DepEd: To move school opening to September?

The Federation of Association of Private School Administrators (Fapsa) that comprises some 1,600 private schools in Metro Manila has asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to move the opening of school from June to September like the opening of school in the US. I guess this is also the same in Europe. I recall that this was once proposed for reasons I already forgot. But yes, it just might be a good time to restudy the pros and the cons of this move. When school opened last month, no less than DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus had the opening of school moved a couple of weeks because of the usual school opening jitters and the A(H1N1) scare.

What I would really like to know is, whether moving this proposed opening of school to September would be a boon to our Education System. We know too well that education in this country, just like everything else that government touches have gone down so much, we’d try anything that would help bring us back to the time when the Philippines was tops in Education vis-à-vis our Asian neighbors. So let’s hear it from the various private and government schools also here in Cebu and the various Parents-Teachers Associations (PTA) all over the country.

So now we ask the big question. What if a lot of sectors agree to move the school opening to September? How long can the DepEd implement such a move? Knowing that government moves as fast as a snail, we just might be looking at a five-year window to implement this. A case in point is the proposal to bring back the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) back to the school curriculum. The Regional Development Council (RDC-7) in Region VII already adopted this in a resolution two years or so ago. Yet, I don’t know why it is taking so long for the DepEd to return the ROTC so we can finally put some discipline in our youth? So let’s hear it from the DepEd!

Lastly, I got this text message from my good friend, Atty. Manuelino Faelnar in Manila that DepEd Sec. Jesli Lapus has just signed Department Order DO.74 S 2009 to adopt a Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education. Studies have shown that in the formative years of the student, they learn much faster when they are taught in the language of the locality that they were born. A case in point is what happened to the grade school in the municipality of Cordova, which has proven beyond doubt that the shift in teaching pupils in their native tongue has a higher degree of comprehension as compared to teaching them in languages that are not familiar to them.

But then, the municipality of Cordova is the exception rather than the rule because Mayor Adelino Sitoy wanted to preserve the Cebuano language as President of the Lubas ng Dagang Bisaya (LUDABI). With this new Department Order, it now mandates teachers to teach in their native languages. How they can achieve this is something we have yet to see.

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I slept very late Monday dawn to watch history unfolding at the British Open which was led by golfing great Tom Watson, my golfing idol of yesteryears. At the age of 59, a couple of months short of his 60th birthday, who would believe that the venerable Tom Watson would kick the butts off the best young golfers? Even golfing great wonder, Tiger Woods failed to make the cut! Call it tough luck that Tom Watson failed to make his last putt at the 18th hole which tied him with Stewart Cink, who has never won a major golf tournament in his long career.

This forced a play-off between the two American golfers. Perhaps, it was his age or his tired knees that caused Tom Watson to falter during the playoffs, allowing Stewart Cink to clinch his first Golf Major victory and have his name enshrined forever in the Claret Jug. But that’s golf for you. Tom Watson showed to our generation that even at an advance age against a field of youngsters, he can still hack it and tied for the play-off at the British Open. Even if he got second place, it is still a great feat for Tom Watson to show to golfers that he still has a lot of golf playing to do.

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Jebsens Maritime, Inc. (JMI) the crewing arm of Aboitiz Jebsen (Abojeb) a 26-year-old joint venture between the Aboitiz Group of the Philippines and Jebsens Group of Norway together with the Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. awarded yesterday eight new scholars and the signed the contract with the benefactors for the 2009 line-up of Marine Engineering (MarE) scholars at the University of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue Campus. The scholars are Dariel Sancados, Cristoval Abello, Alven Booc, Zoren Ehimplar, Louie Fuentes, Mark Lister Gonzales, Chuck Mandal and Jude Rhey Piol. They were among those with high academic standing belonging to the top 20 percent of their high school batch but were financially constrained to get a college education.