A brief History of Sagada National High School
The Sagada National High School is located at the heart of Poblacion, Sagada Mt. Province. The town of Sagada is approximately 151 KM away from the City of Baguio. It is a popular mountain resort which is a haven for both foreign and local tourists. The Sagada National High, a public school is a couple of blocks away from the century old Saint Mary’s School now Saint Mary’s School of Sagada, Inc.
The school stands atop the Bomabanga Hill overlooking the majestic rice terraces of Barangay Demang including the hills that surround it. It towers over central zone barangays like Poblacion, Dagdag, Demang and Ambasing. Having no building of its own, it “squats†at the bayanihan buildings within the compound of the Sagada Central Elementary School. The school used to be an annex of the Bangaan National High School until it became a national high school by virtue of RA 8868 which took effect in the year 2000.
The fledgling school started to operate in 1986 after an incessant lobbying by some concern parents in the community. These hard driven parents dreamed of a free secondary education at the center of the town as mandated by the Philippine Constitution. Their dream came true when the Department of Education approved the request to open a new school. To solve the problem of who will teach, the Bangaan National High School under Mr. John Guitilen and the Ankileng National High School under the late Mr. Albert Bangsail Sr. readily lent three teachers each to commute to teach the pioneer students. When it became clear that BNHS will annex the new school, ANHS withdrew its teachers. Being the mother school BNHS sent a couple of more teachers and designated Mr. James Lonogan as the first teacher-in –Charge. As the years passed, more students enrolled. To solve the problem of lack of teachers, the PTCA engaged the services of three teachers whom they paid through contribution from the parents.
With sixty five (65) students to start with, the population of the school kept steadily increasing over the years with an annual average increase of 28% since its inception. It held its first graduation in the year 2000 with fifty-six (56) pioneer students who graduated. Many of them are now young professionals.
In 1997, the DPWH started to construct a six room two-storey school building below the playground of SCS. The fund came from the Countrywide Development Fund of the then Congressman Victor Dominguez. However, the construction stopped under mysterious circumstances, hence only the façade of the first story stands.
To date, the school faces two very big challenging problems – the lack of basic school facilities like school building, library and books, arm chairs and laboratory equipment and lack of teachers. With meager help from the government, but with the PTCA behind us, we are slowly addressing the problem one at a time.
In spite of these limitations, the students continue to flock at SNHS as it continues to wade into the educational waters. For this school year 2005-2006, the school has a total enrollment of 286 and is manned by nine regular teachers and two volunteer teachers.