According to Philippine Information Agency, as the government beefs up its efforts to move closer towards hitting the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, the Department of Education (DepEd) reaffirms its commitment to achieve universal primary education and the Education for All (EFA) goals.
The press release said "With the declaration of President Benigno S. Aquino III of Year 2011 as the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV + 10) in the Philippines, DepEd vows to explore means to initiate appropriate programs in keeping with the country's commitment to democratize access to quality education as part of its EFA goals as well as the country's MDG targets by 2015. This year's celebration carries the global theme, Volunteering for the MDGs."
"We believe that the theme perfectly defines how EFA goal is attainable if Filipinos from all walks of life are able to volunteer for the cause of education in the country. We keep on saying that although DepEd is mandated to provide basic education to the Filipino children, education is not DepEd's concern alone but everybody's business. We are all accountable in the education of our people," said Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
In support of the Presidential Proclamation No. 92, the department issued DepEd Memo No. 32 series 2011 to inform all concerned offices with the said theme as guide.
Luistro added that the EFA goal, more than a commitment, is a guiding principle to make basic education accessible to as many learners that the Philippines can consider a solid investment for the future.
On the other hand, "Campus Journalism as a Catalyst for Change: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015" is a challenge not only of every campus writer but also of every school paper adviser as well as school administrator in the Philippines to have cognizance about the MDGs.
The executive consultant, school paper adviser and staff writers of Guindaruhan National High School maintain support for MDGs in the Philippines! According to the recent study, all eight MDGs are indeed measurable, quantifiable and realistic. To support its claim, each of the eight goals has a set of targets. These targets are quantified through indicators that will be set as the benchmark for measuring each country's progress.
DepEd memorandum expresses its journalistic stand and goes into raptures over the eight MDGs. The campus journalists demonstrate understanding of the MDGs' importance to the masses by expressing them through varied journalistic forms and approaches, demonstrate commitment to support MDGs by advocating and integrating them in related school community initiatives and enhance journalistic competence through healthy and friendly competitions such as individual, group, as well as radio broadcasting and scriptwriting contests.
MDGs and campus journalism go hand in hand for the development and gradual progress to gauge the veracity of societal needs, as far as global population is concerned. The student-writers have responsibility and awareness about the dissemination campaign to cater to the needs of the majority through sustention of the eight MDGs to become fully operational without delays.
For the information of everybody, Millennium Development Goals consist of the eight goals, and the acronym itself MDG is a familiar buzzword. However, there is little or no awareness of this global agenda agreed upon by 191 nations in 2000. In fact, a number of journalists who attended the recent media forum said they had not heard of the MDGs despite the fact that the Philippines has been an active participant in the drafting of many protocols involving human rights.
In a press release published also recently in a national daily newspaper, it emphasized the importance of each MDG. It described as a roadmap in fighting poverty, and as a partnership between developed and developing countries in the attainment of these eight goals. To reprint these goals, they are as follows:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Despite some clamors circulating around the country, some young journalists keep on rallying behind the proponents of MDGs. In fact, some questions have raised: Do they resolve global problems? Do the teachers impart savvy of journalism with regard to MDGs on the campus?
By all accounts, fundamentally, the better way to teach journalism is to train them to write for life. Perhaps, that's a motherhood phrase. What the writer has really wanted to utter is to go beyond the competition mode. The holding of competitions to put something through its paces with the students' skills on campus journalism might have drudged to a certain echelon.
But making the students practice campus journalism more might do miracles and nose around more youth to the craft of factual "fourth estate." This is not an animadversion on DepEd's practice of holding schools press conferences in the country. This is only an overall standpoint of the Editorial Board and Staff of every school paper.
Whether we like it or not, the truth is that campus journalism really works in dishing out information entirely about MDGs! It gradually resolves the problems that have already been addressed, particularly to the concerned countries with the eight MDGs to tag along.
Journalism gives emphasis to the importance of valuable information with the help of various media. Each student-writer must use extreme campus journalism as a means of making the people become fully aware of what is really happening around us today. If the people increase total awareness and heighten participation, the plans of development seem to realize and the MDGs will be successfully carried out.
As a result, significant decrease in poverty and amplified a much-needed boost in national economy will come to follow. The people will go hand in hand for the betterment of economy, and work with the heart to upgrade the conditions of the general public. It is inevitable that all of us are living in this labyrinth-filled nature and cycle of ups and downs by which the globe of our fate revolves in stages.
Our conditions at present are not still sustainable, not enough to cope with the demands and needs of society; ergo, we have to come to "grips" with the MDGs and apply draconian measures in order to accentuate the adequacy of our living conditions.
Through journalism, campus writers go into raptures over MDGs, especially in the Philippines!
http://voices.yahoo.com/department-education-executive-8852661.html?cat=5
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