The 2nd Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation in the Visayas & Mindanao

The Centre for International Education or CIE is organizing the second Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation in the Visayas and Mindanao. It will be conducted at the Cebu Main Campus of the Centre for International Education in Cebu City.

Since the first one done here in the Visayas and Mindanao last August 11, 2007, inquiries from all over Visayas and Mindanao kept coming in via email (surprisingly most from Mindanao). To recall, all Orientations were held at the Makati Executive Staff House of CIE along Valero and Sedeno Streets, Salcedo Village, Makati City.

Registration as usual is Free!

It is important however that you pre-register like always because there is limited seating capacity. We can only accommodate thirty (30) participants at any given time.

Please register by either calling, faxing or emailing us at:

The Pearl Principle Formation School
Cebu Main Campus
Centre for International Education
168 Pres. Magsaysay Street, Kasambagan
Cebu City, Philippines
Fax or Call: (032) 233-2566
Email: mary.rieta@cie.edu
virgilio.paralisan@cie.edu

Those of you who called or emailed about the PPFS may register and join this Orientation to be held on October 27, 2007, 10:00 am. Registration starts at 9:00 am. 5th Floor, Cebu Main Campus, Centre for International Education. Please come on time.

If you would like us to assess your suitability for this programme please bring your Articles of Incorporation and By-laws if you are a corporation (profit or non-profit) or your comprehensive resume if you want this to be a personal enterprise.

The Strategic Management Group of the Centre for International Education is now allowing individuals to qualify for a license to operate a PPFS. This will now give individuals or persons to set up a PPFS in their communities; however, the same stringent process of qualification and quality assurance still applies.

How to get to CIE?
Take a taxi cab and tell the driver to take you to F. Cabahug Street (Landmark is Sarrosa International Hotel or Paseo). If you are coming from San Jose dela Montana Street you have the option to take a left turn to Sarrosa International Hotel and then turn right to Pres. Magsaysay Street. CIE is the only building having more than three stories with a prominent CIE logo. Stop at the yellow gate.

You can also go passed Sarrosa International Hotel and then take a left turn to an access road along the Paseo Parking and the Sisters of Mary compound going straight to the CIE Parking lot.

If you are coming from Mandaue City (Subangdaku) taking the F. Cabahug route go passed Sykes building and Paseo and take a straight route to the CIE parking lot between a Gasul Dealer and the Paseo Parking Lot. You can see the CIE building as you approach this access road. If you are going to Sarrosa International Hotel take a right turn along the road beside the hotel and then another right turn to Pres. Magsaysay Street.

If you are taking a public utility jeep, take a Mabolo - Cebu City jeepney with Route No. 3A going to Panagdait (or F. Cabahug) and then watch out for the landmarks mentioned above. Tell the driver you are disembarking or going down Island Market after you see Sarrosa International Hotel. The road to CIE is just across the drive way going to Island Market. Look for a car wash and a Gasul Dealer.

The First PPFS Orientation in the Visayas and Mindanao on August 11, 2007

The Centre for International Education or CIE is organizing the first ever Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation in the Visayas and Mindanao. Since the launching of the Pearl Principle Formation School (PPFS) last year, all Orientation was held at the Makati Executive Staff House of CIE along Valero and Sedeno Streets, Salcedo Village, Makati City.

Because of many queries from the Visayas and Mindanao, and requests to hold one at least in the Visayas, CIE is holding the first ever PPFS Orientation in the Main Campus of CIE in Cebu City.

Registration is Free! It is important however that you pre-register like always because there is limited seating capacity. We can only accommodate thirty (30) participants at any given time.

Please register by either calling, faxing or emailing us at:

The Pearl Principle Formation School
Centre for International Education
168 Pres. Magsaysay Street, Kasambagan
Cebu City, Philippines
Fax or Call: (032) 233-2566
Email: mary.rieta@cie.edu
virgilio.paralisan@cie.edu

Those of you who called or emailed about the PPFS may register and join this Orientation to be held on August 11, 2007, 10:00 am. Registration starts at 9:00 am. Please come on time.

If you would like us to assess your suitability for this programme please bring your Articles of Incorporation and By-laws if you are a corporation (profit or non-profit) or your comprehensive resume if you want this to be a personal enterprise.

The Strategic Management Group of the Centre for International Education is now allowing individuals to qualify for a license to operate a PPFS. This will now give individuals or persons to set up a PPFS in their communities; however, the same stringent process of qualification and quality assurance still applies.

How to get to CIE?
Take a taxi cab and tell the driver to take you to F. Cabahug Street (Landmark is Sarrosa International Hotel or Paseo). If you are coming from San Jose dela Montana Street you have the option to take a left turn to Sarrosa International Hotel and then turn right to Pres. Magsaysay Street. CIE is the only building having more than three stories with a prominent CIE logo. Stop at the yellow gate. You can also go passed Sarrosa International Hotel and then take a left turn to an access road along the Paseo Parking and the Sisters of Mary compound going straight to the CIE Parking lot.

If you are coming from Mandaue City (Subangdaku) taking the F. Cabahug route go passed Sykes building and Paseo and take a straight route to the CIE parking lot between a Gasul Dealer and the Paseo Parking Lot. You can see the CIE building as you approach this access road. If you are going to Sarrosa International Hotel take a right turn along the road beside the hotel and then another right turn to Pres. Magsaysay Street.

If you are taking a public utility jeep, take a Mabolo - Cebu City jeepney with Route No. 3A going to Panagdait (or F. Cabahug) and then watch out for the landmarks mentioned above. Tell the driver you are disembarking or going down Island Market after you see Sarrosa International Hotel. The road to CIE is just across the drive way going to Island Market. Look for a car wash and a Gasul Dealer.

CIE Conducts Its 2nd Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation in Makati on December 9, 2006

The Centre for International Education will be conducting the 2nd Pearl Principle Formation School Phase 1 Orientation for the National Capital Region on December 9, 2006 and the First Pearl Principle Formation School Phase 2 Orientation and Consultation Workshop at Unit 10-A 10th Floor Cordova Condominium, 138 Valero corner Sedeno Streets, Salcedo Village, Makati City, Philippines. The Orientation is open to the public however because of limited seating capacity of the venue prior reservation is necessary.

The Centre for International Education will be conducting the Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation on December 9, 2006 covering Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Pre-qualification process.

Phase 1 will be in the morning starting at 10:00 a.m. and ending at 11:40 a.m. Phase 2 will be in the afternoon starting at 1:00 pm and ending at 3:30 pm.

Phase 1 introduces the Pearl Principle Formation School or PPFS. It covers the Pearl Principle Movement that the Centre for International Education founder Prof. Nelia Cruz-Sarcol started and the background of the PPFS itself. Phase 1 participants will walk through the Pre-qualification process to get an overview of the regulatory and organizational requirements of starting a PPFS. Participants don't have to bring anything but those who are already seriously considering opening a pre-school for school-year 2007-2008 may have to bring their updated Articles of Incorporation and By-laws so they can immediately proceed to Phase 2 after a short consultation and interview process right after Phase 1 session ends. This session will be the second and the last PPFS Phase 1 Orientation for this year.

Phase 2 covers the regulatory requirements of starting a pre-school, the information gathering process necessary to write a feasibility study, the conduct of the school site inspection, the financial and business development aspect of the PPFS. Phase 2 will require that the participant have attended Phase 1 Orientation and has a photocopy of their updated Articles of Incorporation and By-laws. This session is the first PPFS Phase 2 Orientation and the only one conducted this year.

When reserving a seat please provide us your:

• Full Name
• Your Designation
• Organization's Name
• Complete Address with ZIP Code
• Phone with Area Code
• Mobile Phone
• Email

For immediate confirmation of your seat reservation please contact:

Virgilio Y Paralisan
Executive Director, Pearl Principle
Centre for International Education
Mobile: 0919-8382717
Email: vyparalisan@yahoo.com
Call: (02) 892-3088 / 888-0909

We hope to see you there.

The Pearl Principle Formation School: CIE’s Response to the Challenges of Functional Illiteracy and Poverty Through Social Entrepreneurship

The Pearl Principle Formation School provides pre-school education with emphasis on Reading & Critical Thinking, Writing, Mathematics, English as a Second Language and Pearl Principle Values to children ages 4 to 8 years old of economically disadvantaged or lower middle-income families by delivering an effective and relevant curriculum.

The Pearl Principle School is a parallel school system to our public school system. It allows any non-profit or non-government organizations, business organizations and even government instrumentalities to set up a Pre-school Education Program in underserved communities.

The system provides support for faculty training and development, a license to a proven system of teaching, financial and school management system, free consulting services and quality assessment to aid organizations in setting up and operating the school in their community.

Why 4-8 years old? Why lower middle-income?

The first six years of the child's life is the most crucial because it is within this period that the foundation of one's personhood is laid out. We believe that with proper formation, the child is in a better position to succeed in subsequent learning stages. This is where, we believe, we can ultimately eradicate functional illiteracy.

The data on education should already give you an obvious clue why we chose the lower middle-income families. They constitute the bulk of the public school population. There were 12,089,365 students in Grade 6 in the Public Schools all over the country as against 926,122 from the private schools in school-year 2004-2005. 5,043,776 students were in 4th year high school in the Public Schools against 1,268,255 students in the Private Schools. This population constitutes the aggregate population of our future human resource. It is obviously not realistic to project appropriate or gainful employment of 10 million every year if more than 6 million of the emerging workforce is functionally illiterate.

The Pearl Principle Formation School: A Summary

• It is one of CIE’s Social Engagement initiatives under the Six High Impact Programmes (S.H.I.P.).
  
  
• It is the operationalization of CIE’s Vision and Mission.
  
  
• The PPFS was designed specifically to address the issue of functional illiteracy and gaps in the educational system.
  
  
• The PPFS is packaged as a Social Enterprise that any non-profit, business organization or non-government organization can invest in and operate in their respective communities.
  
  
• Its curriculum is designed and developed benchmarked by CIE GEQ.
  
  
• The operation, management and curriculum development are governed by the terms and conditions of a License Agreement.
  
  
• The license to use the PPFS System is currently free but applicants are required to invest in the training workshop where they will be certified and given the manuals of operation. A PPFS school must be an institutional member of CIE GEQ which requires a nominal registration fee renewable every 5 years.
  

Where to get information?

The Executive Director
Pearl Principle
Centre for International Education
168 Pres. Magsaysay Street, Kasambagan
6000 Cebu City, Philippines
Call: (032) 2332566 / 4127622
Email: virgilio.paralisan@cie.edu

The State of Our Public School Education

Let us have a glimpse of the state of national education today. We’ll have quick tour of our national education statistics. The most recent data so far is in School Year 2004 to 2005. There were 12,089,365 students in Grade 6 in the Public Schools all over the country as against 926,122 in the private schools. 5,043,776 students were in 4th year high school in the Public Schools and 1,268,255 students were in the Private Schools.

Note that there are more than 12 million students in Grade 6 and only less than 6 million in the fourth year high school. This population has not change much in the last 5 years. This pattern alone indicates that less than half finish high school every year.

We may console ourselves assuming that at least half of those who get to high school should be doing well academically. Our national data on the academic performance of students in the public school says otherwise.

In school year 2004-2005, the Achievement Rate of a student in the public elementary school averaged 58.73 while a high school student averages 46.80. The acceptable national rate is 75.0.
This pattern has also not change much for the last 5 years. In retrospect, we are introducing an average of at least 6 million high school students into college who may not be able to read, understand English or do basic math.

There has been many interventions introduce to address these shortcomings and gaps in the educational system. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Creating special classes or sections like the Science Classes and Special Education Classes.
  
• Introducing Computers.
  
• Feeding programs.
  
• More classrooms and buildings.
  
• Introducing multi-media into the classroom.
  
• Scholarships.
  
• Others are creative combinations of any or several of the above.

In spite of the many strategies and intervention introduced not only by Department of Education or DepEd but also by well-meaning civic organizations, we will not be seeing a real improvement in the quality of our educational system. The interventions themselves have inherent flaws and problems.

Common Problems encountered in these interventions:

• The intervention is almost exclusively coming from outside the school and in all likelihood will be from a private donor.
  
• The intervention is not consistent because there is no cohesive program behind it, a different intervention is being introduced every year, and by a different donor.
  
• It is almost always cash-strap or always plague by lack of logistical support from the school itself.
  
• The interventions are not sustainable and often times the stakeholders have no ownership of the projects.
  
• Donor-stress, donor-fatigue or donor-burnout sets in and the intervention project or program loses its sponsors and champions.

Knowing all these, you got to ask the question: What then is causing these shortcomings and gaps?

Why in spite of many interventions, many well-meaning organizations, and so many millions of pesos spent in improving our educational system are we still faced with more than 5 million functionally illiterate high school graduates.

The Underlying Causes of Our Educational System’s Shortcomings or Gaps:

• It has failed to recognize or appreciate the critical impact of the formative years of the child.
  
• It has not provided a dynamic strategy for curriculum development that appreciates the environment under which the child will have their learning experiences
  
• The educational system does not provide mechanism for the pro-active participation of parents or the community as a whole in improving the child's learning.
  
• The existing curriculum in pre-school does not provide the most fundamental skills and does not prepare kids to succeed in subsequent learning stages.
  
• There is no independent body outside the school that validates the quality of the content and delivery of the curriculum.
  
• Quality entails cost. Cost inhibits further investment in the development of the curriculum or its delivery hence sustainability is a perpetual issue.
  
• Existing mechanisms for delivery of pre-school education bars businesses and community organizations from directly participating in the development of their local pre-school education.

We know that government have had many difficulties improving our educational system. We know that the Department of Education is dealing with the challenges of its own evolution aside from its mandate of managing our educational system. Current interventions have not drastically improved the state of our public school system.

What are these problems telling us?

• The Government or the Department of Education cannot improve our educational system alone. They need our help.
  
• We need to introduce a better way or strategy to develop learning content and delivery of this content.
  
• The strategy or system for the delivery of a better educational system must be cost-effective, can be replicated, has internal mechanism for assuring quality of content and delivery, it must pay for itself hence should be sustainable: An Alternative or Parallel School System.
  
• The school must be affordable to the lower middle-income family.
  
• Organizations or even businesses have an opportunity to get involved or to invest in this alternative or parallel school system.

The Centre for International Education or CIE believes that rather than enduring the pains of the many problems plaguing our educational system, stakeholders, meaning you and me, should take a more proactive approach and turn this very "aged" and nagging problem into an opportunity.

You may have this question in your mind about why CIE should even participate considering that it is already an established institution. It has already a very good curriculum and it is already managing several campuses.

CIE's social engagement and even its many endeavors recently are clearly defined by its Vision and Mission.

CIE's Vision states that:

CIE is a veritable institution in the Asia Pacific that develops and nurtures influential generative leaders who champion the upliftment of the quality of human life.

CIE's Mission states:

We transform ordinary individuals to become extraordinary catalysts of social progress through a philosophy of education for leaders anchored on social engagement and the Pearl Principle.

You can say that our social engagement actually defines who we are. We are seeking out partnership from seemingly ordinary individuals and organizations to participate in the process of influencing the development of their respective communities by being socially engaged. In this case, hopefully, by investing in a Pearl Principle Formation School.

The Pearl Principle: TEACH DREAM SUCCESS

By Teacher Nelia*

VISION, MISSION and STRATEGIES

The People’s Vision

The Philippines: A S.T.R.I.N.G of P.E.A.R.L.S.

The Philippines is a Soaring and Tenacious Republic Instituted by Nation-loving Generations of Passionate, Ethical, Action-driven, Results-oriented Leaders of Society

The People’s Mission

We T.E.A.C.H.

We Train, Engage, Assess, Create opportunities, and Harness individuals, communities and organizations to apply The Ten Tenets of the Pearl Principle within their spheres of influence.

The People’s Strategies

We D.R.E.A.M.

Discover who you really are. Use your inherent God-given
gifts for a higher purpose.

Reinvent yourself. Create a personal vision aligned to the
service of your fellowmen.

Energize yourself. Be a life-long learner by re-tooling and
associating with positive-minded people.

Act on your 4 Ps.
Pray for discernment
Plan your course of action
Persist on achieving your plan
Pursue your dream with passion

Manage yourself. Be driven by SUCCESS:

Sense of
Urgency
Competence
Congruence
Enlightenment
Self-sacrifice
Service

We measure success by the number of people whose lives have improved because of our existence.

Personal success is only a means to an end, making the world a better place.

The Goal of Life

C.I.E.A.N.

Communion with God
Integrity in thought, word and deed
Empathy with commitment
Accountability for my actions

Nobility in my aspirations

The Tenets of the Pearl Principle

Our worldview is rooted in the transformation of adversity into a gem of a life…as in the creation of a pearl.

We believe that…

1. Adversity is the catalyst of growth and progress.
2. Transformation is the proactive engagement of one’s sphere of influence.
3. Every person has inherent gifts that can be used to overcome challenges.
4. People can reinvent themselves at will.
5. Introspection is the key to unlocking the right core values that guide our discernment for change.
6. Self-sufficiency is a philosophy that we can nurture to eradicate mendicant behavior.
7. Personal success is only a means to an end: making the world a better place.
8. Success is measured by the number of people whose lives have improved because of our existence.
9. Wealth accumulation is only justified when it is re-channeled to uplift the quality of life of communities through purposeful intervention.
10. Change begins from within...change begins with me.

* Teacher Nelia is Prof. Nelia Cruz-Sarcol, a Filipino thought-leader who convened the Pearl Principle Advocacy.

The 10 Tenets of the Pearl Principle

Every advocacy or ideology must have some foundation or a set of core beliefs. We must have a way at looking at or interacting with world at large.

Our worldview is rooted in the transformation of adversity into a gem of a life…as in the creation of a pearl.

As Advocates of the Pearl Principle, we believe that…

1. Adversity is the catalysts of growth and progress.
   
2. Transformation is the proactive engagement of one’s sphere of influence.
   
3. Every person has inherent gifts that can be used to overcome challenges.
   
4. People can reinvent themselves at will.
   
5. Introspection is the key to unlocking the right core values that guide our discernment for change.
   
6. Self-sufficiency is a philosophy that we can nurture to eradicate mendicant behavior.
   
7. Personal success is only a means to an end: Making the world a better place.
   
8. Success is measured by the number of people whose lives have improved because of our existence.
   
9. Wealth accumulation is only justified when it is re-channeled to uplift the quality of life of communities through purposeful intervention.
   
10. Change begins from within.

A Pearl Principle Advocate must adapt these tenets into his or her belief system. It is our way of explaining our relationship, our perpsective, and describing the color of the window panes through which we see the rest of the world.