By BEVERLY PAOYON
ALABEL, Sarangani (July 20, 2011) – Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia launched in Sarangani on Tuesday (July 19) its series of books distribution to selected provinces and cities in Southern Philippines. In Sarangani, 7,500 brand new books were given to 149 public schools.
Books for Asia is a program of Asia Foundation which regularly distributes books and other reading materials to all educational levels to 18 countries in Asia since 1954.
With 13 million books and journals already distributed to public and private institutions in the Philippines, country representative Steven Rood said Books for Asia is optimistic this would facilitate “quality education as a foundation for economic progress.”
Specifically he hoped this to bring positive results towards improving education in Sarangani as “a driving force for ethics and progress.”
Governor Migs Dominguez said he is “grateful for the books as gifts of Asia Foundation to Sarangani children. We value this investment for it gives more knowledge to our students as well as to our teachers.”
He said after five years of promoting intervention and collaborating with the Department of Education (DepEd), parents and school heads, a study showed that there is already improvement in education participation and completion rates in Sarangani.
The governor said hindrance in education is mainly caused by “poverty” but local government units (LGU) should instead “continuously strive to look for new ideas and innovations in trying to provide assistance to upland dwellers to be able to send their children to school and keep them in school.”
The biggest challenge that LGUs should address into, he said, is that “as long as there is a single child who is not going to school, public servants should not stop in the quest to provide quality education for Sarangani.”
Schools division superintendent Allan Farnazo said society must take extra effort to educate a child as the only way to have good leadership. “We have to begin building the future today,” Farnazo said.
Quest program manager Ann Edday said the donation of new educational materials to public elementary and secondary schools and colleges “serves as a continuing commitment to promote education and literacy in Mindanao.”
Edday said according to Books for Asia director Efren Balajadia, “the foundation’s activities will continue throughout the Philippines, especially in Mindanao to reach all communities in the country to bring the books – even to the remotest schools.”
The provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and the cities of General Santos and Tacurong will be next in the series for distribution. The donations made by Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia’s program were distributed thru the foundation’s Transparent Accountable Governance project, with support from the United States Agency for International Development.
Four of the seven municipalities of Sarangani received the books where each elementary school got a minimum of 50 reference book materials and 40 for each secondary school. Host provinces, municipalities and cities; and partner non-government organizations of Asia Foundation were also given boxes of reference materials. (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)
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