200px, left, Maria Evelyn C. Aguilar & Sister Ma. Raquel A. Reodica in August 2012 St. Mary's Academy of Caloocan City also referred to by its acronym SMACC is a private

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, coeducational basic education institution owned and administered by the Sisters of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) in Grace Park, Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines. It was formerly named Our Lady of Grace Academy (OLGA) and was renamed to SMACC on December 8, 2000 when the school marked its Golden Jubilee to comply with the RVM's school system. SMACC is located at Madre Ignacia Avenue (12th Ave.), Grace Park, Caloocan.

History

In 1969, the High School Department transferred to 12th Avenue while the Grade School and Pre-Elementary Departments followed in 1981, leaving the original school building to the priests of the

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

(OMI). In response to the challenge to offer quality education, the school decided to pursue

PAASCU The Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) is a private, voluntary, non-profit and non-stock corporation which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Philippines), Securities and Exch ...

accreditation. The preliminary visit was conducted in 1983 and its formal visit was in 1985. In 1988, the school was granted five-year accreditation which was followed by two more revisits, in 1994 and in 1999. Established initially as an all-girls school, the then Our Lady of Grace Academy, along with its neighboring all-boys school, Notre Dame of Greater Manila opened its doors to

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

in 1999. When Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) 2002 was launched by the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

, SMACC adopted the Basic Education Department, which reflects a continuous and sequential development from Grades 1 to 10. The Grade School was renamed the Lower Basic Education Department (LBED) and the High School, Upper Basic Education Department (UBED). During the 2003–2004 school year, the school worked for a certification of its quality management system. On June 25, 2004, the institution was awarded an

ISO 9001 The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...

-2000 certification. SMACC is the first ISO-certified school in all of Caloocan.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Academy of Caloocan Catholic elementary schools in Metro Manila Catholic secondary schools in Metro Manila Educational institutions established in 1950 Religious of the Virgin Mary Schools in Caloocan 1950 establishments in the Philippines