THIS assembly is intended to solidify the various organizations of the education department and not for any organizations that continuously lambaste the administration, for them since time immemorial advocating and embracing the communist-socialist principles is life. It is time for us to listen and talk with our internal organizations — these are the words of the Department of Education Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua in the recently concluded Education Congress in Manila.
On the dark side of another room, however, is the “in vino veritas” congress of men who were so determined to digest what really is transpiring in the country’s biggest bureaucracy. And after several bottles, they decided to conclude the night with happy ending moments. So they asked the hotel’s professional pimp to deliver the most delicious food cooked by the gods. The pimp emphasized on the client to read the menus well. In the morning, the bills were issued. Lawyer Wayne received P1,000, but since last night’s service is unforgettable he gave an additional P500 as a tip.
Lawyer Ren received P3,500, but he argued for the removal of the P500 as a discount. Ren and Wayne fell down laughing at lawyer Ali, the most senior of them when he was billed P5,000, knowing too well that the goddess stayed at the old man’s room in merely less than a minute. Not to be badly off, the senior went to the manager and complained about the unfair billing. The managers ask lawyer Ali if he read the menus of which it was boldly written: Measure your bird, we charged one thousand per inch. Rolling in the aisles, the senior lawyer went back teasing at the two.
And going back to Pascua, the official confidently informs everybody to work persistently for the department. They will do their best to improve on the facilities starting with the removal of all computer laboratories in public schools especially the desktop kind. All computers will be transferred in the classroom plus internet connectivity controlled by Android phones or tablets.
In this way, the teacher can readily access information and pass it on to the learners. But we cannot have this kind of learning environment, in the absence of strong internal associations who do not wish to air their concern rightly with the management but chooses to shout it out in the streets. “Some of you do have photo ops with officials with your faces all smiling, but when you turn your back, you are now starting to attack the things we discuss well, in social media.” These were just some of his words.
But a participant from Manila stood up and said, “I do appreciate the ironing of issues in the table but how can we do this, if a principal forwards her best to prevent us from attending this kind of gathering, then there is no choice but to bring this concern in the streets.” More for this story will be written later.
Shooting at the title, if the ambitious project of putting the internet in every public school classroom materializes, the “Baguio in my pocket” will find its light at the end of the tunnel.
Learners will start to appreciate the unlimited idea of using Android phones for learning purposes and not only social media and games. The best application of it follows when these learners will begin transacting business in offices like those in the local government.