ISATU Leon Campus History
On July 17, 1947 the Leon Junior High School was opened with the enrolment of 19 students. Mr. Felipe Toledanes was appointed the first principal. Classes were held for the meantime at the Leon Public Market since the new school site was still being negotiated. On the first week of August, 1947 Mr. Pedro Robles was transferred to Leon Junior High School swapping position with Mr. Toledanes.
Before the approval of the resolution to open the high school, Mayor Cabalfin had already negotiated the eight hectare lot of the school. This was located across the Ilo-ilog creek, a few minutes walk from the town proper, bounded by hills on the south and west. The seven hectare lot was owned by Mr. Robert Sullivan and his heirs and the adjacent one-hectare lot was owned by Mr. Domingo Calonia.
The first structure to be built was the five-room school building from the P5,000 Pork Barrel of Congressman Tiburcio Lutero. One room was roofed with galvanized iron while the rest were nipa shingles. Other structures were later added through the help of many government officials. The school met enrolment problems several times but with the commitment of the school officials and support of the community, enrolment increased until its conversion in 1966.
Republic Act No. 3625 s. 1963 of the Congress of the Philippines provided for the conversion of the Leon High School to the Leon National Agricultural School (LNAS), which was inaugurated on July 1, 1966. More buildings were constructed and and facilities added to improve agricultural education. Through the years, enrolment steadily increased as students continued to avail of low-cost quality education offered by a public school.
By virtue of the authority granted by the Bureau of Vocational Education, the school offered technical courses in agriculture in 1974 to meet the needs of the community. In 1975, Dr. Wenceslao Sison, Jr. , School Administrator, further requested that the school be allowed to offer four-year courses such as Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education, Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, major in Animal Husbandry and Agronomy. The following year the request was approved by the Department of Education and Culture.
On August 1, 1977, the Leon National Agricultural School, was converted to the Leon National College of Agriculture (LNCA), the change of name having been approved by the Office of the President upon recommendation of the secretary of the Department of Education and Culture to make the name of the school conform to its actual curricular program beyond the post-secondary level.
To meet the growing needs of the college, new buildings were constructed, facilities were improved, teachers were sent to trainings, innovative agricultural programs were implemented.
In 1993, the school offered Bachelor of Science in Agriculture major in Agroforestry in response to the growing concern on the rapid denudation of the mountainsides. Subsequently, the curriculum was revised in 1996 with the curriculum in Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Homemaking. In the same year, the program for Associate in Agricultural Technology was ladderized.
With the enactment of Republic Act No. 7722, otherwise known as the Higher Education Act of 1996, the Commission on Higher Education was created placing Institutions of Higher Learning, including the Leon National College of Agriculture, under its supervision. Under the CHED, the school expanded its curricular offerings to include: Two-Year Computer Secretarial, Two-Year, Computer Programming, in consortium with the Palmares Computer College. For professionals and out of school youth who need basic computer knowledge, it offered short-term courses lasting from four to six months, with classes scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays or during off-hours. On the other hand, it started phasing down its high school by admitting only 125 first year entrants to conform with CHED Order No. 4.
Aside from academic concerns, the school likewise provided its students with opportunities to develop their various potentials through sports, literary and musical contests, and by sending students to the different seminars sponsored by DECS and other non-governmental institutions. Students also attended symposia on important and relevant and timely issues.
With the implementation of the integration law, LNCA became a satellite campus of the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology on November 24, 2000 upon approval of the WVCST Board of Trustees.
On May 18, 2015, WVCST was officially converted to Iloilo Science and Technology University.