FILIPINO EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS IN CAMBODIA CONTINUE
TO ENHANCE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING SKILLS
With a vision to empower and raise the profile of Filipino education professionals in Cambodia, the Teachers’ Learning Action Guild in Cambodia (TLAGC), in partnership with the Samahan ng mga Pilipino sa Cambodia (SAMAPI), successfully concluded the conduct of the 2nd Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and Camp for Filipino English teachers in an elaborate completion ceremony held at the Royal University of Phnom Penh on 09 December 2018.
At the 2nd Celebration of Learning with the theme “Promoting quality teacher education: key to a resilient and sustainable teaching,” 232 graduates in Cambodia and 11 graduates in Thailand received their course completion certificates. Of these, 136 in Cambodia finished the course with distinction.
The completion ceremony was attended by Philippine Ambassador to Cambodia Christopher B Montero, Consul General Myca M. Fischer, Ms. Sundee Viñas, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, as well as Mr. Manuel Alipio and Mr. Joel Dionco, Chairman and President of SAMAPI, respectively. Gracing the occasion as guest of honor and speaker was Dr. Maria Catbagan-Aplaten who served as a professor and consultant in Cambodia from 2004 to 2016.
In his inspirational remarks, Ambassador Montero shared the life story of Mr. Youk Chhang, Executive Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia and who recently received a Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for his work on justice and healing.
"Mr. Chhang spent his teenage years as a Cambodian refugee at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Morong, Bataan, in the early 1980s where he was taught the English language by Filipino teachers. After receiving his award in Manila last August, Mr. Chhang returned to the site of the former refugee center and reconnected with his Filipino teachers. He had, on numerous occasions, expressed profound gratitude to his Filipino teachers and friends, who he said not only taught him how to speak English, but also gave him back his humanity after suffering unspeakable horrors in the hands of the Khmer Rouge. I share with you this story to highlight the big impact that you as a Filipino teacher have on the life of young Cambodians. Who knows, one of your students could become a very high official, or perhaps a future Prime Minister of Cambodia someday?” Ambassador Montero enthused.
Ambassador Montero likewise encouraged the TLAGC to transform itself not only as a platform for Filipino educators to support each other, but also to cultivate a brand that is distinctly Pinoy.
The MOOC Course on Professional Development for Teacher Trainers, which aims to equip participants to create, present, and evaluate effective and engaging teacher trainings, was a five-week open online learning and consisted of five (5) consecutive meet-ups in six (6) different locations.
The course kicked-off in October 2018 and consisted of online lessons, quizzes and assignments, as well as weekly face-to-face meet-ups or “camp.” As a way of giving back, each sub-camp organized a charity outreach event. The camp was participated in by elementary, secondary, and tertiary teachers, school heads, college student, teacher applicants, and non-teaching personnel from public and private schools in the Kingdom.
The Cambodia Camp garnered 83.09% completion rate, adding to the 1,211 graduates of DepEd Division of Davao del Norte’s main MOOC Camp.
The sub-camp leaders were Mr. Jay Ian Capungan for Phnom Penh, Ms. Zenaida Contante for Sihanoukville, and Ms. Maria Teresa Enriquez for Siem Reap. The Cambodia Camp falls under the main camp in Davao del Norte, which is technically supported and facilitated by Rebecca Casas Sagot, Education Program Supervisor of the Division of Davao del Norte, Department of Education.
The program is a fully-funded open online course offered by the U.S. Department of State through the Regional English Language Office of the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The MOOC was facilitated by Arizona State University, in partnership with Canvas, the online platform for the course. -END-
