Eastern Samar latest partner of INQskwela

EDUCATIONAL ADVOCACY A memorandum of agreement for an INQskwela partnership was signed on July 2 between the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and the Eastern Samar provincial government. From left: Eastern Samar Provincial Board Member Ralph Vincent Evardone, PDI national sales manager Roy Mendiola, Gov. Ben Evardone, School Governance and Operations chief Marixel Evardone of the Schools Division of Eastern Samar-Department of Education, and PDI Assistant vice president for corporate affairs Connie Kalagayan. —EUGENE ARANETA

The Philippine Daily Inquirer has found one more partner, the province of Eastern Samar, for its five-year-old educational and media literacy advocacy program INQskwela.

A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed on July 2 between the Inquirer Foundation, the program’s chief implementer, and the Eastern Samar provincial government led by Gov. Ben Evardone.

Under the partnership, 20 public senior high schools in the province will receive subscriptions to the broadsheet and its digital version, the Inquirer Plus app. They may also explore holding campus activities like quiz bees, debates, and talks, which the Inquirer can help facilitate.

READ: INQSkwela boosts news literacy, reading skills, partners say

A former newsman himself, Evardone expressed confidence that “this will help the government [and] the province recover the youth’s loss of competency in current events and reading comprehension, grammar and, most especially, interest in critical national or regional issues.”

“There has been a lot of noticeable disinterest in some national issues, social issues, and current events (among the youth) because of the new medium of communication — social media, TikTok, and other outlets,” he said during the MOA signing held at the Inquirer office in Makati City.

International rankings based on academic test results, he said, “really show the deterioration of the quality of our educational system, our students, and maybe even the institutions themselves.”

Like in other INQskwela partners in the local government, teachers in the subscribing schools may use Inquirer news reports, features, and commentaries as supplemental material for classroom discussions, particularly in social studies.

Challenge amid fake news

“The access to accurate, relevant, and timely information cannot be overemphasized,” Evardone said. “The challenge really is how to ensure access to relevant, quality, timely, and correct information. Because we all know that fake news and disinformation sometimes overcrowd the more important and truthful information.”

Earlier INQskwela partners include the municipality of San Manuel in Tarlac, Calumpit town in Bulacan, Victorias City in Negros Occidental, Valenzuela City, Baguio City, and the City of Manila.

Also signing the MOA for the Inquirer were national sales manager Roy Mendiola and assistant vice president for corporate affairs Connie Kalagayan, who is also the Inquirer Foundation executive director.

For Eastern Samar, the other signatories were Ralph Vincent Evardone, provincial board member, and Marixel Evardone, head of school governance and operations under the Schools Division of Eastern Samar, Department of Education. The latter signed on behalf of Schools Division Superintendent Gorgonio Diaz Jr.