WHILE many politicians would rather keep their constituents in the dark about current issues, Rep. Erico Basilio Fabian wants students of the second district of Zamboanga City to start developing the habit of reading newspapers so they can keep abreast of national developments.
Fabian, a nursing graduate and former broadcast journalist, is donating copies of Inquirer to 19 public schools in his district. The donation will benefit some 25,500 students.
Each of the schools will get five copies of the newspaper from Monday to Friday until the school year ends. Beneficiary schools have set up Inquirer Learning Corners (nicknamed “Inqspots”) where students—and teachers—can have easy access to the newspapers.
Fabian says he decided to sponsor Inqspots in the 19 schools to promote literacy, “heighten students’ awareness about … current events, and encourage them to develop critical thinking that will aid them in making important decisions in life.”
Needless to say, among the important decisions the students will have to make again and again, as soon as they are eligible, is who to vote for in local and national elections. A better understanding of issues may give the country future voters who will choose candidates based on competence, integrity and commitment to their duties.
Fabian says the biggest beneficiary of his donation is Zamboanga City High School’s main campus, which has some 9,000 students. The congressman started his political career as a councilor in the city.
Like most places outside Metro Manila, says Fabian, Zamboanga’s public schools need all the help they can get to improve the quality of instruction.
He says priority should be given to “funding basic education needs like the hiring of new teachers [to make their number] proportional to the number of students; the construction of adequate school facilities like classroom buildings, gymnasium, speech and science laboratories; and the procurement of appropriate instructional materials like books, audio-visual presentations and/or computers.”
Since his first term in Congress in 2004, Fabian says, he has consistently allocated a good portion of his priority development assistance fund to scholarship grants to poor but deserving students for college or technical-vocational education.
He also co-authored the “UP Charter” and “Increasing the Salary Grade of Public School Teachers” bills.
Two of his bills, establishing the Bunguiao National High School and the Talon-Talon National High School both in Zamboanga City, have been passed into laws.
(Editor’s note: Inquirer welcomes Rep. Fabian and his 19 recipient schools as our latest partners in education. For more information on sponsored subscriptions for schools, call 8978808 and ask for Marketing, or e-mail learning@inquirer.com.ph.)