On its pursuit to provide holistic education for its learners through different learning disciplines, the Marie Ernestine School (MESch) recently integrated chess education to its curriculum, making them the first school in Visayas to offer the said program.
MESch is in partnership with Cebu Chess Masters (CCM) and Cebu School of Chess (CCS) in ensuring the success of the new program. CCM will take charge in handling MESch’s Talamban campus while CCS will handle the school’s Canjulao, Lapu-lapu campus.
On an interview, MESch founder Marie Ernestine Fajatin, Ph.D mentioned the essence of chess education in shaping up an individual’s critical thinking skills. “Chess is not only a sport that anybody can enjoy playing but it is also an educational tool widely used around the world. It develops a person’s creativity, decision-making, analytical skills, good values, and it teaches a person the ability to solve conflicts.”
Just this school year, MESch has started offering the program to a total of 321 students in Grades 3 to 10. Chess masters affiliated with CCM and CCS Merben Roque, Michael Pagaran, Therese Dela Torre, Carlos Moreno and Marvin Ruelan will help MESch in training their students to become future Chess masters. They will also groom potential students who will represent Cebu to national and international Chess tournaments in the future. “Chess teaches us lessons that we can also apply in real life situations. With Chess education, we are grooming our students to become sensible decision-makers and professionals in the future,” Dr. Fajatin said.
MESch is on the lookout for new learning approaches for its students now that the Philippine educational system is transitioning to the K+12 curriculum. Recently, it had launched its Robotics curriculum and sought synergy with Informatics and FELTA Multimedia. Inc. to make it possible.
