Monday, February 04, 2008 (Philippines)

An Oceanjet ferry arrives back in Cebu the day after it hit an anchored barge off Tagbilaran City Saturday night, while it was preparing to dock. The accident badly dented the ferry’s hull. (Sun.star photp/Allan Cuizon) FOUR public elementary schools in Cebu were counted among the 10 lowest-performing schools in English in the country for school year 2006-2007, based on test results for sixth-graders. The Department of Education (DepEd) recently directed all its offices and schools to align their priorities with a project that aims to “turn around a low performance in English.” This, after 1,898 elementary schools and 264 high schools in the country only achieved a mean percentage score (MPS) of 34 percent or below in English in the school year 2006-2007 National Achievement Test (NAT). [full story]