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NEWS AND COMMENTARY
| WORLD NEWS | COUNTRY NEWS |
COMMENTARY | MEDIA RELEASES |
Philippines:
English proficiency championship among Metro high school students held
Nine finalists from as many Metro Manila high schools vied for the championship of the First A-Z English Proficiency Challenge (AZEPC) held last September 16 at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City. The championship round was conducted during the opening day of the 29th Manila International Book Fair, which runs until Sept. 20.
Adjudged champion after the two-hour on-the-spot competitions in English grammar, vocabulary, and syntax was Jose Maria H. Zaldarriaga of Lourdes School of Mandaluyong, who was sponsored by the Rotary Club (RC) of Mandaluyong. Second place went to Juliette Michelle Aciedo of the high school department of the Cainta Catholic College, sponsored by RC Cainta; and third place to Rose Anne Acedera of Maysan National High School of Valenzuela East, sponsored by RC Valenzuela East.
They received cash prizes of P25,000, P15,000 and P10,000, respectively, as well as trophies and various books from the world-renowned academic and trade publishers that co-sponsored the event.
The other six finalists in the competitions were Vanessa L. Gregorio of the Malabon National High School, sponsored by RC Malabon; Ruth Desiree V. Zabala of the Bagumbong High School, RC Caloocan Silangan; Joycel Angelique F. Chua of San Mateo College, RC San Mateo; Bernadette M. Lobarbio of the Child Jesus of Prague School, RC Binangonan; Camille April S. Trinidad of La Consolacion College Pasig, RC Pasig East; and Karen Cecilia C. Tan of the Immaculate Concepcion Academy, RC San Juan East.
The AZEPC, jointly undertaken by A-Z Direct Marketing, Inc. and Rotary International District 3800 with the endorsement of the Department of Education, is a high-school level competition aimed at boosting the English language proficiency of students. The finalists were the winners of Metro Manila district-level competitions conducted from July to August 2009.
The overall objective of the contest is to create an educational outreach program in support of the national government goal of improving the English language proficiency of high school students. Its specific objectives are to establish a platform for exchange and healthy competition among schools, to provide an enriching and fun experience in English learning, and to create goodwill through friendly competition.
The AZEPC test panel consisted of Dr. Isagani R. Cruz, multi-awarded writer literary and language critic, and educator as well as Philippine Star language columnist, as chairman, with Dr. Rodolfo Reyes, business communication trainer and Manila Bulletin English-usage columnist, and Jose A. Carillo, English-usage book author and Manila Times columnist, as members.
A-Z Direct Marketing, the primary sponsor of AZEPC, is a leading distribution and marketing company for international and local publications with a network of over 1,000 sales agents engaged in subscription solicitations and direct selling of books and home entertainment products. Co-sponsors were Readers Digest, Newsweek, Fortune, McGraw Hill Education, Wiley, Cambridge University Press, and Cengage Learning.
Rural students top nationwide test for third straight year
MANILA—Students from the provinces outdid their city counterparts in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for Grade 6 pupils for the third straight year, and education officials are putting the blame on congestion and on the enticement of the malls.
The 2009 NAT test results showed students in the rural areas received a Mean Percentage Score (MPS) of 66.67 percent compared to the 64.15 percent of their urban counterparts.
“Maybe it’s the congestion and the hazards and pressures of urban living,” Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said..
In 2007, students from the provinces got an MPS of 60.81 percent while those in the urban areas got 59.48. In 2008, rural students again topped the test with a 65.52 MPS while urban students got only 64.43.
This year, the MPS of urban students even dipped 0.28 percent compared to 2008.
P1.8 billion budgeted for government preschool education program
MANILA—Some P1.8 billion has been earmarked to reinforce the government’s pre-school education program.
Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said in a statement that the allocation, contained in the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010, would support the pre-schooling of 1,271,536 children in line with the goal to make every five-year-old ready for formal grade schooling by 2015.
“We really have to improve access to free pre-school services nationwide if we are to make our children highly competitive at an early age,” she said. “Our lack of universal pre-schooling is one of the reasons why we are being left behind by other countries in terms of basic education.”
She pointed out that children in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand enjoy four years of preschooling, while those in the United States and the United Kingdom have two to three years of early childhood education.
Bill limiting the school-bag size and weight filed in Philippine Congress
MANILA—A bill seeking to protect young students from the dangers of carrying overweight bags has been filed in the Philippine Congress.
Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin has filed the bill to limit the size and weight of textbooks school children have to carry and to disseminate information on the health hazards of carrying heavy schoolbags.
He said that a bag that weighs more than 15 percent of a child’s body is to be considered overweight. “Health is the priority for children; education is nil if the frail bodies of children are compromised,” he said in a statement.
Company acquires Iloilo university to boost education in Western Visayas
ILOILO CITY (PNA)—A multimillion venture of the Philippine Investment Management, Inc (PHINMA) to Iloilo City is expected to boost this city’s position as the educational center of the Western Visayas.
Phinma recently acquired the University of Iloilo (UI), one of the oldest educational institutions here that was formerly owned by the family of the late Vice President Fernando H. Lopez. The university offers basic elementary education, secondary, tertiary and post-graduate courses including Bachelor of Laws, among others.
“We have always been attracted to Iloilo because the place has a very healthy and vibrant economy [that is] considered one of the stronger economies in this part of the county,” Ramon R. del Rosario Jr., Phinma president ad chief executive officer (CEO). said.
Korean school invests P100M in a Philippine e-learning unit
One of the leading English schools in South Korea has established a subsidiary in the Philippines to teach English using breakthrough technology.
The school, Avalon English+, has put up Ubiquitous English Network of Avalon International Inc. (U-Enai), an IT-based e-learning education company that now serves some 50,000 students, mostly based in South Korea.
“This will help us to pursue our vision of becoming the leading company in providing home school education to native English speakers as well as English as a Second Language (ESL) to nonnative English speakers through breakthrough E-Learning programs using state-of-art systems,” U-Enai chief executive officer Richard Hong said.
Japan:
Japan second lowest among 28 OECD nations in education spending
TOKYO—Japan had the second-smallest expenditure on education in 2006 among the 28 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of the ratio of such state spending to gross domestic product, the OECD announced Tuesday.
The nation's ratio continued to hover at a low level, 3.3 percent, which has not changed much since 1992, while the survey also showed that spending by Japanese households with kindergarteners or college students is much larger than other countries.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology tried to stipulate a goal of raising the ratio of state and local government spending on education to 5 percent of GDP in its basic education promotion plan last year, but it was not successful due to strong opposition from the Ministry of Finance.
United Kingdom:
More music lessons seen to improve memory, intelligence, and behaviour
Learning a musical instrument at school improves children's behaviour, memory and intelligence, a government-commissioned study has found, as ministers launch the first National Year of Music.
Professor Susan Hallam, of the Institute of Education, University of London, analysed scores of researchers' studies on the benefits of music to children.
She found researchers had discovered that learning to play an instrument enlarges the left side of the brain. This leads musically-trained pupils to remember almost a fifth more information.
Hallam's research review was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of a drive to persuade more children in England to play a musical instrument.
United States:
In the United States, some students buy—not try—to excel at school
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama may have hammered home a message of noses-to-the-grindstone as the secret to success at school in his speech to US students this week, but some American youngsters prefer buying their homework to doing it.
A Google search for "buy term paper" turned up 183 million sites, some of which, such as acceptedpapers.com, offer to write students' papers for them when they are "unable to be creative for an essay" or would "rather enjoy a night out than write a book report at the library."
Another service, perfecttermpapers.com, offers hard-pressed students "non-plagiarized research papers and term papers within your deadline... written by qualified American writers" for prices starting at around eight dollars.
The dozen "paper mill" websites visited by AFP provide samples that would-be clients can consult online to verify the high quality of work that will be produced, in the student's name, by the essay-writing services.
