Small-town school has big, hi-tech dreams

CEBU CITY — Journalism teacher Edlyn Bueno had long wished her second-year high school students could access the websites of the world’s top newspapers so they could be exposed to various writing styles and page layouting formats. Her dream is for some future journalists to come from her class.

Edlyn recently got her wish. The Medellin National Science and Technology School (MNSTS), where she also teaches English and Technology and Livelihood Education, became the latest partner-beneficiary of the Smart Schools Program

This community service initiative of Smart Communications Inc. promotes information and communications technology in basic education by providing public school teachers with Internet access through the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group’s wide range of communication solutions, access to online content and teacher training.

This is done in partnership with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), with the support of the Department of Education (DepEd) and Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Program.

This will be helpful to the students also in Math, Science, and English classes, Edlyn said. "They can even do research on debating strategies and techniques." She added. "We want to maximize this connectivity by fully implementing the DepEd’s curriculum on Information Technology I, which is basically an Introduction to the Internet."

After all, she said, the school already has a computer laboratory with 16 working PCs, 10 of which came from the Department of Trade and Industry’s PCs for Public Schools (PCPS) Phase I and the other six from Smart.

The maintenance of the school’s computer laboratory is funded by the parent-teacher-community association.

School principal Jocelyn Conta said the students no longer have to travel to the neighboring town of San Remigio, about 15 kilometers away, where two Internet cafés are located, so they can browse or send e-mail.

Under the program, the school gets a free one-year broadband Internet access, through Smart Wi-Fi, for 10 computers in its laboratory, plus two Webcams, a scanner and two printers.

"Through Smart’s wireless broadband technology, more schools, homes and offices will be connected to the Internet," said Ramon Isberto, Smart public affairs head. "The days of difficulty in connecting to the Web are coming to a close."

Menchie Quinal, Smart senior manager for network services assurance, is hopeful that "by connecting the school to the Internet, we can help the teachers and students maximize information and communications technology in classroom learning."

The school is located in Poblacion, Medellin, a fourth-class municipality situated 117 kilometers north of Cebu City.

Interestingly, the town, constituted in December 1881 by virtue of a Royal Decree of Queen Isabel of Spain, is named after Medellin in Colombia because of the similarity in the topographical features of both places.

Unlike the neighboring town of Bogo, the trading hub of northern Cebu, Medellin is laid-back most of the year and hums with activity only during the planting and milling seasons.

The town’s terrain is generally flat, and much of the land is planted to sugarcane, its main crop. Residents in the town’s coastal areas derive their income mostly from fishing.

The town has 15 elementary schools, three high schools and no tertiary school.

One of the things that the town has going for it is the Medellin National Science and Technology School where, it is said, the brightest and the best students in the area study. Proof of this is the school’s consistently good performance.

In school year 2003-2004, it ranked first in both the division and regional levels of the National Achievement Test (NAT) and placed 19th among the more than 5,000 public schools nationwide.

For two consecutive school years (2002-2004), it was the champion in the Metrobank-sponsored Math Challenge, from the first to the fourth year levels. Its delegates to the National Secondary Schools Press Conference also performed well in the various writing categories.

The school’s faculty members and graduates are another source of pride. Among them is Cherry Ann Tunacao, one of its pioneer students, who graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. Education degree, major in Physics and Math, at the University of San Carlos. She now teaches at the University of San Carlos-Girls High School in Cebu City.

Applicants have to pass rigid qualifying tests to be admitted. Given its meager budget and resources, the school can only accommodate a limited number of students. The total enrollment this year is 181.

The school has certainly progressed steadily since its establishment in 1995 as the Medellin National Science and Technology School. It had 40 first year and 27 second year high school students and only one teacher, Neriza Searez.

A few months later, Physics teacher Joel Comendador joined Searez. Together they ran the school and held classes in the shade of trees on a vacant lot provided by the Medellin Central School, with loose boards as protection from the sun and rain.

A few years later, Medellin Mayor Manreza Lim, with some help from Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez, donated a lot where a 10-classroom facility now stands.

Smart Schools — which will have a network of 50 schools nationwide by the end of the year — will help secure Medellin’s top standing. And Edlyn may yet see one of her students become a journalist. — Maria Jane Paredes