History

The Davao City National High School, first known as the Davao Provincial High School had its humble beginning in 1922. Housed in a nipa hut at Magallanes Street, it opened its doors to 67 eager students with Mr. Dominador Fernandez as Officer-in-Charge and later by Mr. Adolfo Casolan as Principal with 3 teachers to help him guide the sixty seven (67) students who were enrolled at the time.

When the municipality of Davao became a chartered city by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 51, series of 1937, the name of school was fittingly changed to Davao City High School

To meet the needs of an increasing enrolment, another building was constructed but this was completely destroyed by American bombs in 1945. Afer liberation, classes were temporarily held at Chavez Building at Claveria Street but were later transferred to the Te Eng Po Building at Ponciano Reyes Street. In March 1946 the school moved to a more spacious site at Villa Abrille Street.  Finally in June 1950, the Davao City High School transferred to its own building at its present site of 62,567 sq. meter lot along Florentino Torres Street.  The spacious site is through the generosity of the Tionko Family.

With the Nationalization of all secondary schools in the country in July 1987, the school is now called Davao City National High School. Today, it is on its 81^st year of existence, it has acquired 36 buildings, an Auditorium, School Library, Learning Centers, Rizal Shrine, Heroes Tree Park and several mini-gardens, Covered pathways, and new comfort room are among the added improvements in the school. The population has soared to more than 8,000 students comprising of 150 sections. It has 270 teachers and 32 administrative and non-teaching staff members.

DCNHS has been referred to as the premier public secondary school in Region XI. It has become a leader school in Science, Math, English and the Arts. It is an avenue in implementing different thrusts and programs of DECS/DepEd. In 1994, it implemented the Engineering and Science Education Project (ESEP), a curriculum of DOST catering students good in Science, Math and English and preparing them for engineering courses. In 1997, DCNHS launched Project EASE (Effective, Affordable Secondary Education), an alternative learning system for students who want to finish high school but cannot attend classes regularly because of their disadvantaged situation. In 2000, DCNHS was one of the schools selected to offer the Special Program of the Arts, a nationwide program for students who have demonstrated talents or potentials in the arts like music, visual, theatre and media arts, creative writing and dancing.

On the same year, Davao City National High School has become a recipient of the AYALA FOUNDATION-YOUTH TECH PROJECT that provides the school’s computer laboratory with an Internet Server and Local Area Network connection, In 2001, Intel Technology Philippines, Inc. (ITP), in connection with the Department of Education and the Foundation for Information and Technology Education, Inc. (FIT-ED) intensified its partnership with Davao City National High School through training of teachers on basic computer software application and internet connection.