The Gardener’s Tale of the State of Philippine Education

... is a good read.

Conference alert: International Conference on Literature, Management and Education (ICLME’2012)

17th   to  18th November 2012
Manila, Philippines

Website: http://psrcentre.org/listing.php?subcid=146&mode=detail
Contact person: Dr. D. K. Harika

International Conference on Literature, Management and Education (ICLME’2012) aimed at presenting current research being carried out in that area and scheduled to be held November 17-18, 2012 at Manila (Philippines).

Organized by: Planetary Scientific Research Centre

Conference alert: Educating for the Future We Want: a Green Southeast Asia

11th   to  13th December 2012
Manila, Philippines

Website: http://www.seameo-innotech.org/ic2012/ic_info.html
Contact person: Pierangelo B. Alejo

The 2012 International Conference will cover the diverse dimensions and components of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and build on the outcomes and discussions of the RIO+20 UN Conference.

Organized by: SEAMEO INNOTECH
Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 31st July 2012

Conference alert: CELAO & PACLAS Strengthening Exchanges across the Pacific

9th   to  11th October 2012
Pasig City, Ortigas Center, Philippines

Website: http://www.paclas.org.ph/
Contact person: Christine Salazar

The theme for CELAO & PACLAS 2012, Strengthening Exchanges across the Pacific has as its overarching object the rich potential and actual cooperation among the countries of Asia and Latin America.

Organized by: Consejo de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Asia y de Oceanfa (CELAO) and the Philippine Academic Consortium of Latin American Studies (PACLAS)
Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 15th January 2012

Will there be a return of Spanish?

Last September 10, DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro divulged that DepEd is in the process of crafting an exchange program with Chile to allow Filipino public and private school teachers to “build up on” their competencies in the Spanish language.

Luistro also said there were currently ONLY 318 Spanish-trained basic education teachers in the country.

Source

Mother tongue education finds methods in teaching indigenous language

Thursday, September 13, 2012

NAGTIPUNAN, QUIRINO — Minda Bayangan who hails from Ifugao and Mountain Province uses Ilocano and Tagalog in teaching Agta kinder with the aid of her pupils. Half of the 20 Kinder 1 Agta pupils enrolled in Djoryong Elementary School who speak Ilocano and Tagalog translate words in the Agta language to their classmates who only speak their native Agta dialect. The newly opened Grade 6 level for school year 2012 adds up to 82 pupils from Kinder 1 to Grade 6 since the school was established 10 years ago.

Continue reading… (off site)

Budget 2013 – DepEd gets biggest share

It seems DepEd will really get the 61,151 teacher items the Department of Budget and Management proposed for it next school year.

The Lower House approved last Thursday night the PHP 2.006-trillion budget proposed by the President, with P292.7 billion going to the Department of Education. From among the different government agencies, this is the biggest share – DPWH only got P165.5 billion (that’s just a little over one half of DepEd’s share).

Of course, there is still the Senate to contend with, but most likely nobody is going to rock the boat with Sen. Angara supporting the proposed budget for education.

To note, this 61K hiring next year is the largest personnel hiring by the government, even higher than the number of soldiers the Commonwealth hired near the start of the 2nd World War.

Go! Education Campaign to promote K12

DepEd, the Philippine Business for Education, Australian Agency for International Development, United States Agency for International Development and SM Supermalls organized the Go! Education Campaign to promote the K to 12 basic education program of the government.

The Go! Education program engages SM mallgoers in an interactive overview of the new K+12 program and the Philippine education system by systematically tackling major areas of concern — teaching competency, curriculum improvement, infrastructure development and proposing solutions that will help elevate the state of Philippine education.

In Cebu, the exhibit will be from Sept. 22 to 23, while Go! Education roadshows will also be held in SM Manila, Oct. 6 and 7; SM Iloilo, Oct. 20 and 21; SM Bacoor, Nov. 3 and 4; SM Pampanga, Nov. 17 and 18; and SM Mall of Asia, February 2013.

Source

HB 6547 – SpEd Center for each division of the country

It seems HB 6547, The Special Education (SpEd) Act of 2012, will indeed become a law. The lower house approved it on third reading last week.

Cayetano: If we want our country to prosper, then we have take care of our teachers

(Senate Press Release, September 5, 2012)

Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano urged the government to seek to implement the full provisions of Magna Carta for Public School Teachers Act, specifically the delivery of benefits stated in the law.

Cayetano echoed the call as the country observes and celebrates the National Teachers’ Month.

“It is no longer merely enough to pay tribute to their dedication and commitment as teachers, we must translate out appreciation in more concrete forms,” the senator said.

“The Magna Carta has been there since 1966, but there are still major provisions in that law that have yet to be fully implemented,” he said. “How long must our public teachers wait before they enjoy the full benefits mandate by law?” he asked.

He reiterated pleas of various teachers groups including the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) to the government to demonstrate its avowed support by making the Magna Carta a reality for public school teachers.

He noted that while the salary grades of public teachers have improved, he said the plight and welfare of the teachers “must be served to the fullest since we concede that the role of teachers is “the single most influential factor” behind the education of the country’s youth.”

The lawmaker earlier filed Senate Bill 2353 seeking to further increase the salary of public school teachers by P9,000. The proposed salary increase will be given in tranches for three years.

He urged his colleagues in the Senate to work overtime in addressing the plight of teachers nationwide.

“If we want our country to prosper, if we want a better future, then we have to start taking care of our teachers,” he said.

Source