Southville International School and Colleges (“SISC”) was founded in 1990 and originally located in Parañaque, the Philippines. It moved its main office to Las Piñas City in 1996. SISC is in the private education industry offering K-12 program, undergraduate courses and graduate school programs. It is registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. SISC has about 3000 students spanning the cities and towns of southern Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas.
SISC’s vision is to be “recognized nationally and globally in the delivery of international education for developing lifelong learners, excellent in academics and values, and movers of society who will make a difference in the 21st century.” Its mission is “to develop lifelong learners who are equipped with the 5Cs (Competence, Character, Commitment to Achieve, Collaboration, and Creativity) through data driven and technology-enhanced educational programs to ensure student success in the 21st century.”
SISC is the only international school in the Philippines offering a complete array of globally recognized and accredited educational programs from preschool to graduate school. It follows high international standards and curricula that offer transferability of its students’ education across the globe.
Besides its manifest function of education, SISC broadens its students’ intercultural understanding by giving them opportunities to interact with peers who have different cultural and national heritages. They are equipped with “soft skills” such as grit, empathy and leadership that are just as important for them to learn in order to become accepted and productive members of society.
Being in the education industry in the Philippines brings about some challenges. For one, solid internet connectivity is elusive. In order to mitigate this, the Management Information System (MIS) team conducts weekly assessments of WIFI connectivity in every building at the 4 campuses in Las Pinas City. Additional access points have also been installed in each building to ensure that students are provided with the internet connectivity they need for their classroom activities and online classes. An IT Physical Audit is scheduled to ensure that there are no blind spots.
Another challenge faced by SISC is the small pool of experienced and seasoned teachers available. These teachers tend to migrate abroad or transfer to government schools due to the offer of higher salary and better retirement benefits. Hence, its teacher salary scale has been reviewed to make it competitive. There had been several rounds of salary adjustments based on the increase of daily salary wage as well as inflation. Its retirement package has also been reviewed and benchmark has been undertaken.
To ensure SISC is up-to-date on the evolving needs and wants of its stakeholders, SISC collects information from current and future students through an open line of feedback communication. Information is collected through staff meetings, student town hall meetings, bulletins, and flyers (one-way communication). Information is also collected via two-way communication. This takes place during department meetings, operations meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and coffee chats/learning sessions with parents. Customers are engaged through surveys where comments or complaints are logged and integrated in the notes of experience for improvement and innovation. Complaints from stakeholders are listened to and responded quickly within 24 hours. SISC believes it is very important to provide real-time feedback and engagement with its customers.
To prepare for the future, SISC implements a business model that is patterned after the Malcolm Baldrige Framework and the Philippine Quality Award. This model ensures that SISC is agile during extraordinary circumstances such as a pandemic or economic setbacks. SISC leverages on resilience and efficient human and financial resource management to ensure that learning continues and support is provided to the stakeholders.
