RockEd in Sarangani: Educating through rock culture

MAITUM, Sarangani (May 6, 2013) - The presence of RockEd here on May 9 will help make the culmination night of Sarangani Big Brother “more memorable and more inspiring for Sarangani youth who tirelessly strive hard to make Mindanao a better place,” according to Anne Edday, project manager of Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST).

 

She said the RockEd concert at the Maitum Gym is a tribute to the thousands of SBB volunteers “living and serving the communities.”

 

“We have 22 guests from RockEd Philippines, Dong Abay and the Tanods who will have a concert on May 9 to reinforce our education advocacy and a tribute to the volunteers,” Edday said.

 

Whole day of May 9 is devoted to the culmination program and competitions (showtime, story-telling, painting, pop singing) and at night will be the Search for Mr. and Ms SBB, to be followed by the RockEd concert.

 

QUEST runs Sarangani Big Brother, a summer-volunteer program designed to assist the Department of Education in eliminating “frustration and instructional readers” among incoming Grades 2 and 3 with the help of teacher- and youth-volunteers.

 

Edday said Sarangani Big Brother is just one of the projects under the education-reform program known as QUEST which was recently recognized as one of the outstanding innovative governance programs in the Philippines by Galing Pook Foundation.

 

“Sarangani Big Brother which was conceptualized by Ms. Cecile Dominguez and her brother Governor Migs Dominguez has been running since 2008 and it has elicited the support of 5,059 teacher- and youth-volunteers who have helped 27,098 kids become better readers,” Edday said.

 

“This summer, we are very happy that more than 2,000 teachers and youth volunteered to help us make reading an inspiration. Every year, it's been our tradition to hold a Provincial Culmination to celebrate the gains of SBB,” Edday added. “We are expecting 3,000 participants for this event.”

 

RockEd is a volunteer group working to provide venues and events for alternative education. RockEd connects via music, the arts, poetry, sports, photography, fashion, graphic design, literature, new approaches to science, film, cultural studies, theatre, dance, and any other way except being in a classroom – The convenors of Rock Ed decided to Rock Society through Education and educate the youth through rock culture, according to its website. Rock Ed is an alternative class where the substitute teachers are celebrities, musicians, poets, artists, entrepreneurs, writers.

 

Therese "Gang" Badoy Capati, still often referred to by her maiden name, Gang Badoy, is best known for founding RockEd Philippines, an advocacy and alternative education group that continues to showcase social issues through music events featuring voluntary performing artists and rock bands, and its radio talk show, RockEd Radio on the now defunct NU 107. Rock Ed Radio returned to the airwaves since January 2012 over Jam 88.3.

 

In November 2010, Badoy was presented with an award by President Benigno Aquino III as one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) for that year. Badoy was also given the Ten Outstanding Young Men or TOYM Award making her the only Filipino to win both prestigious awards on the same year (2010). (SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE/Come and Enjoy Sarangani Bay Festival on May 24-25, 2013)