QC to model education system from Singapore
Published Sep 20, 2018 10:07 am
By Chito Chavez
Quezon City wants to use Singapore as the model for its educational system, citing the country’s ASEAN neighbor of generally having one of the most elite students in the world.
Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte (Mark Balmores)
Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte said the move is geared at improving the city’s global competitiveness of its students as the locality has further collaborated with Singapore and other countries in the Southeast Asian region with high standards of education.
“The Singaporean government has been very supportive of Quezon City and other cities as well with regard to education,” Belmonte said.
Early this month, Quezon City hosted the 1stInternational Education Summit.
Belmonte has highlighted the country’s investments on education as a benchmark, stressing “Singapore invested tremendous amounts of capital on the education of their children to the point that they have reached the stage where the children of Singapore are considered one of the highest educated in the whole world.”
Belmonte maintained that Quezon City could learn from Singapore’s willingness to experiment with educational methods.
“Whenever there is a new pedagogy, new teaching style, there is an assessment that goes on. They consistently check whether these styles are appropriate or helpful and they are open to changing their modules of teaching,” she added.
The vice mayor added that the country also chooses the “best teachers” by hiring from among top graduates and giving high salaries.
Belmonte has looked forward to continuing to partner with Singapore and other countries as the city had already collaborated with the nation-state through Singapore’s Temasek Foundation, the Center for Livable Cities, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
With about 1.9 million students enrolled in the city, Quezon City has the largest school-age population in the country.
For this reason, Belmonte has referred to education as one of her top priorities to bring inclusive development to the people.
Only last year, the Office of the Vice Mayor donated computer sets to five schools for its computer literacy program and provided books and also computers to the Novaliches Public Library and in six other public elementary schools in Quezon City.
Aside from school supplies, Belmonte also distributed oral hygiene kits to 1,800 schoolchildren, 460 umbrellas to school-age children in District 3 and graduation leis to 69,811 students. In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education, Belmonte also gave special study grants to 1,066 beneficiaries.
She also implemented the “Gabay Guro” Program for 250 teachers to enhance their English proficiency and computer literacy; and special education training for daycare workers, with 50 participants trained on early detection and intervention approaches in teaching children with special needs.
Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte (Mark Balmores)
Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte said the move is geared at improving the city’s global competitiveness of its students as the locality has further collaborated with Singapore and other countries in the Southeast Asian region with high standards of education.
“The Singaporean government has been very supportive of Quezon City and other cities as well with regard to education,” Belmonte said.
Early this month, Quezon City hosted the 1stInternational Education Summit.
Belmonte has highlighted the country’s investments on education as a benchmark, stressing “Singapore invested tremendous amounts of capital on the education of their children to the point that they have reached the stage where the children of Singapore are considered one of the highest educated in the whole world.”
Belmonte maintained that Quezon City could learn from Singapore’s willingness to experiment with educational methods.
“Whenever there is a new pedagogy, new teaching style, there is an assessment that goes on. They consistently check whether these styles are appropriate or helpful and they are open to changing their modules of teaching,” she added.
The vice mayor added that the country also chooses the “best teachers” by hiring from among top graduates and giving high salaries.
Belmonte has looked forward to continuing to partner with Singapore and other countries as the city had already collaborated with the nation-state through Singapore’s Temasek Foundation, the Center for Livable Cities, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
With about 1.9 million students enrolled in the city, Quezon City has the largest school-age population in the country.
For this reason, Belmonte has referred to education as one of her top priorities to bring inclusive development to the people.
Only last year, the Office of the Vice Mayor donated computer sets to five schools for its computer literacy program and provided books and also computers to the Novaliches Public Library and in six other public elementary schools in Quezon City.
Aside from school supplies, Belmonte also distributed oral hygiene kits to 1,800 schoolchildren, 460 umbrellas to school-age children in District 3 and graduation leis to 69,811 students. In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education, Belmonte also gave special study grants to 1,066 beneficiaries.
She also implemented the “Gabay Guro” Program for 250 teachers to enhance their English proficiency and computer literacy; and special education training for daycare workers, with 50 participants trained on early detection and intervention approaches in teaching children with special needs.