Coseteng wants to overhaul educ system

by Robbie Pangilinan

Former Senator Nikki Coseteng believes that overhauling the educational system of the country is difficult, but doable.

The president of Diliman Preparatory School (DPS), one of the fastest growing educational institutions in the country today, said that the Department of Education’s biggest and most urgent issues include implementation of relevant curriculum content to current themes in education and situation of students; adequacy of classrooms and sports facilities, science, math and computer laboratories; massive teacher training programs; and on-time full payment of teachers’ salaries and allowances.

The two-term senator said that the DepEd Secretary under the new Aquino administration needs to introduce drastic but realistic changes in the education sector. She said that the major problems of the education department are inadequate, inferior, and dilapidated classrooms, too many students per class, lack of books and extremely inferior quality of books. She advised the department to allocate the highest budget for quality books and teaching materials.

She also observed that students are not given opportunities to excel in music, arts and sports due to the faculty’s lack of expertise and the lack of materials and facilities. She believes that Physical Education (PE) should be introduced at the preschool level and not during grade school in order to produce better athletes that will bring honor to the country. DPS is known to be an institution that fully supports sports, with 100-percent tuition-free scholarships for outstanding student-athletes.
She challenged the new Secretary of Education to give to public school students the same curriculum content as that in private schools and to give teacher training programs that will bring down the number of students per class to a maximum of 45. Some schools today pack more than 70 students in a classroom. The ideal teacher-student ratio is 1:25.

Known to support early childhood education, Coseteng thinks that the DepEd should strengthen pre-school programs to enable children to read and do math by the age of three. Coseteng has brought to the country the Glenn Doman method that pioneered teaching babies to read and DPS uses his methods in its early childhood education program.

An advocate of innovative and progressive education, Coseteng recommends the introduction of astronomy and the creation of an educational platform for subjects in schools. At DPS, Coseteng has taken innovation to the next level with the launching of the DPS Astronomy Center which houses the Philippines’ first ever and only 7-meter diameter digital mobile planetarium. She spearheaded the Discover and Probe the Skies Foundation, Inc. in support for astronomy education and research in the country.

Coseteng said that an educational overhaul is needed. She knows this will be met by raised eyebrows, like what happened when she introduced innovations at DPS. Many frowned upon the changes, especially when it cost millions and millions of pesos. But Coseteng stood firm and transformed DPS into a globally competitive school.

Coseteng wants the whole educational system of the country to achieve what DPS has: creating a state-of-the-art learning environment through an educational program that is future-driven, innovative, holistic, transformative, interdisciplinary and value-laden. She believes that with determination, the incoming DepEd Secretary can also accomplish this. #

Crisano “chickens out”

by Robbie Pangilinan

In American English, to “chicken out” means to become scared and not want to do something. No, popular PBA cager Alex Crisano is not scared, nor is he hiding from something. Nowadays, he is just enjoying dining out feasting on chicken inasal, his favorite Ilonggo dish. And for him, the best chicken inasal is none other than Mang Inasal.

“What I like about Mang Inasal is the way they marinate the chicken,” says the 6’7” PBA star. Mang Inasal, the fastest growing quick serve restaurant in the country today, takes pride in its secret chicken recipe that comes all the way from Iloilo where Mang Inasal started severl years ago. Owner Edgar “Injap” Sia II, though part Chinese and Japanese, made sure that Mang Inasal serves food that are distinctly Filipino.
New York-born Alex is proud of his Filipino blood—particularly his Ilonggo heritage. And he is glad that Mang Inasal brought his favorite home food to almost any place in the metro. Mang Inasal now has more than 200 branches nationwide and aims to have 500 branches by 2012. It has captured the hearts of diners because of its delicious and affordable meals and of course, because it is truly Pinoy.
For Crisano, Mang Inasal deserves a 10. “To the bone,” he says. Every time he eats at Mang Inasal, he feels he is back in Iloilo, enjoying home style cooking. The tattooed Crisano can be seen doing “kinamot” (Ilonggo term meaning to eat using the hands) whenever he eats chicken inasal. But grilled chicken is not the only offering of Mang Inasal. They have sisig, bangus, and sinigang, and even Pinoy versions of spaghetti and burger. Their thirst-quenchers and pampalamig like sago’t gulaman, mais con hielo, saging melt, sorbetes and halo-halo are also must-trys.
Crisano, a father of three, would want his children to also eat at and enjoy Mang Inasal when they come to the country. The three are now in the US studying.

Besides offering delicious dishes to its diners, Mang Inasal is also proud to employ local suppliers of its main ingredients as well as other economic ventures and activities that gain benefit from having a Mang Inasal branch in the vicinity.

Alex Crisano believes in Mang Inasal’s tagline: “... laging mabilis, laging masarap, at laging abot-kaya” and is confident in admitting that he is indeed a “chicken”—a chicken inasal fanatic that is. #