause of all the strange happenings in the house. Displeased by Mr. Rochester’s dishonesty, she leaves Thornfield again and is taken care of by the Rivers siblings, who are later revealed to be her cousins. She is almost forced into a marriage with St. John Rivers when she disembodied voice of Mr. Rochester calling out to her. She returns to Thornfield and is shocked when the entire place is in shambles. Bertha Mason burned down Thornfield and killed herself in the process. Mr. Rochester ends up with several injuries, including a lost arm and his sight. Jane still marries Mr. Rochester regardless of all these, and they live happily ever after with their first born.

     As I delved into more research about the book, I learned that it originally had been sub-titled as an autobiography, which I found odd since the author is not named Jane Eyre but named Currer Bell, Charlotte Brontë’s pen name. However, in a sense, it may be considered an autobiography, considering that the recorded events of Charlotte Brontë’s life are similar to those of Jane Eyre. In a way, it is Charlotte’s method of telling her readers about her experiences in a society where women are forced to subdue themselves; when women were not free. The two characters I found most interesting were Jane Eyre, the heroine, and Bertha Mason, the alleged crazy-wife. I find them to be perfect representations of how I depict 19^th century females were treated during their time. Jane Eyre on her own is going through a journey of getting to know herself as she fully embraces what it truly is to be a woman in the Victorian Era. Bertha, however, is the complete opposite of Jane. While Jane tries her best to learn from the people around her, Bertha could care less about what people think of her and just does whatever she can. She may be a look into Jane Eyre’s unsuppressed feelings from all her encounters with bad events. The story also has a serious tone to it, however, it keeps the readers hooked by throwing in unconventional plot twists every now and then. I did find it a bit convenient that the man who revealed Mr. Rochester’s dark secret is actually the dark secret’s sibling. What I find the least stellar about this book is the fact that it is a classic and the ending. I do not dislike classics at all, however, I do find the structure of the sentences and the language used in general to be quite a hassle for me to get used to. I do find Jane Eyre’s use of language to be clearer than most classics I’ve read, almost as if it was written contemporarily. Initially, I thought of the book to be of the romance genre, but as I read it, I learned that it is much more than that, especially when I learned that it was claimed as an autobiography in the first edition. Jane Eyre’s inability to classify itself into just one genre is astonishing for a novel created in the 18 hundreds. The ending is sad to say, a bit disappointing. I would have expected that Jane Eyre, finally realizing her own capabilities as a grown woman would stay away from Rochester’s character, but she did not, and instead married the suspicious man. However, that may be a good thing. The book was once again, able to surprise me, albeit in a disappointing way.

     As old as it may be, Jane Eyre is still a story with its own beautiful gems that can amuse any reader that will dare to read the book with its old use of language. With a passionate cast of characters, wonderful use of words for imagery, and a peek into ye olde patriarchal society, Jane Eyre is a classic I wouldn’t mind recommending to millennials and the generations to come.

-Aleya Oliveron, STEM XI-Mendeleev

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Measures of Position

THINGS LEARNED AND INSIGHTS

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After this grading, I was once rekindled with the last topic we tackled in our 3rd Grading discussion in Grade 9 Statistics. 

I remembered about the measures of Position: Quartile, Decile, and Percentile:

Quartile

-it is a set of data divided into 4 equal parts.

The upper Quartile is Q3, the value of the variable below which 75% of the cases lie. It is also referred to as the 3rd Quartile.

The middle Quartile is Q2. The middle. Also referred to as the 2nd Quartile.

The lower Quartile is Q1, the value of the variable below which 25%  of the cases lie. It is also referred to as the 1st Quartile.

Decile

-it is a set of data divided into 10. It tells of the variable below which a certain percentage of the cases fall.

Percentile

-it is a set of data divided into 100 equal parts. It tells how many percent of the cases got below the rank position.

CONCEPT MAP

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The concept map also shows the formulas needed.

DIFFICULTIES

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I am normally slow at understanding mathematics at a total, however, I can say that this is a fairly easy subject to learn considering the convenience of the calculator. 

However, during discussion and tests, we can't use calculators, unlike our Statistics subject last year. It was quite difficult to remember the formula while trying to assure myself that 56 divided by 8 is in fact 7.  At times, the numbers can have too many decimals that I often disregard most of them, ultimately changing my final answer and, well, it just so happens to be wrong.

Oh, yes. I also miss a lot of the numbers during organizing of the data.

UNFORGETTABLE ACTIVITIES 

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I find most of the things in math to be forgettable, because I believe that I will not need this in the future. However, I believe I will need this in the future, considering that I will be taking up Med-tech and it is essential for research.

I also found working with my classmates to understand the topic quite enjoying. I have a hard time understanding everything unless I hear someone talk about it, so it's a relief to know that my classmates are more than willing to explain the things that I didn't get. 

But in the end, I'm still slow at math. But I can say that I did understand this topic, to say the least.