TEN public elementary and secondary schools in Cebu were recognized and given grants by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) for their outstanding accomplishments, projects, best practices and improvements during the last school year.
The 10 public schools were given recognition by Rafi during the culminating activity of its Seal of Excellence in Education Development (Seed) Grants Expo 2022 held at the Summit Galleria in Cebu City on Friday, July 22.
The grant, initiated by Rafi’s Education Development Unit (Edu), was given to support schools in promoting education development in their respective communities through knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and cross-learning.
Awardees
Among the presenters was Pit-os Elementary School of Carcar City, southern Cebu 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 aims 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.
Aside from Pit-os Elementary School, other winners in the elementary level are the following: (Second) Bogo Central School 2, Bogo City (Implementing of Digital-Learning Facilities and Services Project) with a P1 million grant; (Third) Sinsin Elementary School, Cebu City (Tambayayong Program) with a P500,000 grant; (Fourth) Carmen Elementary School, Toledo City (Dare to Dear Program) with a P200,000 grant; and (Fifth) Cordova Central School, Cordova (Creative Articulation and Reading Enhancement Center) with a P200,000 grant.
For the secondary category, Compostela National High School of Compostela in northern Cebu received a P1.5 million grant for being the top performing school last year.
The grant was used to implement the school’s Project Raise (Resources and Instruction Sustaining Education), which aimed to minimize the number of non-readers from 112 to 80 students by 2022.
Aside from Compostela National High School, other schools that were recognized by Rafi in the secondary level are the following: (Second) Don Andres Soriano National High School, Toledo City (Research Study Center) with a P1 million grant; (Third) Liburon National High School, City of Naga (Project 5 Ps) with a P500,000 grant; (Fourth) Uling National High School, City of Naga (Reading Enthusiast towards Achieving Dreams) with P200,000 grant; and (Fifth) Binabag National High School, Bogo City (Digitized Classroom Instruction) with P200,000 grant.
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.
Continued support
In her opening remarks, Amaya Aboitiz-Fansler, Rafi president and chief executive officer, expressed her gratitude to everyone involved in the program.
“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.
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.