The idea that much of what a college graduate learned in school will turn out to be quite irrelevant at work is a prevalent one. Certainly, there may be a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this notion. However, the fact remains that a strong academic foundation is critical to one’s success and continuing upward mobility in the workplace.
When the SMP (service management program) Teachers Camp opened last May 2, Prof. Joel Bawica of Laguna State Polytechnic University (LSPU) remarked that he felt a combination of nervousness and pride: nervousness because he and his peers would be wrestling with new and unfamiliar content, and pride because his institution would be one of the first state universities and colleges to participate in a project that aims to align higher education goals with the competencies demanded by the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry.
They woke up early, some as early as 3 a.m., to get on a bus that would take them to the 1st SMP (Service Management Program) Teachers Camp at Asia Pacific College (APC) in Magallanes Village, Makati City.
I attended a different kind of commencement ceremony a few days ago. First of all, there was no graduation march to speak of. There was no podium and nobody delivered a rousing valedictory address, although there were the usual congratulatory messages from special guests. There were only 22 honorees, all of them professionals, and most of them quite young.
Education Undersecretary Francis Varela offered this very intriguing proposition as he was concluding his discussion on why we should seriously consider decentralization as an education reform initiative. Speaking at the “Decentralizing Philippine Education” forum organized by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) last week, Varela said the full downloading of maintenance and other operating expenses to the school was one concrete example of decentralization. The School-Based Management program and the Special Education Fund are two more.
Traveling to Kidapawan is not difficult at all despite the distance. Still, the beauty of the countryside really makes things seem so much better. In Hekasi, our schoolchildren were taught that Mount Apo is this city’s main tourist attraction and that the Manobo tribe lives there.
After the successful Panangisuro MTBMLE materials development workshops that the Eggie Apostol Foundation and St. Louis University held for the Department of Education’s Baguio City Schools Division last week, our initiative now swings south to Kidapawan City in Cotabato for Pagtudlo 2013, with our partners, the University of Southern Mindanao College of Education, UP Layap and of course DepEd.
With the ratification of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013—more popularly called the K-to-12 Law—by the Senate and the House of Representatives last week, the cacophony of voices weighing in on the Department of Education’s K-to-12 Program have finally begun to make sense.
Last November, with a vote of 198 for and eight against, the House of Representatives approved House Bill No. 6643, more popularly known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012. In my previous column (Inquirer, 1/5/13), I said that this augurs well for education reform advocates and stakeholders because the Department of Education’s K-to-12 program will now be powered by an enabling law. I may have given the impression that an Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2012 has already been signed into law. Well, that’s not quite so, and for that I must apologize.
In 2012, the education reform community made a couple of decisive steps in its drive toward quality education for all learners. First, the K to 12 Basic Education Cycle will now be powered by a full-blown enabling law. Equally important, through the same law, the bilingual education policy is now replaced by Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE).
THE NATION paused yesterday to remember Andres Bonifacio’s legacy of leadership, selflessness and sacrifice. Or at least we were supposed to, but honestly, who among us really knew the man and what he stood for? Yes, he was the Supremo of the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan. Yes, he led a revolution against centuries of Spanish oppressive rule, and yes, he and his brother Procopio were tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government.
Teaching is a calling where so little is given and so much is asked, according to the quintessential teacher Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan.
