Thursday, December 06, 2007 Calderon takes pride of teachers’ IT literacy, bids goodbye to PB
OUTGOING Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation president Ramon Martin Calderon bid goodbye to his colleagues in the Cebu Provincial Board during its last regular session for the year last Tuesday.
Being the president of the SK Federation, Calderon sat as an ex-officio member of the PB since September 2002.
Today, each municipality will be choosing their respective SK Federation president and the Provincial Chapter will pick their president on Dec. 17.
The 22-year-old aspiring physician said he still does not know who will replace him as provincial federation president.
Calderon is now finishing his medicine course after he obtained his medical technology degree from Velez College and ranked sixth in the board exams in November last year.
Calderon, son of Samboan Mayor Raymond Calderon, said he will focus on his studies. He is expected to finish his course in 2010.
In his farewell speech, Calderon thanked his colleagues, former governor and now Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district) as well as Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for the support they have given him during his stint.
“I can truly say I have gained knowledge, maturity, responsibility and learned valuable lessons through my interactions with various sectors and the learned men and women of this August body,” he said.
Among the accomplishments of Calderon are the trainings the federation had initiated for youth development.
The federation had also conducted livelihood and technical vocational trainings in various municipalities that earned them the Tesda Regional Kabalikat Award.
Its “banner project,” which was the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Computer Literacy Training funded by Calderon’s Legislative Assistance Fund had trained over 200 teachers from different secondary and Department of Education (DepEd) Training Centers.
This project is one of the factors that placed the DepEd of Cebu Province in the Winners Circle of the Microsoft National Competition for ICT Initiatives. DepEd Cebu won P12 million in grants from Microsoft.
Calderon urged the officials to continue guiding and supporting the next generation of youth leaders.
He also told the critics who called for the abolition SK to help and guide them instead.
“To the critics who have clamored for the abolition of SK, we have proven you wrong. Through a paradigm shift in policy direction under my leadership, we have gone beyond the usual sports and beauty contests.... It is our turn to ask what initiatives you have undertaken to address the problems of the youth and show us examples that we can emulate,” he said. (MBG)
