The Assessment and Enrichment Program (AEP) celebrated its 10th year to pay tribute to Scholastic Asia’s dedicated education partners, the fourth Scholastic Readers Cup awarding ceremony held at the Rizal Ballroom of the Shangri-La Makati on August 23.
The most prestigious award, Scholastic’s Winners Circle Champion was received by St. Paul College Balayan, represented by its School Principal, Sr. Norma Michaela Que, SPC. Since the 2014 Readers Cup, St. Paul College Balayan has been reaping awards for its students’ outstanding performance both in terms of readership and of reading achievement.
A milestone year, 2017 marks a decade of Scholastic’s partnership with Philippine schools in the AEP, a research-backed literacy program that strengthens balanced literacy instruction, equipping students to be proficient readers and raising them to be life-long learners.
Benedictine International School and Uno High School, Scholastic’s education partners in the Philippines since 2007, were given the Scholastic Pioneer Award. New Era University - General Santos City Branch was awarded the Readers Cup Rookie Award for their success in rallying reading on their first year of partnership with Scholastic in AEP.
Going on its fifth year, the Scholastic Readers Cup continues to inspire school administrators, teachers and librarians to lead in their schools’ transformation towards a community of readers and learners. Scholastic’s partner schools have proven that it is possible and worthwhile to raise today’s children as avid readers who grow in creative wonder, in hope and in a world of limitless possibilities.
Selected educators composed of school administrators, teachers and librarians were treated to a sumptuous buffet, exciting raffle prizes of P10,000 and P5,000 gift certificates, and top-notch entertainment by premiere vocal ensemble The CompanY and by the multi-awarded crooner Richard Poon.
Scholastic executives headed by Scholastic Asia president Frank Wong, country manager Chito Morales and general manager Fritzie Cruz presented the awards to the top 10 schools that bested 160 schools in terms of readership. These schools achieved the highest average of number books read with quizzes passed by their students for school year 2016-2017. 
“Thanks to the hard work of our partner schools over the years, Read Aloud has become a regular part of reading instruction, and pleasure reading has become a habit for many children. You should all be very proud of what you have accomplished in your schools. As literacy champions in your schools, you have truly opened a world of possible to your students,” Wong said in his welcome remarks. “Scholastic is proud to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the AEP, a program that seeks to nurture a good reading habit among the Filipino students.”
The top 10 schools are the following:
(1) Stonyhurst Southville International School Batangas (99 books read per student); (2) Stonyhurst Southville International School Malarayat in Batangas (96 books); (3) Holy Cross College of Calinan in Davao (87 books); (4) Nuestra Señora de Guia Academy in Valenzuela (86 books); (5) Immaculate Conception School of Baliuag (81 books); (6) Iloilo Scholastic Academy (80 books); (7) Saint Mary’s Angels College of Valenzuela (74 books); (8) Saint Joseph College of Rosario, Batangas (67 books); (9) Scuola San Giuseppe Marello in San Pablo City (65 books); and tied at (10), Mother Goose Special School System Inc. in Dagupan City (63 books) and Casa del Niño Montessori School Ciudad de Calamba (63 books).
And as Scholastic continues to lead in advocating literacy around the world, it promises to make AEP even better — more comprehensive, more systematic and more relevant to the Philippine schools that have made Scholastic their trusted education partner.
For more information on Scholastic’s education initiatives, visit www.scholastic.asia or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ScholasticAsia.
JAKE AND MOM NEED HEALING. As expected, the feature between Charice, now Jake Zyrus, in multi-awarded and long-running drama anthology Maalaala Mo Kaya (MMK) as hosted by Charo Santos-Concio caused a new rift between the transman and his biological mother, Raquel Pempengco.
Jake said his mother is “talaga namang liar” and is in the habit of threatening people, as she did to global music impresario David Foster before. Jake was asked why he wanted his story told as it created more animosity between them. He said he just wanted to tell his side of the story.
According to Jake, Raquel omitted what went on inside Charice. His mother denied them and said Jake merely wanted to promote his showbiz comeback. It appears, in a way, that Raquel is liberating herself as it is clear she is also suffering.
What happened here is similar to the complaint of the half-brother of Pia Wurtzbach of what she told MMK that he denied. Both are clear cases of not keeping the family story private so some kind of denial must be made to clear the family name.
Mother and transon need healing and the MMK feature is a great starting point. But that depends on them and not MMK as it only told Jake’s story as related to them. As a responsible broadcast network, it is safe to assume it took measures to protect its legal interests.
And unless a party brings the issue to the court, it will end up as an exercise of press freedom.
OUTSTANDING TVCS. Networks are overloading timeslots with commercials, but there are those rare ones that are well-produced and actually worth watching.
Nido Advanced Protectus 3 Plus. One is the Nido Advanced Protectus 3 Plus. This ad has the amazing power not to cause viewing fatigue with repeated airing. A separated father picks his young son from his mother’s residence. She handles the dysfunctional relationship with respectful joy. Indirectly, it teaches viewers how separation can be handled without wreaking havoc to domestic peace and/or stunting a child’s emotional growth.
OneSKY. ABS-CBN and its cable, broadband, and direct-to-home subsidiary SKY Cable Corporation were once again recognized for media excellence as it hauled one Gold and one Silver award, respectively, in the 2017 Spark Awards in Singapore.
In its running TVC, two grown-up brothers, one with a cast, keep company by watching Sky Cable. When the healthy brother shows sign of leaving him, the injured brother asks, “Are you leaving?” Without giving an answer, he puts down his backpack and sits down in front of the screen to continue viewing an action feature and shows them enjoying each other’s company.
INSIGHT BY ELVERT BANARES. “This is why I love the millennials! They definitely make their choices heard! They watch quality films or at least search for them. Keep it up, dearest young ones,” Elvert said, posting on Facebook six photos of crowded theater lobbies screening Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino films.
Since the broadsheets and tabloids were invited to a professional press conference to publicize the entries, providing updates would have helped beef up the festival more. Some did publish the list of awardees, but the lack of updates did not help the festival in any way.
NEW STYLISTICS’ ONE NIGHT ONLY CONCERT! Be enthralled by the most popular Stylistics hits. Audiences are definitely in for a musical treat like no other as Grand Leisure Corporation brings Russel Thompkins Jr. and the New Stylistics in a one-night only concert this September 7, 8 p.m. at the world class Theatre at Solaire. The trio is made up of Russel, together with Raymond Johnson and Jonathan Buckson. They are dedicated to the mission of providing quality representation of the group’s original recordings. For tickets, call TicketWorld at (02) 891-9999.
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Ten years of advocating national literacy
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