RP, South Korea sign education agreement

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo witnessed yesterday the signing of two agreements between the Philippines and South Korea’s Busan Metropolitan City of Education (BMCOE).

The two agreements call for the South Koreans to donate computers and other educational equipment to Philippine schools, and the Philippines to train South Korean teachers on English proficiency, math and science.

The first agreement provides for the grant of $6-million worth of equipment by the BMCOE to the Philippines.

An unspecified number of computers would be coming from South Korea to be distributed to public secondary schools, state universities and colleges and possibly even private higher education institutions.

The Sungii Vocational Schools of Korea will also donate 3,089 technical equipment, including machinery, electronics, chemical engineering, automobile, and architectural design equipment to higher education institutions in the Philippines.

On the part of the Philippines, it will train 50 South Korean teachers on English proficiency, as well as math and science.

The 50 represent the first batch of teachers who will undergo a two-month training until August.

Another batch will be coming for the same training in February 2009.

Among the schools selected for the program are the Rizal High School, Philippine Women’s University, Quezon City Science High School, Rizal Science High School, Marikina High School and St. Paul University in Manila.

The South Korean teachers will first undergo a classroom-type training that will assess their level of English proficiency.

After this they will be required to do practice teaching either as co-teachers or as solo teachers.

Busan City Mayor Dr. Seol Dong-geun and Sungii Vocational School Principal Woo Sing-go signed the agreements for the South Korean side.

Commission on Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri, Education Undersecretary Ramon Bacani and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Augusto Syjuco signed on behalf of the Philippine government. – Marvin Sy