Midweek this week, many plans and activities, public and personal, were put on hold with Typhoon Glenda ravaging provinces adjacent to Manila all the way down to the Bicol peninsula, western Visayas and northern Cebu. With most Cebu City classes suspended until Wednesday, let me take time for now to consider some educational concerns.
The Basic Education Department of the University of San Carlos has forged a memorandum of agreement with two leading vocational institutions to collaborate in the development of programs for senior high school.
This concern for vocational training was also the concern of our monthly “Women’s Kapihan” last Saturday afternoon at radio station dyLA. Invited guest was Jose Marmol, gender and development focal person of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) of the Cebu Provincial Office, with Cebu Women’s Network (CWN) officers, board and regular members as panelists and this Bystander as host. The subject was “Training for Work Scholarship Programs of the Tesda.” The program is intended for workers who wish to undergo a funded technical-vocational training.
Tesda also provides Private Education Student Financial Assistance scholarship and student assistance programs for private school students. Also offered is a Special Training for Employment Program to assist graduates in finding jobs after finishing training and receiving certificates.
Applications for these programs should be through the respective training vocation institutions in the municipalities. Applicants should be 18 years old, fit for employment, and graduates of high school or alternative learning system. Almost 300 courses are available in traditional and non-traditional courses, aimed mainly for the largely marginalized sector, those in the recently devastated sectors in Cebu, those who hope for employment in business enterprises, and even those who eventually hope to venture into entrepreneurship.
Tesda also has an effective Convergence Training Program for Yolanda victims in northern Cebu, in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment as well as the International Labor Organization providing the government with funds for capacity-building in Bogo City and Medellin town, among others.
For inquiries, visit the Tesda office at Archbishop Reyes Avenue in Lahug near the Waterfront hotel, or call Telephone Numbers 412-7157 and 234-2901.
And now, for more significant dates and events in this month of July. July 7th : The 10th birth anniversary of Filipino patriot Isabelo delos Reyes. And the passing away this year shortly before his 86th birthday tomorrow, of Aureo Alonso, “Prime of Philippine haute couture”, eminent veteran fashion designer, whose career spanned over 50 years. July 8th: The 65th anniversary of Cebu’s University of Southern Philippines-Foundation, now busy preparing for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations integration in 2015. July 10th: World Population Day.
July 13 to 19th: Accountancy Week nationwide. July 14th: French commemoration of French Bastille Day. In connection, congratulations to recently having been conferred the title of knight, Consul Michel Lhuillier.
This 3rd week of July, Children’s Book Day commemorates the anniversary of the publication of Jose Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle” in London. This year, a Book Festival with book fair and story-telling was held at SM- City Cebu on July 8th to 15th in celebration of the 31st National Children’s Book Day with the theme, “Pumitas ng Aklat. Buklatin. Basahin.” Story-telling sessions, we are told, are the first step in reviving love for reading, sorely needed amid today’s generation’s penchant for cell phones and high tech gadgets. In this connection, “Story Time at the Library” will be held on July 26th at the Cebu City Public Library.
From Mariella Medina of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, we learn that July 15th is the 9th death anniversary of National Artist for Dance Leonor Orosa-Goquinco, known as the Mother of Philippine Dance, and Dean of Filipino Performing Arts Critics. Born on July 24, 1917, Orosa was a pioneer Filipino choreographer in balletic folklore and Asian styles. She was a founding member of the Philippine Ballet Theater. She was conferred the title of National Artist in 1976, and died in 2005 at the age of 87.
July 16th: The Feast Day of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patroness of the nuns in the Carmelite Monastery in Mabolo, Cebu City. On this day in 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, superior of the Carmelites in Cambridge, England. She gave him the scapular with the promise that those who wear it would receive special protection.
July 17th to 20th: National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week.
Then as I wound up this Bystander-ing yesterday morning, local press reported that classes in the entire Cebu province resumed yesterday with weather conditions having calmed down. Thank God.
More in next week’s Bystander-ing. Until then, as always, may God continue to bless us, one and all!
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