DepEd backs ‘1 million lapis’ campaign

The Department of Education (DepEd) is encouraging all public and private schools to join a Guinness World Records-worthy initiative and collect 1 million pencils for schoolchildren in the poorest towns of the country.

In a memorandum, Education Undersecretary Alberto Muyot said the DepEd fully supported the “One Million Lapis” campaign of the Council for the Welfare of Children to mark National Children’s Month in November.

The collection of pencils will run until Oct. 26.

The campaign would see the distribution of 1 million pencils to underprivileged students in elementary schools in fourth to sixth-class municipalities nationwide where many students don’t have the necessary supplies, Muyot said.

“A documentary in 2012 showed that children in far-flung villages break one pencil into three to use for writing,” he said.

The campaign is also envisioned to set a world record for the longest line of pencils, the education official said.

What the Guinness World Records has so far are records for the longest chain of marker pens, which is 7,210 pens, set by Carine Primary School in Western Australia in October 2014, and the largest collection of 19,824 pencils by Tushar Lakhanpal of India recorded in October 2015.

“In support to this campaign, all DepEd offices—central office, regional offices and schools division offices—and all private and public schools in the country are hereby enjoined to participate,” Muyot said.