Ligao City pupils get a taste of the ‘schools of the future’

LIGAO CITY, Albay — The young pupils of the Pandan Elementary School and the Ligao East Central School are lucky — they are spending their formative years in "schools of the future."

Thanks to the Model of Excellence (MOE) program, they have a library with stacks of children’s books and encyclopedia, and a computer room where they learn to be techno-savvy at a young age. Their classroom has clean, white tiles, yellow, red and blue tables and murals of cartoon characters painted by local artists.

The schools are the first major MOE beneficiaries of the LBC Foundation in Albay. The foundation though has donated books and other school materials to the Ligao West School in early 2000.

Since 1998, the foundation has delivered some 527,700 books to 700 schools nationwide. "We continue to deliver books and other materials to schools since these are needed for constant upgrading to meet MOE standards," said Jose Garcia, president of LBC Foundation.

Alfonso Sarit, principal of Ligao East School, said that being an MOE school has raised the achievement test scores of their students, a feat recognized by educators, 250 of whom have visited the Ligao East Central School to see the program for themselves.

The program was a joint effort with Nancy Harrington of the Books for the Barrios Foundation and the Ligao City government led by Mayor Fernando Gonzales.

"We saw how Mayor Gonzales was into improving the city’s educational system, and we were impressed by his leadership in pulling the community, other government units and the education department into the program," Garcia said.

Gonzales was ecstatic over the MOE program. "This will ensure that our young boys and girls will get the best education that is available in this country," he said during simple rites where he received the symbolic key to the Pandan Elementary School, the 38th MOE beneficiary since the program started in Bohol in 1998.

"This is the first time that I have seen this kind of school," said Epifanio Buela, principal of Pandan school which has 644 students.