Molding students into competitive learners

MANILA, Philippines - Galileo, a learning center operating for  a decade now, has been preparing toddlers and children to the K to 12  system way ahead of formal learning institutions, in the process empowering its students to become competitive learners. 

The learning institution has been molding young minds to be well-equipped in math, fluent in English and, in the last few years adept even in Singapore math, allowing learners to receive competitive grades in these areas. 

Founded by Rowie Juan-Matti in June 2005 – herself a product of a family-owned pre-school when the concept was at its infancy stage in the country – Galileo was patterned after the US day-care system. Galileo, however, adopted enrichment programs to help children better cope in fundamental courses like math and english. 

“We work on them proactively at a very early stage so they don’t find these subjects problematic,” Matti said, adding the addition of Singapore math in recent years has further trained students to become more competitive.

Her 36 learning centers “graduated” thousands of young minds based on a fun-based learning system. Last summer, the center even offered add-on subject like   financial literacy program. 

A class is  made up of  a maximum of 10 students with mixed ages  and  two teachers  who  are on hand to coach and challenge the students. “Mixing them makes the learners better able to socialize, relate and interact with people older than they are,” Juan explained.

Because of these, she said, many of the learners have not just achieved outstanding grades in their  regular classes but they also represented their schools in quiz bees and competitions here and abroad. “They also make it to the schools of choice when they reach college,” she said.

 “Before we accept students, we assess the children to determine which level in our curriculum they should fit in,’’ Juan said. ‘’Children come to us twice a week for a 45-minute program per session and they (parents)  pay P1,860 a month plus a registration fee of P500 for english and math and P2,500 a month for Singapore math plus P500 registration fee,’’  she explained.

The centers have four levels of pre-school and six levels of elementary.

Enrollment is anytime of the year and children can go up to Grade 6 or stop whenever they want. “But our experience is that many of them stay on and finish the courses. We recommend to parents to enroll their children at Galileo as early as three years or they can start anytime,‘’ she said.