RAFI, Carcar hold school governance workshop

By Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.
January 18, 2013

CEBU CITY – The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), in partnership with the Synergeia Foundation Inc., conducted a workshop, dubbed “EQUIP-CEBU (Educational Quality Improvement through Community Empowerment and Capacity Building) LEAD (Local Education Agenda Development) Workshop for Carcar City,” late last year at Diamond Suites Hotel and Residences, Cebu City.

The education planning workshop aims to build a collaborative relationship with the Carcar City and develop strategic goals to address the education needs of Carcar City.

The activity was participated by the Project Management Team, local government officials, school heads and teachers from private and public schools of Carcar City, and representatives from other sectors.

Through team building activities conducted by RAFI's Kool Adventure Camp (KAC), the 30 participants saw the importance of collaboration and planning to address education concerns in the city level and succeed in their efforts to improve the quality of education.

Carcar City Division Superintendent Dr. Gregorio Cyrus Elejorde presented on the second day of the workshop the current state of education of the city. Education gaps in Carcar City such as inadequacy in the number of teachers for elementary and secondary schools and supply of school furniture and equipment, deficiency of textbooks, among others, were discussed.

“There may be a lot of problems as far as education is concerned but we should not let DepEd solve everything. DepEd cannot do it alone. That is why, as teachers, we also need to do our part,” Elejorde, said, referring to the lack of textbooks among elementary and secondary schools.

“If there is a lack of new books for our students, then, we can make use of old books. As teachers, we must be creative enough to find solutions even to simple problems,” Elejorde, added.

Carcar City Mayor Nicepuro Apura also graced the activity and expressed his support for the project.

“I believe that education is the most powerful weapon in our fight against ignorance and poverty. The greatest gift that this administration can give to its constituents is access to good quality education,” Apura, said.

On the third day, initial steps to be done as well as the desired outputs for Carcar City in terms of education were defined.

EQUIP-CEBU is one of the projects under RAFI’s Education focus area, believing that shaping the next generation of talent begins with nurturing the love for learning. Other focus areas of RAFI are Integrated Development, Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Culture & Heritage, and Leadership & Citizenship.