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January 3, 2014
North Samar DepEd OIC Supt. Eco delivers State of Division Address BY: AILENE N. DIAZ
Y
ear ending 2013, the DepEd Division of Northern Samar Superintendent Cristito Eco delivered the State of Division Address during the Stakeholders Summit held recently at Bulwagan Ng Mga Guro, Division Office, Catarman, Northern Samar. Supt. Eco presented to the body the direction of DepEd anchored on its mission which is to protect and promote the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education where students learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe and motivating environment and for the teachers to facilitate learning and constantly nurture every learner. Incorporated in its mission are administrators and staff, as steward of the institution, to ensure an enabling and supportive environment for effective learning to happen. Active engagement and share responsibility is anchored on the family, community and other stakeholders as well, for developing life-long learners. Eco informed that the DepEd Division of Northern Samar has 522 public elementary schools with 77 public secondary schools. 14, 946 enrolment in kindergarten, 4,053 enrolment in ALS/SPED and 46,392 enrolment in secondary for school year 2013-2014. Personnel strength includes 3,424 elementary teachers, 1,291
secondary teachers and 628 nonteaching staff. Guided by its mission and enthused by acclaimed values which is transparency, integrity, trust and outstanding performance, the Division was able to hire additional 631 teachers, construct 76 classrooms, construct WATSAN facilities to 35 schools, repair 66 classrooms, procure 7,219 armchairs, deliver 63,621 textbooks, deliver 2,022 teachers, deliver ICT package to 26 schools and install Internet to 67 schools. Rising above the gaps and challenges pose in the sector of education, Eco stressed the importance of the support of the stakeholders, thus, the holding of Stakeholder’s Summit to strengthen its engagement to various sector. (PIA8-Northern Samar)
PHL hosts 7th Asia Pacific Confab on reproductive, sexual health and rights
T
he Philippine NGO Council on Population Health and Welfare (PNGOC ), a national net wor k of 97 NGOs ac tively involved in
promoting reproduc tive health care, is the lead convenor and host of the 7th Asia Pacific Conference on R eproduc tive and S exual Health and R ights (APCRSHR) to be held at Philippine I nter national Convention Center on Januar y 2124, 2014. The recent passage of the R esponsible Parenthood and R eproduc tive Health Law through the staunch suppor t of President B enigno Aquino III has inspired the organizers to showcase this landmar k legislation af ter the struggle of more than 14 years, the APCRSHR secretar iat said in a communication sent to PIA. The objec tive of the APCRSHR is to provide a pro ac tive venue for exchange of exper iences among Asia Pacific countr ies on good prac tices to achieve the objec tives of the I nter national Conference on Population and D evelopment (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 where the ter m a nd concept of “R eproduc tive Health” was introduced and operationalized. The conference moreover, aims to infor m delegates on the progress of the Health MDG in Asia Pacific. S ome 3,000 delegates from var ious countr ies in the region representing the CSOs, academe, inter faith groups, youth, donors and p rogram staff are expec ted to attend. The registration rate of Php12,000.00 per par ticipant will cover admission to the conference, conference publications, field visit (on a first come, first ser ve basis), welcome reception, and conference tea breaks and lunches. For registration infor mation and details, visit the official conference website at w w w.7apcrshr manila.org. (PIA 8)