RAMON Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi), through its Education Development Unit (EDU), recognized on Friday, July 22, the 10 “outstanding” public elementary and secondary schools in Cebu as part of the culminating activity of its Seed Grants Expo 2022.
Representatives from the “outstanding schools” presented their recent accomplishments, projects, best practices, and improvements that were made possible through a grant from Rafi.
The grant was given to support the schools in promoting education development in their respective communities through knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and cross-learning.
In her opening remarks, Amaya Aboitiz-Fansler, Rafi president and CEO, expressed her gratitude to everyone involved in the program.
"So I just want everyone to be recognized and wish you all the very best as kids come back and there will be a lot of challenges along the way, but the feeling of seeing the kids back in the classroom, back in the school is amazing," Aboitiz-Fansler said.
"We in the Rafi and the education team are committed to supporting the education system, to continue in creating opportunities like these, where we come together and share ideas, where we continue to build partnerships and we aim to work with you to continue to strengthen the capacity of our schools. So you are all essential to this process and we will never succeed without you," Aboitiz-Fansler added.
Among the presenters Friday was Pit-os Elementary School of Carcar City, which received a P1.5-million grant for its Project Sug-ang (Surfeit Understanding on Good and Appropriate Nutrition on Graders) and Project United (Uplifting and Nurturing Individuals through Technological Empowerment and Development).
Project Sug-ang aimed to prevent malnourishment and undernourishment among its students for school year 2021-2022, while Project United’s goal was to increase digital literacy of Grades 3 to 6 pupils from 10 percent to 30 percent by June 2022.
"We want to make sure that the competencies that we will be teaching to our students are anchored to their level so that our students will be able to learn the desired competencies," Debie Satinitigan said in her video message.
Satinitigan was part of the teaching staff of Pit-os Elementary School that managed Project United.
For the secondary category, Compostela National High School of Compostela, Cebu received P1.5-million grant for being the top performing school last year.
The grant was used to implement its Project Raise (Resources and Instruction Sustaining Education), which aimed to minimize the number of non-readers from 112 to 80 students by 2022.
It was in May 2021 when Rafi awarded the grants to the 10 performing schools in Cebu under its Seal of Excellence in Education Development (Seed) Awards, an assessment program that used evidence-based scorecards to give out grants for education development.
The 10 performing public elementary and secondary schools are the following:
Elementary Category
1st Place: Pit-os Elementary School, Carcar City (Project Sug-ang and Project United) with P1.5-million grant
2nd Place: Bogo Central School 2, Bogo City (Implementing of Digital-Learning Facilities and Services Project), P1 million grant
3rd Place: Sinsin Elementary School, Cebu City (Tambayayong Program) with P500,000 grant
4th Place: Carmen Elementary School, Toledo City (Dare to Dear Program) with P200,000 grant
5th Place: Cordova Central School, Cordova (Creative Articulation and Reading Enhancement Center) with P200,000 grant
Secondary Category:
1st Place: Compostela National High School, Compostela (Project Raise) with P1.5-million grant
2nd Place: Don Andres Soriano National High School, Toledo City (Research Study Center) with P1-million grant
3rd Place: Liburon National High School, Naga City (Project 5 Ps) with P500,000 grant
4th Place: Uling National High School, Naga City (Reading Enthusiast towards Achieving Dreams) with P200,000 grant
5th Place: Binabag National High School, Bogo City (Digitalized Classroom Instruction) with P200,000 grant
The Rafi Seed Grants Expo is an annual data gathering, monitoring, evaluating, and awards event that aims to increase the number of high performing public schools in the region by engaging, mobilizing, and capacitating school communities and at the same time promoting best practices by featuring local initiatives. (EHP)