A Dagitab newsletter for the

2nd Education Summit

2nd Edition

2019

City of Naga

CITY OF NAGA– DepEd Naga holds its 2nd Education Summit on

29th of August 2019 at the Enan Chiong Activity Center (ECAC)

with the theme Nurturing, Unity and Resilience through Unified

Responsibility in Education for Excellence (NURTURE for

EXCELLENCE), as part of the City’s 12th Charter Day Celebration.

The celebration is attended by teachers from elementary and secondary

levels both public and private schools, Brgy. Officials, PTA Officials, SSG officers

and parents as well as LGU Officials.

The activity was formally opened by the Assistant Schools Division

Superintendent Dr. Lorenzo Dizon with his 212-degree philosophy. He shared this

212 degrees with more than two hundred participants encouraging them to go

beyond their limits of thinking skills. To strive for themselves on learning and to

remain on heat on their goals in which giving up is never a choice. He ended his

speech with a statement, “Together, we can turn on the heat to get what we’ve

never had, WE MUST DO WHAT WE’VE NEVER DONE.”

This was supported by the keynote speaker, OIC-Regional Director, Dr.

Salustiano Jimenez highlighting BUILD–Bridge, Unify, Innovate, Listen, and Devote.

These principles were emphasized in his speech to motivate the guests in building

themselves for excellence. According to him, building

relationships is essential because we are all

educational partners. When people grow together as

partners we can achieve excellence in education. He

also emphasized that above all, people need to

build relationship to God, the society and loved

ones. Excellent education in the nation creates

great people.

The State of the Education Address followed and conducted by the Acting

City Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong. She provided numerous educational

programs, initiatives and facilities of assistance aligned with the Education

Development Agenda of the City Government. She ensured the education sector

that education remains the top priority of Mayor Valdemar "Val" Chiong’s current

administration.

The office of the Department of Education in the City of Naga considers the

need for re-engineering the educational curriculum to keep pace with the ever-

changing technology and align it with the needs of today's learners. With these

goals, Schools Division Supt. Gregorio Cyrus R. Elejorde highlighted the strengths

and weaknesses of schools and tasked them to develop strategies to remain

applicable to the future of children in his state of education address.

Mary Joy A. Noquiao

PRIORITY. Acting mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong assured the City of Naga DepEd that education remains a top priority of her father ’s current administration.

Vol. 1

Issue 1

OIC-RD SALUSTIANO JIMENEZ AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR THE EDUCATIONAL SUMMIT

SDS Gregorio Cyrus Elejorde marked

the education summit with a challenge

to the department to improve the

National Achievement Test results in

the next school year.

SDS Elejorde presented the

2018 NAT performance of the City of

Naga in terms of Access, Quality,

Relevance and Governance together

with the school’s divisions plans and

achievements from the last and current

school years.

He noted how much the City of

Naga Division needs to be at par with

the other schools divisions and regions

in terms of NAT . He further noted that

achieving higher NAT mean percentage

scores (MPS) requires the unified

responsibility of the DepEd Naga

school administrators, teachers,

students, parents and stakeholders.

A breakout session followed after

the talkshow as hosted by Reeman

Clyde Mañacap of the HR department.

The session discussed the

matters on how to improve the NAT

MPS through the construction of action

plans. The guide question of the activity

was, “Within your control as _______,

what contribution could your make to

effect change in the pursuit of quality

education?”

Action plans from various groups

were reported and each gave out their

general and specific suggestions on

how to improve the performance of

Naga for the next NAT.

The activity was sealed with a

presentation of a same day edit video

presentation and salutations.

Ruben P. Altubar Jr.

A Dagitab newsletter for the 2nd Education

Summit

2nd Edition

2019

EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

“The main goal of education is to produce

responsible citizens.”, Dr. Laurence Garcia, Director of

Center for Research and Development in Cebu

Normal University.

Responsible citizenry requires not only the

knowledge and skillsets but also the values that

Filipinos should possess. The value of patriotism is

one of them. Filipinos need to understand that one of

the roots of social problems is the lack of patriotism.

We, as one nation, need to move with one goal. We

are seeking changes and developments yet we are

too divided. Diversity is not a problem because even if

every forest has varied creatures, their mere

existence roll as one, why couldn’t we?

If the country seeks to increase the human capital

from its citizens to its exponential extent, education

needs to be focused on developing the sense of being

responsible for the future of the country. The old

generation cannot always say that the future relies on

the youth because as long as they live, they could

always be the epitome of how the country should be,

as Filipinos deserve. The old generation could always

teach the youth that the old and new generation of

Filipinos could move as one in bringing the best for

this country.

The quality of education reflects how a country

gives importance to its citizens. The K to 12 is the

frontier of the Philippines. It is even a good news that

we are no longer the last three countries in the world

that does not adopt such curriculum. If the education

department could uphold the K to 12 goals, the

country would be grateful.

It is only a matter of commitment with which all

the members of the department and the stakeholders

could achieve the best for the country. It is every

citizen’s commitment, which is not to be loaded to the

youth who are meant to learn first from their elders.

MENTAL HEALTH

“If the cost of medications for heart ailments

cost a hefty amount, the cost of mental medicines is

way more expensive.” Dr. Pocholo Delos Santos,

program director of North General Hospital, Cebu.

Understanding mental health goes way beyond

the concept of insanity and nervous breakdowns. The

aforementioned have not even scratched the surface.

Mental health is not even just about depression

because its coverage also includes one’s sanity,

emotional resilience, and a plethora of concepts.

Too many people do not understand how

important it is to keep one’s self sane. For some,

depression is just a feeling which anyone could just

get over with. However, such is a great wrong notion.

Depression itself is incomprehensible to anyone who

experiences it, how much more of someone who

never had a fair background of it?

Moreover, with the passing of the Mental Health

bill, Dr. Delos Santos cited that, “Politics could

sometimes be a problem. Politicians tend to pass bills

without asking the right people.” For him, the bill is

not covering a wide coverage of the issues that are

truly existing in the Philippine society. However, he

also consoled that even so, the passing of the bill is

still a stepping stone in improving the psychological

welfare of the general public.

Stress in school for both teachers and students

has been always the topic in social media such as,

“Students are not robots,” and that, “Teachers have a

life too.” Yes, both of them may be right but as Dr.

Delos Santos said, “Do not do things that you cannot

all do at the same time.” Such statement explains the

reality of the phenomenon when students and

teachers do multitasking, believing that it would

fasten their tasks, but the truth is that it doesn’t

always happen. Multitasking could also slow down the

progress of one’s pace in working due to the fact that

humans could only focus on one thing at a time.

So how should someone relieve stress? The

doctor suggests only one thing: SIMPLIFY. Focusing on

one problem and resolving it before proceeding to

another is better than trying to solve all problems at

the same time, besides doing such is quite

impossible. Sometimes the only cause of the

complexity of life is only because of our thoughts,

beliefs and perceptions.

When asked if anyone could become an agent of

stress debriefing, he responded that there are no

specific qualifications as long as the person has been

trained.

It is way too dangerous if a victim of trauma or

depression be counselled by an untrained personnel.

Sensibly, to help someone deal with emotional and

mental conflicts needs proper staging and processes

because abrupt and/or faulty processes could even

be a cause of a more damaging experience. No one

wishes for that.

It is insensitive to regard mental health as a social

drama. Depression exists, nervous breakdowns could

happen, and even the worst outcome of mental

illnesses could end a precious life. In this era of ‘soft

generation,’ it is not enough to be sensitive; it is also

good to be sensible.

DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT

As the adage goes, “Oftentimes the victims of

disasters are those unprepared.” What is even worse,

according to Engr. Oscar Tabada, former PAGASA

director of Visayas, is that “Most educational

institutions would usually post disaster risk

management lessons but only ends on the walls, not

in real life.”

Climate change create crazy weathers, as Engr.

Tabada once stated. He even noted that climate

change is real. No wonder why typhoons are getting

crazier too. The changes in the climate oftentimes

create the most unexpected disasters. However, it is

worth noting that the aftermaths of typhoons should

not just be stored in news and history books. We need

to learn not just about what and how a typhoon

destroys the hard earned houses and even lives.

Typhoons are common in the country. Filipinos are

resilient, yes, but resilience does not necessarily

require deaths and damages for us to be called

‘resilient’. We may have indomitable spirits but we

may not always have durable shelters. We need more

of just being resilient, more than being prepared,

more than knowing to evacuate—we need to learn

how to build better knowledge of how to do better

when typhoons are coming, not when it is already

around—and never on the aftermath.

Whether knowing about storms, earthquake, or

fire, signage posts could always be around while drills

are also practiced. Signage posts and drills are

helpful, yes, but wouldn’t it be better to not only focus

on fire and earthquake drills? Why not also have

constant drills on first aid and other emergency

responses? Oftentimes when a learner faints, the first

response of the teachers and students is to carry the

victim to the guidance office or clinic, if there is any.

The victim usually wakes up disoriented and recovers

in time. However, for cases when a learner gets a

seizure, would it be right to put a spoon on the

victim’s mouth? Would it be effective to suck out the

venom of a snake bite? Is it advisable to wrap a tight

tourniquet on a sprained arm? No.

The aforementioned emergency responses would

only create more problems. Should anyone wish to

respond to any emergency but admits s/he does not

know how to do first aid, the very first and most

effective method of all is to call for help.

Oftentimes, victims of accidents are put into

worse conditions due to assumed knowledge of first

aid treatment. The rule of thumb in emergency

responses is that, “If you do not know how tp help,

call for it from someone who can.” It is like a case of

drowning, “If you cannot swim, do not salvage a

drowning person.” Emergency responses and first aid

treatments are meant to avoid casualties, not to

create and even double them.

The best place to learn all the most important

emergency responses is at school. In school we

should learn how to be responders, not as victims.

Ruben P. Altubar Jr.

Editor in Chief/Layout Artist/Photo journalist: Ruben P. Altubar Jr.

Correspondent: Mary Joy A. Noquiao

Consultants:

Gregorio Cyrus R. Elejorde, Ed.D., CESO V

Schools Division Superintendent

Lorenzo M. Dizon, Ed.D., CESE

Assitant Schools Division Superintendent

A Dagitab newsletter for the

2nd Education Summit

2nd Edition

2019

City of Naga

Vol. 1

Issue 1

Dr. Laurence Garcia Dr. Pocholo Delos Santos

Engr. Oscar

Tabada