STRANDby: A Recommender System for Incoming Senior High School Students

Fernalyn B. Ramos, Lester L. Abel, Lionel Kyle G. Dacanay, Leo Alexander C. Fernandez, Mary

Jean S. Pico

I. INTRODUCTION

Choosing a strand for Senior High School (SHS) is difficult, especially when there are

multiple possibilities and a student is uncertain of their own abilities. As part of a complete

overhaul of its basic education system aimed at meeting international standards, the Philippines

opted to implement the K-12 program to develop student capacities, provide them with

knowledge they would need in the future, and prepare them for college admission.

Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III approved the K-12 program in 2012. It

is Senate Bill No. 3286, known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012, as well as

Republic Act No. 10533, and it was authored by Senator Edgardo Angara. The K-12 curriculum

includes kindergarten and 12 years of basic education. This includes six years of primary school,

four years of secondary school, and two years of SHS school to allow adequate time for concept

and skill mastery, the development of active learners, and the preparation of graduates for

tertiary education, beginning skill development, work opportunities, and entrepreneurial

opportunities. [1]

Being able to choose a suitable strand for the students makes entering K-12 program

difficult because there are so many strands to pick from. However, K-12 would be very

beneficial to students, particularly all incoming Grade 11 students, because it provides a pathway

to their future jobs and can help them for a wealthy future.
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The choice of career strand will define the content of the subjects a student will take in

Grades 11 and 12. SHS subjects fall under specific Tracks. Each student in SHS can choose

among three tracks: Academic Tracks; includes three strands: Accountancy, Business and

Management (ABM); Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS); and Science, Technology,

Engineering, Mathematics (STEM). Technical Vocational-Livelihood; Home Economics (HE)

and Information Communication and Technology (ICT). Students undergo immersion, which

may include earn-while-you-learn opportunities, to provide them relevant exposure and actual

experience in their chosen strand. [1]

The suitable SHS strand can motivate students to pursue career in those subjects. Also,

because the strands are designed and specialized to match the skills and interests of the students.

Furthermore, in preparation for college, it broadens students' knowledge and abilities while also

introducing them to their chosen topic of study.

Strand selection is essential to a students academic achievement. Several courses offered

by various academic institutions nowadays require students to manually explore the course

outline. Most of them lack understanding, are perplexed, and make rash decisions to choose the

best path. Therefore, having a strand suggestion to aid a student in choosing a strand that is

appropriate to their interests and skills is important. [2]

An assessment guide developed by the students of PU proved that the system helped the

prospective students of Panpacific University North Philippines Tayug Campus in the program

of Information Technology in choosing what field or track to pursue in which it is the most

important aspect that needs to be addressed to succeed in life as it is one of the ways to assist a
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student on pursuing his/her dream. Moreover, the system helped the students in their decision-

making and assist them to pursue which of their skills are fitted in Information Technology. [3]

This project will assist all the incoming SHS students at Panpacific University (PU) who

are undecided on which strand to pursue. Choosing the right strand and studying throughout their

formative years is difficult because their future is dependent on one decision. For that reason, a

strand recommendation system is essential to aid students in choosing the appropriate strand. It

can provide a solution to assist the student in achieving the desired outcome.
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Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to develop a Recommender System entitled

STRANDby: A Recommender System for Incoming Senior High School Students.

Specifically, this study aimed to achieve the following objectives:

1. To identify the difficulties encountered by the incoming SHS students in choosing

strands.

2. To design the modules and features of the proposed Recommender System.

3. To determine the level of satisfaction, efficiency, and effectivity acceptability.

Significance of the Study

This study aims to provide solution and information which will be very helpful to the

following:

The Teachers. The Recommender System will assist the teachers in advising and guiding

students when it comes to choosing a strand.

The Incoming SHS Students. Recommender System will help the students in choosing

which strands they want to pursue for their incoming senior year and where they will excel.

The Other Researchers. The study would benefit them as they can use this as their

references and give more reliable and more consistent research that they can use in the mere

future.
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Conceptual Framework
The proponents developed a system STRANDby: A Recommender System for Incoming

Senior High School Students. A system that will assist all incoming SHS students at the PU in

choosing the suitable strands. The system’s conceptual design is represented by the proponents

using an Input-Process-Output (IPO) paradigm.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

1. To identify the 1. Identifying the

difficulties encountered difficulties encountered
by the incoming SHS by the students in
students in choosing choosing strands.
strands.
2. Designing the
2. To design the modules and features of STRANDby: A
modules and features of the proposed
Recommender System
the proposed Recommender System.
Recommender System. for Incoming Senior
3. Determining the
3. To determine the level of satisfaction, High School Students

level of satisfaction, efficiency, and

efficiency, and effectivity acceptability
effectivity acceptability

Figure 1: Paradigm of the Study

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Input. The inputs of the study are to determine the difficulties encountered by the

students in choosing strands, to design the features of the proposed Recommender System and, to

determine the level of satisfaction, efficiency, and effectivity acceptability.

Process. After gathering the inputs, the proponents will conduct an interview to identify

the existing difficulties encountered by the students in choosing strands. In designing the

modules and features of the proposed system, the proponents used the following tools: Sublime

as the source code editor, MySQL for the database, InfinityFree for hosting, FileZilla as the file

manager, Hostinger for publishing the website domain, and JavaScript for the system's

algorithms.

Output. As a result, the proponents developed a system entitled: STRANDby: A

Recommender System for Incoming Senior High School Students.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This system served as a supplementary tool to the incoming SHS students of PU who are

having a difficulty in choosing the right strand for them. The STRANDby: A Recommender

System for Incoming Senior High School Students is a tool that helped them to choose their

strands by answering all of the system's questions, which the system analyzed and recommended

a strand that is suitable for them. This system is only capable of recommending on which strand

in SHS to choose.

The system only run on devices that can access a web browser with an internet

connection. The system is also a multi-platform, means it is capable of running on two or more

different hardware platforms and operating systems with little or no changes. One of the system's
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limitations is that it requires a dedicated application and will only be accessible via a web

browser with a reliable internet connection.

The data collection by the proponents, which took place from September to November

2022, was done with the incoming SHS students at PU. Therefore, the information gathered and

processes contained in discussions of finding.