Children need to learn how to read instead of relying too much on the internet. This was the statement of Irene Camua, head librarian of Quezon City District III library as she appealed to teachers to bring their students to a real library and learn to do proper research.

On the district’s first education summit held at the Quezon City Hall on Dec. 6 in partnership with Synergeia Foundation and UNICEF, Camua lamented that students no longer put any effort in doing their assignments and instead  resort to the ‘cut and paste’ method wherein they extract prepared studies from internet sources like Wikipedia.org. They don’t even bother to edit or cross-reference materials and just submit the text with its online formatting intact.

“Students will improve through reading and writing,” Camua said explaining that these skills cannot be honed if the students keep on resorting to Google or Yahoo to do information search for them. She said that with support from the local government, the local library has been upgraded to cater to the students’ needs. They only need to go there to take advantage of the available resources. “Magaganda po ang collection namin,” she said as she invited everyone to visit the library.

Apart from infrastructure, Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes said during the summit that the city has enough funds to support educational programs to make Quezon City kids at par with world standards.   “It is not enough to just build schools. It is also important to provide good teachers and a good curriculum. That is why partnering with groups like Synergeia is a very welcome move for us,” Reyes said.

Department of Education District Supervisor Jun Lever Sipagan joined in the call for unity saying that DepEd needs the partnership of the community and the schools for the benefit of QC District 3 children.

A series of education summits have been making its rounds in all Quezon City districts through the initiative of its district. The summit in District III was facilitated by a team from Synergeia Foundation headed  University of Asia & Pacific Dean and Synergeia trustee Dr. Antonio “Tonton” Torralba.

On the days that Secretary’s plane perished, we were feverishly beating the deadline to submit a grant proposal for a USAID competition on education governance. But it became a futile exercise because we were crying and praying, and crying and praying.’ And then, it dawned on us that we only had to write about his life and his work with children. Synergeia had the great fortune of witnessing, partnering, and being mentored by him on how to reinvent Local School Boards and how Mayors and Governors can be inspired by his example. Without any effort, we based our proposal on his work with Synergeia. Governor Lito added, “let us all pray for Jesse’s intercession.”

We received our first miracle from St. Jesse when USAID announced that we won. It was with the grace of God and with the intercession of Sec. Jesse.

Like you, We miss him so much and we wish he were here. But his passing away to a new life should not end in sadness. He left us a great legacy. He left us a great life. He was our great inspiration.’ He was our great Leader.

In Honor of Secretary Jesse, we are committed to make his work on education governance a national movement.’ We will use his examples to make the work of Local School Boards transparent, collaborative, and effective.’ On his last meeting with Synergeia mayors, he spoke to them as if they were his disciples. ‘Go around schools.’ Understand your own terrain and adopt solutions.’ Ang dulo, makatapos ang lahat ng bata at maging marunong siya.’ Isama ninyo ang pamayanan.’ Mas maganda na pinagkakasunduan ang ating programa. Hindi ito pang-mabilisan. Kailangang pagtiyagaan. Ang mahalaga, maalala kayo na kayo ang nag-umpisa.

Our dearest Mayor and Secretary Jesse, you started this movement, and we give you our promise that we will carry out your mission in education governance. And just like you, we will try to pursue this work with excellence, with honor, and in the service of God and country.