Two Taguig High School Wiz Kids Win National IT Award

Two students from separate schools in Taguig bagged the top awards in their respective categories in a nationwide competition on information technology (IT) held recently in Quezon City.

Michael Angelo of the Taguig Science High School clinched the top spot in his category at the national finals of the “2012 Battle of the ICT Wizards”, while Dan Cecilio Chua of Gen. Ricardo R. Papa Sr. Memorial High School-Main, landed third in the same tilt held last January 25 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral School in Cubao, Quezon City.

Angelo bested several other contestants from participating schools nationwide in the Audio-Visual Presentation using Flash Animation Category. The contest was organized by the Singapore-based Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) Pte. Ltd..

Chua, for this part, landed at third spot in the Advanced Web Design using Dreamweaver/xHTML Category.

Angelo and Chua received P10,000 and P2,000 in cash, respectively, including trophies and scholarships from Informatics, a leading computer school in the Philippines.

Twelve public high school students from Taguig City, including Angelo and Chua, competed in the national finals of the Battle of the ICT Wizards. Thirty contestants per category from 30 schools nationwide battled for the top prizes.

Mayor Lani Cayetano, meanwhile, congratulated the students, saying that what her administration has invested through the Cyber Education Program (CEP), backed by a competitive sci-tech curriculum,  in public elementary and secondary schools is evidently paying off.

The Cyber Education Program is being run  by the Taguig city government in cooperation with CAL Pte. Ltd. of Singapore.

“We are truly proud of the achievements of our students and in the fact that the public schools of Taguig can now compete and come out of the heap with flying colors at the national level,” Mayor Lani said.

“I’m glad to say that this is a proof that the quality of public education in Taguig has indeed gone at par with, if not better than, that of private schools. This also indicates that the Taguig Cyber Education Program really works,” she added.

Mayor Lani launched the Cyber Ed Program before the start of school year 2012-2013. Taguig is the only local government in the country providing public schools with CAL-based training, normally offered only in expensive private schools.

Under the program, high school students will be trained in any of three IT skills, namely Digital Arts, Programming and Web Design. A pre-assessment will be made to determine the student’s aptitude and the IT training suited for them.

All those who completed the training will receive a certificate of completion. CAL can also help them get a certificate from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) since the

Cyber Education Program meets the TESDA requirements.

The city government is also considering other uses for the computer labs, such as internet communication between OFW (overseas Filipino workers) and their families, or livelihood training for out-of-school youths or homemakers.

Mayor Lani has given top priority to the local education sector. Among others, she increased the budget for the scholarship program from P100 million in 2011 to P200 million in 2012. In contrast, the previous administration allocated only P5-million for the program..

This year, Mayor Lani also pioneered the e-Graduation program, where live video of all the graduation rites in the city’s public schools are streamed in Taguig City’s official website (taguig.gov.ph) to allow the graduates’ parents and relatives who cannot attend the ceremony, especially those abroad, to witness the graduation.

As in the previous years, the city government also provided public school students with free ready-to-wear uniforms, shoes, bags, and essential school supplies.