Enabling educators to be communicators of change
By Venus L. Garcia
BUTUAN CITY, Oct. 23 (PIA) – The advent of modern
technologies or the information age brings about a progression in the
perspective of professional educators from being mostly inclined in curricular
areas, classroom management and academic subjects to becoming effective
communicators of change to empower communities.
During the Organizational Meeting and Regional
Leadership Forum of the Department of Education (DepEd) Caraga on October 19 at
the LMX Convention Center, Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Undersecretary
Harold Clavite thoroughly discusses different strategies on how to be an
effective communicator. Said event was attended by around 1,300 participants,
comprised of public elementary and secondary school heads, Schools Division
Superintendents, and Assistant Schools Division Superintendents.
Clavite said keeping themselves open to new
technological advancements such as appropriate use of social media, teachers
can improve their communication skills, and become excellent educators. This
would also allow them to communicate change better and help motivate others to
embrace affirmative transformations.
“Change is inevitable. Technologies change and
these have also affected the landscape of the way we want to convey change in a
wider reach, through utilization of available social media platforms. Filipinos
use these to communicate with friends and colleagues, share events, get news,
or discover something new. People are optimizing for more interactions and
reach,” said Clavite.
He added that what are being commonly posted by
netizens are 'transportive visuals.'
“This means posting of photos that tell stories and
making the readers feel they are in. This is where tagging of people and
relevant accounts start as another effective way of engaging the community.
What we post and share can inform, create opinion, influence action and affect
sentiment,” underscored Clavite.
Clavite further elaborated how these platforms
became favorable in disseminating information and in sharing of ideas of change
that the government wants to put into effect for the welfare of the people.
He also cited studies on how relevant social media
posts can help humanize relationships, inspire others, develop meaningful
stories and how it contributes to crowdsourcing of ideas.
The importance of digital communications was also
pointed out but he emphasized that people have to stay vigilant and be
responsible in sharing information, especially with the use of social media.
Meanwhile, Department of Education (DepEd) Caraga
Regional Director Beatriz Torno emphasized in her message that school
principals should be the source of inspiration to the teachers, students,
co-principals and to the community. "You live with inspiration so that you
will radiate inspiration among others. Working with inspiration produces better
outputs and a feeling of contentment as leaders and educators," Torno
said.
Torno also underlined that the educators are the
propellers of DepEd Caraga. “You are the region’s hands-on executives,
performing several responsibilities being a school principal and doing even
beyond the call of duty. You are truly an inspiration who deserved proper
recognition and appreciation, that’s why you are all gathered in this very
significant event,” added Torno as she sincerely addressed the participants.
According to Dr. Amelia Ronquillo, Public Schools
District Supervisors Association (PSDSA) President, communication is necessary
in all aspects of human lives, but learning the key points to become effective
communicators of change is equally indispensable.
“Students today find it easy to pick up new
electronic devices and learn how to make use of it at the best advantage. It is
important that we understand the mechanism for citizens’ involvement in
communicating change for sustained progress,” said Ronquillo.
Recounting some of the milestones of PIA, Clavite
shared the significance of social media in its advocacy campaigns. “The agency
has been tasked to lead the promotion of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in the country. There were already 109 ASEAN information kiosks
that were established nationwide with 111 multi-sectoral and youth fora
conducted. All these undertakings were hyped through the help of social media,”
said Clavite.
PIA is mandated to keep every Filipino to be
well-informed citizens and to make sure that proper information is given to
communities to make sound decisions.
He also reiterated the importance of technology in
communicating change to empower communities.
“If we communicate our message of change, we must
never forget communities. Do the effort to engage with them. May you all be
agents of change, and be communicators who will empower communities,”
encouraged Clavite. (VLG/PIA-Caraga)
Butuan, Surigao City Divisions champ in 1st
Regional Social Welfare inter-school quiz bowl
By Abegail R. Alvarez
BUTUAN CITY, Oct. 23 – Elementary and secondary
students from Butuan and Surigao City won in the first regional Social Welfare
and Development Learning-Network (SWD L-Net) inter-school quiz bowl competition
held at the Robinsons Place, this city.
The seven participating schools in the said
competition were all winners on the division level of the quiz bowl which
happened in August 2017.
Each school was represent by three students who
competed for easy, average and difficult rounds. The questions are based on
current events, SWD L-NET, law and issuances on the protection of children,
disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.
For the elementary category, Ong Yiu Central
Elementary School placed first with a score of 37, followed by Kiawan Elementary
School of Bayugan City with 28, and Tagbina Elementary School of Surigao del
Sur with 26 placing them at 2nd and 3rd spot respectively.
For the secondary category, Caraga Regional Science
High School of Surigao City got the first place. Butuan City School of Arts and
Trades got the 2nd place, and Claver National High School of Surigao del Norte
got the 3rd.
Both elementary and secondary students winners
received cash prizes of P5,000 for 1st place, P4,000 and P3,000 for 2nd and 3rd
place, respectively. They were also awarded with medals, certificates, and
trophies.
The quiz bowl, with the theme “Knowledge Sharing
through Caraga SWD L-NET,” was organized by the members of SWD L-NET, which is
chaired by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and
co-chaired by Habitat for Humanity. It aims to promote and popularize the SWD
L-NET and advocate the Regional Learning Commons (RLC), the 21st century
library of DSWD-Caraga.
The SWD L-NET was created through Administrative
Order 20, series of 2005. Its objective is to establish a self-regulating
learning network, where members and SWD constituencies can provide and avail of
quality capacity building programs. It also aims sustain the functionality and
viability of the learning network to ensure available, accessible and quality
capacity building programs to constituencies and clientele. (Social Marketing
Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga/PIA-Caraga)
SSS now releases UMID cards on time
SURIGAO CITY, Oct. 23 – Social Security System
(SSS) said members of the pension fund applying for the Unified Multi-Purpose
Identification (UMID) cards may now receive their cards within 30 working days
from their card application.
SSS President and Chief executive Officer Emmanuel
F. Dooc said the production of UMID cards is now back to its normal processing
time after it experienced delay from mid-February 2017 due to the stoppage of
operation of the Central Verification System (CVS) of the Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA). The CVS checks biometric uniqueness of member applicants,
which is required prior to the issuance of UMID cards.
“We would like to inform our members that the UMID
card processing time is now back to its normal processing time. Your UMID cards
will be delivered right into your doorsteps within 30 days, upon successful
data capture, via Philpost delivery,” Dooc said.
UMID cards are released for mailing within eight
days upon successful application and data capture of the member and will be
delivered via Philpost within two weeks for National Capital Region (NCR) and
four weeks for those with registered addresses outside NCR.
Dooc said the backlog in UMID card production was
wiped out on the last week of September 2017.
According to SSS ID Card Production Department,
almost one million UMID card applications were affected by the delay since
February 2017 when the machine overheated. As of end-September 2017, the SSS
has already released some 1 million UMID cards to its members.
To date, SSS has already released more than nine
million UMID cards.
The CVS stopped operation from mid-February to
mid-June 2017 due to the high temperature of the data center of Department of
Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
To date, the temperature in DICT remained stable
and compliant to the requirements of CVS.
The CVS was housed in DICT by PSA after it was
turned over by SSS in July 2015. (SSS/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
Tagalog News: Mga IPs sa Caraga region ibinahagi
ang kanilang natatamasang pagbabago sa implementasyon ng IPRA law
BUTUAN CITY, Okt. 23 (PIA) – Kasabay ng selebrasyon
ng ika-20 anibersaryo ng Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA) law base
sa Republic Act 8371, nagtipon-tipon kamakailan ang mga indigenous people (IPs)
mula sa ibat-ibang tribal community ng Caraga region at ibinahagi ang kanilang
mga natatamasang pagbabago at karanasan sa loob ng 20 taong implementasyon ng
IPRA law sa rehiyon.
Ayon kay Randy Catarman, ang Indigenous Peoples
Mandatory Representative (IPMR) ng Jabonga, Agusan del Norte, may malaking
tulong na naidulot sa kanilang mga IPs ang IPRA law. Nabigyan na umano sila ng
pansin ng gobyerno at ng lipunan. Nakakadalo at nakakapagbahagi na rin sila ng
kanilang mga hinaing sa mga mahahalagang pagtitipon ng gobyerno kasama ng ibang
sektor.
Dagdag pa ni Catarman, marami pa silang gustong
makita at maramdaman na magagandang dulot ng IPRA law sa IP community. Umaasa
rin syang maisasakatupan na ang IP-led Ancestral Domain Development Plan, na
nagsasaad ng kanilang mga plano na mas makakatugon sa kanilang pangangailangan
sa edukasyon, kalusugan, pangkapaligiran at iba pa.
Ibinahagi naman ni Marlon Plaza, ang IPMR ng
Talacogon, Agusan del Sur ang kanyang pakiusap sa gobyerno, na sana ay dagdagan
pa ang pondo ng National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) at gawin itong
isang departamento, para sa gayon ay mas matugunan at maisakatuparan pa ang mga
plano, programa at serbisyo para sa kanilang sektor.
Dagdag pa niya, malawak ang aspektong tinutugunan
ng NCIP para sa mga IPs kaya nararapat lamang na mabigyang suporta ang ahensya.
Ayon naman kay Atty. Jose Dumagan Jr, Regional
Director ng NCIP Caraga, ang IPRA law ay batas na kumikilala, nagtatanggol at,
nagtataguyod sa karapatan ng mga katutubong pamayanang kultural o katutubong
pamayanang Pilipino, nagbubuo ng pambansang komisyon para sa mga katutubo,
nagtatadhana ng kaukulang kaparaanan sa pagpapatupad at naglalaan ng gugugulin
para dito at sa iba pang layunin.
Binigyang diin rin ni Dumagan na sa pagpapatupad ng
IPRA law sa bansa, ipinapakita ng gobyerno na kinikilala nito ang karapatan ng
mga IPs na magkaroon ng ancestral domain titles. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)
