A Degree in Agriculture, Anyone?

I've always felt that one had to study for something he is really interested in, and I am surprised that not many young people would want to study agriculture, to think that many of today's youth espouse concepts like saving the environment or saving the world or helping the poor - and what best way to do those by, well, studying what to plant and where and yes, feed the world in the most efficient way!  Glamorous it is not!  It will not make one famous or controversial.  However, I think it can make one rich, very rich, since we are primarily an agricultural nation. And, yeah, people eat!  We have to eat, or we die.  So the market is in a way, bottomless and never-ending in its need!


So if you're going into college and thinking of a course to take, and you love plants and animals and is curious how they grow, why not take Agriculture.  The University of the Philippines in Los Banos is a very competent school.  Also, there are so few of you studying this course, so the demand for your future job will surely be big - and that romantic notion of a gentleman (or lady) farmer would not be impossible!

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Supporting Foreign Language Teaching in our Public Schools

I read with interest, an article in the Bulletin Today wherein the Department of Education is holding a Summer Training Course for Teachers of the Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFIL) - Spanish in my Spanish school, the Instituto!  That's cool!  It's great that our Education Secretary Armin Luistro is pushing this program for another year.  I remember last year, we had to have our classes in Adamson because of these teachers.  The article says though that the participants of the seminar will use the AVE or the Aula Virtual de Espanol. We use that too in class!

Aside from Spanish, the DepEd has piloted different foreign languages including Japanese, French, German and Chinese for secondary school teachers from various schools nationwide in 2011.  How cool is that!  These seminars form part of the DepEd's thrust to improve the quality of education through teacher's education and training.

According to Luistro, "Knowledge in a foreign language will allow our students to participate in intellectual discourses during engagement in social, political and economic issues in a wider global and scientific community.  And as we communicate our thoughts and understand others, we can further develop our potentials and enhance our capacity in learning life skills, as well as the cognitive and effective competencies, required of us to connect to the world."

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PEPT 2012 Schedule for Out-of-School Youth

The Department of Education has announced that the 2012 Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT) will be administered on June 12 for free as part of the department's celebration of the country's 114th Independence Day.  The test result will determine the grade or year level appropriate for the test taker.  PEPT covers all grade/year level from Grade 1 to Fourth Year high school so that takers can have a chance to move to the next grade or year level or even complete basic education in just one examination.

The exam covers the regular DepEd curriculum which are English, Math, Science and HEKASI for elementary and Araling Panlipunan for high school.

Interested parties may register at DepEd's division offices nationwide from March 5 to May 25, 2012.  The documentary requirements are Form 137/138, birth certificate and two 1x1 pictures.  The division testing coordinators are directed to submit the actual number of registrants to the DepEd's National Educational Testing and Research Center.

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The Mind Museum in Taguig

I'm not really a science buff but I think the newly opened Mind Museum in Taguig would be a good place for Laura to explore and for her to satisfy her curiosity on scientific concepts like gravity or space or dinosaurs.  It looks like a swanky place to with very pricey tickets (at least for Third World standards) but since it's well-situated near a mall, why not pass by it before going to the mall!  Methinks I'll pass by this week, especially that Laura and Dylan don't have school anymore!

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What You Should Be Taking If You Were Going to College in 2012

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has finally released a list of courses which would hopefully encourage the incoming college freshmen of 2012, to take since there is a marked demand for such jobs.  This comes as the government agency wants to stem the continued oversupply of nurses and education graduates.

The PRC has suggested that the incoming freshmen take a pick from the following courses - optometry, nutrition and dietetics, guidance counseling, social work, medical technologists, pharmacy, library science, psychology and dentistry.

They have also asked parents and students to avoid taking nursing and education since there is an oversupply of graduates from those courses.

Well, in the end, each student has to assess where he or she is really good at!  That's actually the fastest way of making money!