The short version. Marie Ernestine School runs preschool through senior high on two campuses — Canjulao in Lapu-Lapu City and Budlaan in Talamban, Cebu City — with an environmental science thread through the standard DepEd curriculum and a robotics programme that has taken a team to international competition. It publishes no admission requirements or fees. Both domains bearing its name are dead, and one now serves a gambling page.
For the address, phone number and level coverage we hold, see our Marie Ernestine School page. This guide is deliberately short: the school's published record is short, and inventing the rest would be worse than admitting it.
Before anything else: do not trust the domains
This is the single most useful thing on this page.
marieernestineschool.net — as checked, this domain now serves an online slots gambling page in Indonesian, with a sign-up link and no school content whatsoever. It appears in older listings as the school's website. It is not one now. Do not enter anything there, and do not let a student follow a link to it from an old directory entry.
marieernestineschool.com.ph — this one redirects to a ww1. subdomain and renders a blank page. It is a parked shell, not a school site. Nothing loads, so there is nothing to read.
Neither is the school's fault in any obvious way; expired school domains get bought and repurposed all the time. But it means a parent searching for the school's website will land somewhere useless at best. The live channel is the school's Facebook page, plus the phone number in our record.
What is verifiable
- Founded in 1976 by Dr. Marie Ernestine D. Fajatin.
- Main campus: 1 Canjulao 1st, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. Second campus: Budlaan, Talamban, Cebu City.
- Offers preschool through senior high school on the DepEd K-12 curriculum. No college department.
- Describes itself as a bible-believing institution.
- Runs an Environmental Science Education Curriculum (ESEC), which builds environmental awareness into standard DepEd subjects rather than bolting on a separate class.
- Has a robotics programme with a record of national representation at international competition.
- Contact number in our record: 0936 141 1714.
Everything else — fees, requirements, deadlines, strands, class sizes — you have to ask.
The two-campus question comes first
Most guides would start with documents. Here, start with geography.
Canjulao is in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan. Budlaan is in the Talamban uplands of Cebu City. Those are not neighbouring locations — they are separated by a bridge and, at the wrong hour, a great deal of traffic. Before you discuss anything else, confirm:
- Which campus offers your child's level.
- Which campus your enquiry is actually being answered by.
- Whether the ESEC and robotics programmes run at both, or only one.
- Whether fees are the same at both.
Do not assume the answer is the same for both sites just because the name is.
What to have ready
Private basic education schools in the Philippines work from a common DepEd document set. Preparing it in advance costs nothing. Confirm the exact list with the registrar, because this is the standard set, not necessarily this school's set.
| Document | Who issues it |
|---|---|
| PSA birth certificate | Philippine Statistics Authority |
| Report card, Form 138 / SF9 | Previous school |
| Permanent academic record, Form 137 / SF10 | Previous school registrar |
| Certificate of good moral character | Previous school principal or guidance office |
| Certificate of transfer or honorable dismissal | Previous school, for transferees |
| NCAE results | Junior high school, usually asked for at senior high entry |
| ID photos | You |
The one that reliably causes delay is Form 137, which the previous school's registrar often sends directly to the receiving school rather than handing to you. Our Form 137 vs Form 138 guide explains which document is which and who holds each, and is worth reading before you request anything.
The questions worth asking, in order
- Which campus, and is the level I want running there this year?
- Is the school ESC-participating for junior high, and voucher-participating for senior high? These two schemes move the annual figure more than anything else you will negotiate. Our ESC grant guide covers the junior high subsidy, and the senior high voucher guide covers Grade 11 and 12 — including the part families miss, that a public junior high completer usually gets the voucher automatically.
- What is the full assessment for the level and campus, in writing, and what does it include?
- What payment terms are available, and is there a discount for annual payment?
- Which senior high strands are actually opening? A permit to offer several strands is not the same as several sections running.
- Is there a placement or entrance test, and when?
- Does robotics carry a separate fee, and at which year levels does it run?
- What is the class size at your child's level.
Judging the two things the school is known for
ESEC and robotics are the school's public identity, and both are the kind of claim that is easy to make and worth testing on a visit. Neither test is hostile; a school doing the thing properly will enjoy answering.
On the environmental science curriculum. The stated approach is integration — environmental awareness threaded through standard DepEd subjects rather than taught as its own class. That is the harder version to do well, because it depends on every teacher rather than one specialist. Ask to see how it shows up in a specific subject at a specific grade: what does it change in Grade 5 science, or in Grade 8 araling panlipunan? Ask whether teachers get training in it. Ask what a parent would actually notice. If the answers stay at the level of slogans, the programme is a poster; if they come back with lesson-level detail, it is real.
On robotics. International representation is a genuine achievement and also a spotlight on a handful of students. The questions that matter to your child are different from the ones in the press release. Which year levels can join? Is it curricular, an elective, or an after-school club? How many students are in it? Is there a separate fee, and does it cover kits and competition travel? Who coaches it, and are they still at the school? A programme that peaked around one strong cohort looks identical on paper to one that runs every year.
Checking the school's DepEd standing
With no published site, this is the check that replaces reading one. Ask the registrar which levels the school holds DepEd recognition for and which it operates on a permit, and ask for the numbers. These are per-level, so a school can be recognised for elementary and on permit for senior high, which is common where a department was added recently. Then ask for the school's DepEd school ID, which ties it to DepEd's own records rather than to a directory entry.
The reason this matters is not bureaucratic. Recognition is what makes the Form 137 the school issues portable — to the next school, to a university, to an employer a decade later. Ask plainly what documents your child would leave with and who signs them. Our directory record for this school holds no permit number, school ID or accreditation entry, which is a gap in the published record rather than a finding about the school.
On the fees
We have no figure for this school and will not print one. What we can give you is context: our Cebu City private school tuition guide sets out what comparable private schools in the metro publish, which is enough to tell you whether an assessment you are quoted is in the normal range or well outside it. Use it as a sanity check on a quoted figure, never as a substitute for one.
What we could not verify
From any working source the school controls: tuition and miscellaneous fees at either campus; the exact requirement list; whether an entrance or placement test exists; enrolment dates for any school year; which senior high strands are currently offered; DepEd permit or recognition numbers; accreditation status; ESC or voucher participation; scholarship or discount schemes; and current class sizes. The school's Facebook page may carry announcements on all of these, but it is not readable without an account, and we do not treat unverifiable screenshots as sources.
If the school gives you written answers, those beat this page. Ask for them.
Sources
- Our own directory record for the school, including its founding, campuses, curriculum thread and contact number
- marieernestineschool.net, checked directly and found to serve an online gambling page rather than school content
- marieernestineschool.com.ph, checked directly and found to redirect to a blank parked page
Comparing other schools nearby? Our Lapu-Lapu schools listing has them.
