Assessing Preparedness of DepEd-Schools Division of South Cotabato for Internationalization

This study was conducted to assess the preparedness of the DepEd – Schools Division of South Cotabato for Internationalization. Descriptive-evaluative research design was used among four hundred forty-one (441) randomly selected respondents composed of one hundred four (104) school heads and three hundred thirty-seven (337) teachers in the whole school’s division of South Cotabato. A set of adopted survey questionnaires by Agosto and Sanchez (2017) was utilized in data gathering to assess the preparedness of DepEd – Schools Division of South Cotabato for Internationalization. Frequency, mean, and correlational analysis were used to analyze the result of the study. Findings revealed that the readiness of DepEd – SDSC for internationalization in terms of curriculum, teachers’ competence, student services and physical plant facilities is at “very much ready”.  In terms of managerial flexibility of school heads findings revealed that the investment decision and marketing strategy is at “very much flexible”. However, there were internationalization challenges faced by the schools in the DepEd - SDSC. Among those challenges were lack of ICT, educational media and other available technologies for instructional use and few linkages with parents and stakeholders to support school project and education facilities. Likewise, there is significant correlation between the extent managerial flexibility of school heads and readiness of DepEd - SDSC for internationalization. Thus, this study claimed that the extent of readiness of DepEd-SDSC for internationalization was tested as related to the school head’s managerial flexibility in terms of investment decision and marketing strategy.