Making a Difference

The Camarines Sur State Agricultural College Team traveled down south of the Bicol Region to the Tabaco, Albay. They left in the wee hours of the morning, still groggy from lack of sleep and from the rigors of their travel in Sorsogon during the previous day. But their destination brings them farther down southeast of the Bicol peninsula to the scenic but often typhoon distraught island of Catanduanes.

They travelled for two hours by land and another two hours at sea before they reached Virac, Catanduanes. In Virac, the group of Vlady Foronda, Team Leader, and his two members from CSSAC Calabanga and CSSAC Sipocot traversed the rough terrain to the sleepy town of San Andres. In San Andres, the group made its way to Maygnaway National High School. It is one of the four national high schools in the municipality situated about 20 kilometers away from town proper.

The group was met by the teacher-in-charge, Adella Gregorio , who expressed her appreciation upon learning of the purpose of the visit. The Maygnaway National High School is part of the list of schools subject for visit as prospective recipient of the iSchools project.

Despite the distance of the school from the town proper of San Andres, the school has been a recipient of 8 desktop computer units donated by a Catandungan who migrated to the US. Unfortunately, these computer units are no longer functional because they were damaged by the super typhoon Reming in 2006.

With the steady increase in the student population, the administrators and faculty members hope to revive their computer laboratory. However, putting up a new computer laboratory shall entail huge amounts of money. At the same time, finding donors and/or funding sources is not an easy feat.

Just as the administrators and teachers alike have begun to despair, the CSSAC Team arrived with the good news of a possible partnership with them in the CICT-iSchools project. According to one of the teachers of Maygnaway , the iSchools will make a vital difference in the lives of their students.

The Team members were beat and tired from the arduous and seemingly endless journey. But they realized that this is just a beginning of trying to make a difference in the lives of many young Catandungans.

CSSAC Team backs 9 schools in CICT Project

The Camarines Sur State Agricultural College (CSSAC) Team culminates site visit of 9 public high schools as prospective recipients of the Commission on Information Communication Technology (CICT) iSchools Project in Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon and Catanduanes.

The public high schools visited were the following: Bacong High School, Ligao, Albay; Bonbon High School, Libon, Albay; San Juan Bago High School, Bulan, Sorsogon; Dinapa High School, Legazpi City; Bayasong High School, Pilar, Sorsogon, San Isidro National High School, Sorsogon City; Maygnaway High School, San Andres, Catanduanes, West Coast High School, Calabanga, Camarines Sur.

The Team headed by Project Coordinator, Vladimir Foronda with two other members from CSSAC Sipocot Campus and CSSAC Calabanga Campus visited the 9 high schools on June 11 – 18, 2008 to look into facilities, location, manpower component, surrounding communities, road networks and general peace and order situation in the area where a school is located.

According to Foronda, all schools visited satisfied the requirements for prospective beneficiaries of the iSchools Project but their findings shall be subjected to the final evaluation of the CICT.

The site visit is part of the continuing project on iSchools where 320 schools in the country will receive computers and trainings in the aim of integrating ICT in high school education.