Heroic Filipinos - The Bernido Couple

The Bernido couple - Christopher and Victoria - become the first couple ever to win the Ramon Magsaysay Awards.  Both physicists by training, the couple, who were earning lucrative salaries in top institutions abroad opted to stay in the country where they introduced the innovative basic education teachings in science and non-science subjects that they call the dynamic learning program (DLP).  The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation observed that there are some bright lights in the landscape – among them the Bernido couple who both are from privileged families and earned doctorate degrees in physics from the State University of New York. 

They headed the National Institute of Physics at the University of the Philippines where they also reaped awards for teaching and research excellence. At the top of their profession and well respected in the world community of physicists, they startled colleagues however when, in 1999, they moved to Jagna, Bohol, to run an old, struggling high school – the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF) – owned by Christopher’s aging mother and at her request. The husband’s and wife’s new posts: president and principal, respectively.

Admittedly, it would have been a lot easier and practical to close the school down. But not the type to give up easily, the couple soon came to grips with the problems of basic education in the Philippines – but held on.

Despite the many challenges, their DLP took root. It is a cost-effective strategy focused on strong fundamentals, limiting teacher participation by devoting 70 percent of class time to student-driven activities built around clear learning targets, aided by well-designed learning plans and performance-tracking tools.

It uses locally available teaching aids and a “parallel classes scheme” wherein three simultaneous classes are handled by an expert teacher with the help of facilitators.

The Bernidos say that poverty need not be an excuse to compromise on teaching and learning excellence.

And the results have proved them right. AT CVIF, the around 500-strong mostly poor students showed radical improvement in their performance on national scholastic aptitude and university admission tests – attracting attention from other schools all over the country who made a beeline for Jagna, Bohol to learn how they did it.

The foundation further observed that in 2006, to address the severe shortage of qualified physics teachers, the Bernido couple designed the “Learning Physics as One Nation” project. Launched by the Fund for Assistance to Private Education in 2008, it is now implemented in over 200 private high schools, on top of the large number of other schools that have implemented the DLP model.

The program includes a portfolio of learning activities to be individually accomplished by the students, and closely-associated weekly video-based lectures featuring national expert teachers. Real time teacher-expert and student-expert interaction happen through text messaging and electronic mail.

Also in Jagna, the couple hold regular workshops that have drawn the country’s physics teachers, international scientists and even Nobel laureates who now use the strategy in teaching other students in other Philippine universities across the country.