DepEd recognizes the teacher behind 'Bangkarunungan'

“Ang mga bata, punung-puno sila ng pag-asa. Kaya kami nandito para ang pag-asang ‘yan ay lalo pang maglagablab kasi naging bata rin tayo. Dapat habang bata palang sila, makita na nila na napakagandang daigdig. At huwag nating patayin iyon sa kanila para balang araw ay maging mabuti silang tao.”

Adrian Cobardo, a teacher at Barretto National High School in Olongapo City, underscored the importance of kindling hope in the hearts of the youth through his Bangakunungan, a mobile boat library that aims to help children how to read and to instill in them the relevance of education.

The Department of Education (DepEd) lauded Cobardo’s efforts to reach the children in the coastal areas of Zambales and in helping CJ Deinla, a glaucoma patient, to learn to read. At the age of seven, Deinla cannot read because he had a difficult time studying due to his eye problem. Cobardo taught him to read twice a week. As a result, Deinla was able to learn how to read in less than a month.

"Salamat sa pagtuturo, pagmamahal at pag-aalaga kay CJ nang hindi humuhingi ng anumang kapalit," said Cristina Aguilar, Deinla’s grandmother.

Bangkarunungan was established upon the declaration of the National Reading Month of DepEd last November 2011. 

“Ito po ang simbolo na ipagpapatuloy po natin ang pagpapalaganap ng edukasyon saan mang sulok, saan mang isla ng kapuluang ito,” Cabardo said.

Cobardo narrated the journey of the Ba​ngkarunungan and how this project invited the interest of the young and professional volunteers to be involved.

“Noong 2011, nagkaroon ang DepEd ng National Reading Month noong November. Kaya naisip ko, ito siguro ang best day na simulan ko itong proyekto na ito,” Cobardo said.

With the two-hour trip from Olongapo City, Cobardo uses a boat to carry the reading materials to hard-to-reach coastal areas in Subic, Zambales.

To date, he, along with his 80 volunteers, is teaching around 300 children from four communities residing in the coastal areas.

“Ang aim ko ay zero non-reader bilang ayun din ang aim ng DepEd. Nakikita kong ito ang paraan ko na maging bahagi ng programang iyon. Alam ko na napakahalaga ng pagbabasa kasi hindi ka matuto ng ibang skills kung hindi ka muna matututo ng pagbabasa,” he said.

Cobardo sees his project as a catalyst to reach the unreached and to empower the young generation by teaching them how to read.

“Makakaasa po kayo na ipagpapatuloy ko pa ang ginagawa ko kasi naniniwala po ako na ang edukasyon ay para sa lahat,” he added.

Cobardo said that teaching is a vocation, adding, “Sa kapwa ko educators, pinasok natin to. Hindi lang ito isang propesyon. Isa itong bokasyon. Gawin natin ito nang may puso. Gawin nating masaya ang trabaho natin. Nakakapagod pero masaya ang pagiging teacher. Hinanap natin ‘tong trabaho na ‘to. Ngayong nandito na, pahalagahan natin.” ###

deped.gov.ph

DepEd to open its recruitment online through Kalibrr

The Department of Education (DepEd), along with four government agencies, signed a  Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Bagumbayani and Kalibrr to democratize the recruitment through widening the contracting net and the market reach of the government online.

 

Kalibrr is a job-matching online platform for job seekers and companies. Its cloud-based platform enhances the way applicants find jobs and companies hire talents through its series of enhanced assessments. Bagumbayani is a youth organization consisting of civil servants promoting positive change and integrity in the government by sustainably recruiting young people into the civil service.

 

“To us in DepEd, better government service depends on having the right people for the right job to serve our Filipino learners in the best way we can. We look forward to maximizing our partnership with Kalibrr and Bagumbayani so we can cast our nets wider and allow for merit-based recruitment and talent sourcing that allows Filipinos anywhere in the world to be given a chance to take part in the deep and unique privilege of serving the Filipino people through government service,” said DepEd Undersecretary Rizalino Rivera.

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“We are not only helping people get jobs, we are making an impact to the trajectory of the Philippines by helping connect inspiring and progressive public servants to government. Through combination of technology and the desire to bring change, we are transforming what it means to find a job in government. I will give you an example: A job seeker in Davao can now by just being on the internet learn about and engage with the thousands of government jobs. Before Kalibrr, these jobs may have been online or may not have onlive and would require visit to that Department in its Metro Manila office,” Paul Rivera, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Kalibrr, said.

 

According to the Kalibrr CEO, this partnership will “break the notion that in order forsomeone to land a job in government, one should be connected with someone else inside.” This partnership intends to make government jobs accessible to all online.

 

“I have seen the challenges in the human resource and development in the bureaucracy. Sourcing is not really a problem for us. Talent pool management is not totally practiced in the bureaucracy. Our human resource is more on personnel administration role and we need to transform it into human resource reform,” Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Undersecretary Angelita Gregorio-Medel said.

 

The five new agencies—DepEd, DSWD, Department of Finance - Bureau of Local Government Finance (DOF-BLGF), Department of Transportation and Communications(DOTC), and Public Private Partnership (PPP) Center—are the second batch of government agencies to sign agreements with Kalibrr and Bagumbayani. The first batch of government agencies which signed on August 27, 2015: the Department of Finance (DOF), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Tourism (DOT)  and the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

deped.gov.ph