American Troops in Mindanao Donate Classroom Buildings

A three-classroom school building constructed by the United States (US) government through the efforts of the military Joint Special Operation Task Force-Philippines was formally turned over January 28 to the school administrator and officials of the Kawit Elementary School in Kauswagan town, Lanao del Norte.

Captain Adam Martin, US Army team leader of the task force based in Campo Ranao, Marawi City, expressed that their stay here is to provide assistance like medical mission, putting up projects to villages that were affected by calamites, as well as areas affected by armed conflict and validate the needs of the villagers in terms of education, road construction and livelihood programs, in coordination with the local government units.
With the recommendation of their counterpart, through Col. Benito de Leon, 104th Brigade Commander-Philippine Army, and the Department of Education (DepEd) of Lanao del Norte, the U.S. government put up the school building with a project cost of P4 million, complete with two toilets.

Meanwhile, Ederlita Bigornia, the school's principal, said they are grateful to the US government for funding the construction of the building to replace the school's old Gabaldon building which was burned down by fire which occurred September 2007.
"Actually, we could have done the formal turn over early January but the town of Kauswagan was one of those areas hit by flashfloods," Bigornia said.

She added that despite heavy fighting between the lawless Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group and the government troops in their town, "our school has always made it to the second place in the DepEd's National Achievement Test in the entire Kauswagan District-composed of nine complete elementary and three primary schools," revealed Bigornia.
Captain Martin on the other hand, disclosed that the programs and projects initiated and implemented by the US forces in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur provinces, conform with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's aim - bring the government's services to far-flung areas in the country, particularly the conflict areas in Mindanao.

PIA Iligan

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Spanish Lesson for Selected High School

The Department of Education starts this coming school year the teaching of
Spanish in selected public high schools to better prepare Filipino students in
communicating a widely-used second language.

The program shall initially offer Spanish in one school per region. There will be
two classes of 35 students each per school. The pilot schools and their teachers shall be selected by the DepEd Regional Office based on the criteria for selection.

Lapus added that the pilot schools will also be selected based on the availability
of classrooms and support facilities and equipment like computer laboratory with
at least ten computers and headsets to support speech lessons.
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6 Million Ransom For Kidnapped Teachers

Three public school teachers from Zamboanga City are now confirmed victim of kidnap for ransom. The teachers -- Rafael Mayonado, Janette Delos Reyes and Frairez Quizon were taken around 8 a.m. Friday while they were traveling to mainland Zamboanga City from Sacol Island aboard a motorized banca.They are about to pick up material for the coming Achievement Test.
The teachers are now confirmed in Basilan Island and it is predicted that the kidnapper will turn over the teachers to their handler who are more expert in Kindap for ransom activity. It turn out that lawless group procedures in kidnaping is to take somebody in the City and transfer to their handler which is located in Basilan.

The 2 teachers were able to call their family and conveyed the 6 milion demand. DepEd Zamboanga City Division Superintendent Dolores Alcantara said the parents cannot raise the amount of ransom demanded by the kidnappers."Our teachers come from poor families and wish nothing more than support their parents, brothers, and sisters," Alcantara said.
Because of the fear from kidnappers, the school in the baranggay where the teachers are taken are now closed.

The police and the Philippine Armed Forces are now looking for the kidnappers but if could be the same story of the ABS CBN newscaster who was release only after paying ransom. After that, no more news of Kidnappers arrest or any press release from local police. The kidnapping of 3 Red Cross workers are still not over, yet we have a new one and this time a public school teachers.

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Stock Exchange Topics to be integrated to HS Curriculum

Public high students will learn the basics of stock exchange and capital markets through DepEd and Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Module Development Project, which is geared towards financial literacy and investment consciousness among the youth.

Topics that will be part of integration are the nature, importance, and roles of the Philippine capital market and stock market in nation-building and development. Students will also learn basic concepts of investing in the stock market including the benefits, risks and rewards of investing in the stock market. They will also be made aware of the objectives of the PSE as regulator of the country’s stock market.

These topics would be integrated in Economics, which is part of the fourth year
curriculum of high school students in the beginning of academic year 2009 and onwards.

UP Reasearch Foundation to conduct survey for DepED

DepEd seek the help of the University of the Philippines' Engineering and Research Development Foundation Inc to conduct a survey known as Basic Education Resources Surveys (BERS). The result of the survey will be use for formulation of policies to ensure the goal of Education for All.

Lapus stressed that BERS Project is expected to come up with policy recommendations and relevant standards and practices which could further improve resource management and allocation system in DepEd.

Through the relationship of academic performance and resources, the government ensured to attain the goal of Education For All Plan in 2015.

Miracle in DepEd Program

The Senate and Congressman unanimously agreed to increase the budget from 3 Billion peso to 8 billion for the classroom building in our public school. This is amazing development in our public education since never in the fast happen this kind of drastic budget change.

Most schools at to the present have a classroom population of 60-80 on the average. It mean 2 section in one classroom giving pain to the public school teachers but also to the students. Since there will be new classroom, we can expect new teachers to fill the gap.

The Chairman of the Senate committee on education, Sen. Mar Roxas (the same person who gave us 20 computers- pcps 1 and 2) said the budget will be use to build about 11,000 thousand classrooms both for Elementary and High School.

The Senators also said they realign P1.927 Billion from other government agencies in favor of DepED while another P1.17 was realigned to State College and Universities.

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For opportunity abroad visit Singapore Jobs.

Korean train Filipino Teacher on ICT

After the English proficiency training was given by Filipino public school teachers to their counterparts in Busan, South Korea in 2008, Korean volunteers are now conducting a two week-training for Filipino teachers on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the symbiotic exchange of expertise on teaching trends among Asian teachers is very relevant in further strengthening regional cooperation. Fifty secondary school English teachers had a month-long training that covered communicative language teaching and teaching of reading. This was facilitated by DepEd's National English Proficiency Program.

Municipality of Carmen in Sinulog 2009

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US To Donate US$86 Million for Education in Mindanao

An affirmation of commitment amounting to US$86 million in assistance to the Philippine education sector was signed by Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus and U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney.

The agreement provides funding to the United States Peace Corps' Tudlo Mindanao Program in which US volunteers train Mindanao teachers and civic leaders. It will also recognize the significant contributions of the US Peace Corps in promoting education and mutual understanding between the two governments.

In the agreement, US Agency for International Development (USAID) will support DepEd to implement education programs that will improve access to education and improve the quality of teaching. The programs will also provide learning opportunities and livelihood skills training for out-of-school children and youth, especially in communities most affected by conflict.

These projects provide improvements in education quality and access by strengthening teachers' capacity in teaching English, math, and science at the elementary level.

They also train and prepare out-of-school children and youth for livelihood skills opportunity as well as strengthen local government's and parent-teacher and community associations' capacity in education governance.

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Some reason why we should add more year level in HS

The following latest news

Nursing, accounting, 2 other courses made 5-year degree programs
Starting this school year, engineering, architecture, nursing and accounting courses will be offered as five-year degree programs, Chairman Emmanuel Angeles of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said yesterday.

Pre-school education will become requisite for elementary level once
the bill pass the third and final reading in Congress. It means the the
children will spend 7 years before they could go to high school.

Congressman
Jaafar, the endorser of the new law said Pre-school education has been
proven to be very important in a child formal education. After 3 years of enactment, all children will not be accepted in Elementary if they did not finished pre-school.

About 3 or 4 years ago, DepEd set the passing grade for written teacher test as 85%. Meaning students needs to get 85% of the Achievement test to get passing score. Number of student in province are almost unable to graduate because of failing scores. Some teachers do the dagdag bawas by giving additional projects. The truth is that we produced students that is not ready for college.

The curriculum of DepED is compact and topics are integrated to save time and budget resulting to poor mastery of the lesson. Lucky are those students and teachers in Science High School for they can slow down the lesson or speed up the discussion. What about the ordinary school with 80+ students in one section. They need more time to practice the skills. They lesson that are not mix with other topics so it will not bring confussions.

Look at the statistics. Look at the number of HS graduates that did not pursue college. Look the the colledge students for many of them do not have knowledge and skills which will cause them to land on low quality college and universities.

Tax Incentives for Private Institution that Support Public School

Under Republic Act 8525, private companies and individuals under the Adopt-a-School Program may avail themselves of tax incentives up to 150 percent. (PIA-MMIO)

The Department of Education (DepEd) and its private sectors partners under the Adopt-a-School Program recently signed a (MOA) for free eyeglasses and vision improvement activities which will be made available to public schools. This joint initiative involves JG Primelink, Optical International, Plastilens, Optimate, Kraktek and Civitan Philippines.

The I Care" and "Sight Care Program" will focus on the development of a Vision Perception Clinics where students found to have eyesight problems will receive free eyeglasses.

Civitan will develop the facility and pilot the program in selected public elementary schools in the National Capital Region (NCR). Together with the Eye Health and Safety Foundation, Civitan will administer the implementation of the Sight Care Program.

Optimate and Optical International will provide frames for the eyeglasses, together with ophthalmic lenses that will be provided by Plastilens.

JG Primelink, meanwhile, will provide five units of eyerelax device. Eyerelax is clinically programmed to improve shortsightedness commonly caused by tired eyes. Its safety as a non-medicinal device has been established.

Kraftek Trading, a company that specializes in the production and distribution of educational materials, will be in-charge of distributing cognitive and motor skills development tools packages.

Each package contains "manipulatives" or educational toys that aid vision therapy for children, such as shape sorters for pattern-making and color matrices that enhance color perception.

The DepEd Chief praises these groups for providing the equipment that will give public school pupils better eyesight.

Furthermore, he encouraged other private sector partners to "support DepEd's Adopt-a-School Program and work with us as we provide training to our teachers, books and sturdier school buildings to our students, and produce healthier and brighter students."

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DepEd Advisory no.5 s 2009 - NCR Quiz Bee

DepEd Advisory no.5 s 2009

1st NCR-Wide Quiz Bee

The UP Kasaysayan katipunan ng Mananalaysay ng Bayan, promote its 1st NCR wide Quiz Bee with the theme Bakbakan 2009: Pahusayan sa Kultura at Kasaysayan. This activity sahll include both pulich and private secondary schols in the NCR Region on Feb 16, 2009 at Palma Hall rm. 400 COllege of Social Sciences and Philosophy, UP Diliman.

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TESDA offers HRM to answer the demand abroad

TESDA Aklan recognize the demand of HRM graduate in UK, Canada and Middle Eastern countries - so they are now offering a Ladderized Education Program (LEP) as part of take tech-voc (technical-vocational) courses.

Syjuco also said that a tech-voc graduate has a better chance of landing a job either in the country on in the international job market as skilled workers compared to those who finish four or five-year college course.

According to him, tech-voc graduates are issued certificate of expertise which can be credited to the curriculum corresponding to level of one expertise should they pursue a college education.

Under the scheme, these students will obtain qualifications and required to undergo an assessment from TESDA. If the students pass the assessment, they will be issued a National Certificate (NC) Level II, which will already qualify them to apply for employment inside and outside the country specially United States, Canada, UK, NZ, AU and Singapore. (PIA)

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Gen San Teachers trained in ICT Integration

Public school teacher ICT training was conducted by USAID's Growth with
Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program and Microsoft, teachers in areas of
Mindanao affected by poverty and conflict are now better equipped to
pass on information and communication technology (ICT) skills to a new
generation of students.



The five-day Digital Literacy and ICT Integration training program held
recently in General Santos City included 130 teacher-participants from
South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Tacurong City and North
Cotabato, all of them with little or no background in computers.



The first training module covered basic computer maintenance and
digital skills using the Internet and software such as Microsoft Word,
Powerpoint and Excel, while the second focused on integrating ICT into
classroom teaching. The eager participants found their newly-acquired
skills exciting--and liberating.



"We learned how to use Microsoft Excel for preparing grading lists and
matrices," said Romel Gulac, IT Coordinator of Centrala National High
School. Since 2002, the GEM Program has supported the Philippine
government's efforts to improve digital literacy in Mindanao education
by providing schools in conflict-affected areas with computers,
software and Internet access, through its Computer Literacy and
Internet Connection (CLIC) project.



The teachers trained in General Santos were all from CLIC and EASE partner schools.



This training was the latest activity in a longstanding partnership between Microsoft and GEM, Adiong said.



(GEM-PIA XI)

Pre-School will become requisite to Elementary Level - Congress

Pre-school education will become requisite for elementary level once the bill pass the third and final reading in Congress. It means the the children will spend 7 years before they could go to high school.

Congressman Jaafar, the endorser of the new law said Pre-school education has been proven to be very important in a child formal education. Angara stressed that the bill is in consonance with the State’s policy
to provide equal opportunities for all children to avail themselves of
free and compulsory preschool education that effectively promotes
physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and skills stimulation as
well as values information to sufficiently prepare them for formal
elementary schooling.

After 3 years of enactment, all children will not be accepted in Elementary if they did not finished pre-school. DepEd will also be tasked to implement and supervise the new law. It will authorize the DepED to develop curriculum, prescribe necessary qualification for pre-school teacher, develop guidelines and standard. Salary of pre-school teacher is the same with the regular elementary teachers.

Elementary School to be abolished due to Commercialization

The Laoag Central Elementary School for its more than 80 years of existence, has become a historical landmark of the City of Laoag as a bastion of education,".

Heritage advocates refuse to throw in the towel on the conversion of Laoag's heritage school to a shopping center even as the mall project appears to be a done deal.

The conversion of the Laoag Central Elementary School, housing historic Gabaldon buildings, to a mall has caught the attention of conservation advocates who saw the project as another heritage disaster similar to the fate of other structures and buildings with historical significance.

The other Gabaldon structure within the lot is the school's Home Economics building.

Laoag is also home to another Gabaldon schoolhouse, the Gabaldon Elementary School named after Representative Isauro Gabaldon who authored Act 1801 of the National Assembly for the construction of elementary schools around the country during the American period.

The school is found in the middle of the commercial district in downtown Laoag.

The city government started public hearings for the school's relocation in June last year following negotiations by city officials with a developer for the mall project.

Expectedly, the project was met with stiff opposition from small businessmen and the school's Parent-Teachers Community Association.

The city's business community raised the fear that the presence of a giant mall would dominate the competition, which would eventually render small business operators bankrupt.

The school's PTCA on the other hand lamented that Laoag's historical landmark will be deleted from the city's landscape in the name of commercialization.

The Department of Education and the Heritage Conservation Society have embarked on a project to restore historic schoolbuildings through the heritage schoolhouse restoration program.

"(The school) is not in its original state. Fariñas obtained a certification from the National Historical Institute that the LCES is not among the seven sites declared as national shrine and national historical landmark in Ilocos Norte.

He said benefits and drawbacks were carefully weighed in before the city government and the Catholic Church decided to push the school's relocation.

The mall project is covered by a 25-year lease agreement entered into by the city government, the Catholic Church and Pampanga-based mall developer Bellagio Holdings, Inc. Under the agreement, the school will be relocated to a 5-hectare lot fronting the Laoag Bishop's residence at the city's northern section and away from the city's nerve center.

The mall developer agreed to bear the cost of acquiring the lot and building the school and later donate the properties to the city government. The school will also be provided with shuttle buses whose operation will be borne by the city government.

(PIA Laoag)

out-of-school youth job opportunities

Jeffrey Arcinal, 21, eldest in a family of four, is one of the 14,000 out-of-school youth (OSY) beneficiaries in the Out-of-School Youth Servicing Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER) program. He was given work as utility worker in San Agustin Elementary School in San Fernando City. “This job is a timely blessing for my family, now we’ll have something for noche Buena.” He added that he’ll save some of his earnings to continue his education: “Finding employment is hard so when I get my paycheck I will use it for an electronics course in TESDA.”

Many families of out-of-school youths in Tarlac and Pampanga celebrate a happier Christmas this year as the government pumped in some P56.5 million for employment and livelihood projects this holiday season.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus was assigned steward of Tarlac and Pampanga who was also directed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to implement pro-poor programs in all regions to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis.

Lapus said, “This program will have a multiplier effect on the local economy as it will lead to the creation of more jobs and the generation of additional income.” “We hit two birds with one stone in these projects. We do not only offer income to our out-of-school youths but we also address the health and hygiene needs of our students,” Lapus noted.

Beginning November, DepEd has deployed some 1,500 OSYs as utility workers in public schools while more than 12,300 OSYs are beneficiaries in the production of health soaps for school children. They come from the districts or barangays where the schools are located.Help Becomes Handy The utility workers were assigned in 1,200 elementary and secondary schools under the Divisions of Angeles City, Pampanga, San Fernando City, Tarlac and

Tarlac City. The project has been earmarked a budget of P7.5 million. “You see, we have very large schools and the OSYs we hired are indeed a big help for the upkeep of the school and its vicinity,” said Assistant Secretary

Santos added that the new hires are particularly helpful in the prevention of dengue in the schools as they were given instructions to clean the surroundings and ensure that the breeding grounds of mosquitoes are destroyed. They also do daily cleaning, particularly of the toilets, and minor repairs of wobbling chairs and tables.

“Before, the students are the ones responsible for the upkeep of their respective classrooms, but now with the OSYs in our schools, our students can better focus on their studies while our teachers can begin the classes promptly,” Santos shared. San Agustin Elementary School Principal Graciela Subala affirmed: “Our school was among those affected by dengue a few years ago. So the two OSYs we got for the school became handy in ensuring cleanliness of the surroundings such as proper waste segregation, maintenance of sanitation in the toilets, and clearing of stagnant water.” 

“The OYSTER program has really benefited our school. But what is also important is that there are families who are made even happier this Christmas because of the job opportunity opened to the OSYs,” said Subala. “These workers showed enthusiasm in their work, “noted San Fernando City Superintendent May Eclar. “They clean the school even before classes start and they are the last people out as well.” The San Fernando City division has 54 OSYs as utility workers.Cash in soaps Meanwhile, under the cash-for-health-care livelihood project, some 12,300OSYs are expected to start producing bars of Citronella, Acapulco/Guava, and Calamansi soap in January 2009. They have already been trained on how to prepare the medicinal soap as formulated by the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC).

Sec. Lapus explained: “The medicinal soap they will produce will be given to public elementary school pupils who will receive their year’s supply of four bars of Citronella soap for their head lice, four bars of Acapulco or Guava soap to combat skin diseases, and twelve bars of Calamansi soap for personal hygiene.

Through time-motion studies by the Department, each OSY is expected to earn P4,000 for making 2,000 bars of soap. All raw materials will be provided by DepEd. The 20-day production period will yield about 24.6 million bars, which will benefit more than 1.2 million children in Region III. Studies showed that 46% of children in Region III have pediculosis or head lice while 40% have skin diseases.

School nurses were earlier given training on soap making. Those who have been assigned to train OSYs had refresher courses from DepEd Health and Nutrition Center in coordination with the PITAHC of the Department of Health.  “This livelihood was inspired by school nurses in Maguindanao who after being trained in soap-making ventured into business to fund some clinic expenses such as medicines and supplies. They sell the soaps they produce to the teachers in their schools,” shared Santos. She added, “In the future, the department may be looking at this region as the main supplier of health soaps for our school children. PTCAs may get fundingcapital thru micro financing scheme under the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program to produce the health soaps.” Lapus believes that the soap-making venture can be a sustainable livelihood project. “There is a real need to produce medicinal soap at a minimal cost tokeep our school children free from head lice and skin diseases,” the education chief said.

He added, “We can tap partners in the community who can take this project to the next level. We see the local government units who are always in the lookout for livelihood opportunities and the private sector which can also pitch in to better improve the technology and marketing.”

Dr. Elena Herrera, Principal of San Fernando Elementary School has high hopes for the soap-making project. “Our students have a real need for these health soaps,” she said.

Sammy Sampang, Alternative Learning System (ALS) Education Supervisor in San Fernando City led the selection of OSY to be employed. “I told our district coordinators to seek those who really need this employment and cross-check their lists with the barangay officials since we were given direction to be very selective,” Sampang disclosed. 

Filipinos always look forward to a joyful holiday celebration – and they include the thousands of OSYs beneficiaries under the OYSTER project. Just like Jeff who will be assured that there will be food on the table this Christmas season.

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DepEd Out-of- School Youth Program

Seventeen-year old Christian Kimtaruc was giddy. He received his paycheck just before Christmas for which he brought home an LPG tank for his mother.

“She will not use coal anymore,” he shared. Kimtaruc stopped schooling during his third year in high school because of poverty. He was among the 14,000 out-of-school youth beneficiaries in Tarlac and Pampanga who were given work after qualifying in the government’s Out-of-
School Youth Servicing Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER), an emergency employment and livelihood project.

As utility worker for San Roque Elementary School in San Luis, Pampanga, he learned gardening, painting, fixing chair and other furniture. “Instead of being a bum I had to wake up early and learned to be more productive,” he declared. Now he enjoys gardening and has since grown pechay and eggplant on his own backyard.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said these OSYs have experienced helping their families and doing service for the community. The project was earmarked a budget of P7.5 million.
Project OYSTER stemmed from the directive of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo to implement pro-poor programs in all regions to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis. Lapus served as steward for Tarlac and Pampanga. Since November, DepEd has sent some 1,500 OSYs as utility workers in public schools while more than 12,300 OSYs will start in January the production of medicinal soap for school children.

Emanuel Sanchez, Alternative Learning System (ALS) coordinator and Industrial Arts teacher in San Luis District in Tarlac explained, “We selected the really poor people and those we see fit to work as utility in the schools.”  Some schools like San Roque E.S., because of its small population, had no utility person. “The teachers like us or members of the community had to do the 
part in school maintenance. So these OSYs were really a big help,” Sanchez shared.
Sammy Sampang, ALS education supervisor in San Fernando City said that OYSTER project used stringent screening process so that only those who are qualified are taken in to the program. “We even had to validate and cross check with the barangay officials the list of participants to the OYSTER project,” Sampang disclosed.

Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio lauded DepEd for the hope it had rekindled among the OSYs. “May this project lead the beneficiaries to a more productive life,” he said. Tarlac City Mayor Genaro Mendoza said the project has allowed OSYs to make something of themselves instead of just hanging around doing nothing. He said, “It was very timely and provided them practical skills.” Parent Elmario Higanta, 46, affirmed that the project really helped his teenage
son who became part of the program in Tarlac. He enthused, “My son now knows how it is to work and has learned some income-generating skills.” 

Lapus urged the OSYs to take advantage of other government programs that can help them finish schooling and improve their lives. “If you have not finished high school, take the Accreditation and Equivalency Exam or the Philippine Education Placement Test to measure your life skills and get the chance to continue.

For inquiry email depedcommunications@gmail.com

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