Nearly 400 school owners, officials and teachers gathered in two legs of conference, “Mastering the Art of School Leadership,” held at the Diamond Hotel, Manila and the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu last May 15 and 22.
The conference, which was organized by Kumon Philippines and endorsed by the Department of Education (DepEd), aimed to initiate discussions about various changes, developments and issues affecting the Philippine educational system. It featured a keynote presentation by Philippine Marketing Association President Henry Tenedero, followed by a sit-down discussion where he answered questions from the participants.
In his discourse, Tenedero debunked prevailing fallacies about education and learning, and gave timely guidelines on how schools can maximize the social media for marketing.
“Schools should be sustainable for them to be able to break down the walls of ignorance, myth and complacency, and in their place help build bridges of new knowledge, new structures, new processes, new ways of thinking, doing and being,” the speaker highlighted.
Meantime, Masanori Tsuji, president of Kumon Philippines, described the mission of education as so humble yet far-reaching, and logically as infinite as the possibilities of the students.
He emphasized Kumon’s belief in the unlimited potentials of each child, quoting DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro as saying, “Teachers teach all they can, mightily, devotedly, grooming many students to successes which the teachers themselves will not reach in their lifetimes. And when their former students have carved out spectacular names for themselves in the world, these same teachers just sit quietly and applaud at the sidelines, genuinely happy about the achievements of their mentees, many of whom had seemed like hopeless human beings when they were in school.”
“Together let us all work – schools, teachers, and Kumon – in bringing the best out of each Filipino child, and bringing the Philippines closer to the long-dreamed peace and prosperity,” Tsuji said.
TV personality Ramon Bautista and former child star Chuckie Dreyfus hosted the Manila and Cebu events, respectively.