Friday, May 18, 2007 Firm gives P5M to help students
AROUND 6,600 teachers and students will benefit from the Promoting English Proficiency (PEP) intiative of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Makati Business Club through the P5 million grant from Philamlife.
Philamlife has chosen Cebu Normal University (CNU) as one of the six beneficiary schools in the country.
The teachers and students will get computer-aided English language instruction.
The partnership of Philamlife, AmCham and Interactive Language Solutions (ILS) and CNU was formalized recently.
“We think that this is a good opportunity for Philamlife and our mother company AIG to contribute to the long-term development of the Philippines.
By equipping current and future teachers with better English skills, they become more effective mentors to their students,” Philamlife president and chief exeuctive officer Jose Cuisia Jr. said.
Many surveys have shown that the Philippines’ biggest competitive advantage in the global market is its large English-speaking and readily trainable workforce.
Decline
Sadly, in recent years, English proficiency has declined due to poor English instruction in schools, Philamlife said in a statement.
The Philamlife-PEP program addresses the problem by providing supplementary English training to in-service and future teachers and other students.
The project involves the installation of DynEd software in existing computer laboratories to establish Computerized English Language Centers in six schools nationwide.
Developed by California-based DynEd International, the courseware is a leading multimedia software used for English language training globally.
Philamlife’s grant is the largest donation to the PEP program since it was launched in 2003.
The project is in line with Philamlife’s aim of providing support to meaninful education programs.
In 2006, the company teamed up with the Department of Education for a project to introduce insurance awareness courses in public elementary schools.
