Centre for International Education Launches Books

The Centre for International Education (CIE) has launched two books that inspire appreciation and emulation of the Filipino ability to transform adversity into positive endeavors.

Written by Professor Nelia Cruz Sarcol, visionary and Filipino thought-leader, the books are “The Legend of the Pearl of the Orient: The Philippines” and “The Pearl Principle: Ang Diwa ng Perlas ng Silanganan”.

The books were first unveiled to the public on September 20, 2008 at the Casino Espanol de Cebu in Cebu City. The Metro Manila launch will be held on September 30, 2008 at the Makati Sports Club.

“The Legend of the Pearl of the Orient” is an illustrated storybook that depicts the perilous journey of merchants from China in search of wealth of neighboring lands by which to trade. Shipwrecked in a storm, they are guided by the lights from some of the islands that now compose the Philippines. They think that the lights come from legendary mermaids who are said to possess pearls that have extraordinary glitter. However, they are rescued by the islands’ inhabitants, who showed them that the greatest treasures are found in the hearts of the people.

The Legend book displays the true nature of Filipinos, their resilient attributes that enable them to conquer life’s most devastating storms.

“The Pearl Principle: Ang Diwa ng Perlas ng Silanganan” probes deeply into what could be a workable modern-day Philippine ideology. Through its “Ten Tenets of the Pearl Principle”, it presents its worldview “that is rooted in the transformation of adversity into a gem of a life … as in the creation of a pearl.”

For Inquiries contact:

CIE Main Campus
168 Pres. Magsaysay St., Kasambagan
Cebu City, Philippines
Call: (032) 412-7622

CIE Makati Extension Campus
Gold Tower, Palanca Street
Legazpi Village, Makati City, Philippines
Call: (032) 888-0909

“The Legend” book sells for P200 while “The Pearl Principle” book is pegged at P150.

In A Time of Great Uncertainty: Unrequited Love for Country

As our senses reverberate with the news of the armed conflict in Mindanao, the realities of the skyrocketing cost of living, and the diaspora of our countrymen in search of perceived green pastures overseas, an institution dares to reiterate its stand that the greatest thing a Filipino can do today is to love his/her country, no matter what the state it is in.

The call for unconditional love for country may run counter to the popular pastime of government and institution bashing. Even the token Philippine delegation to the 29th Olympics in Beijing who brought home some recognition in the exhibition sport of wushu and also broke some regional and local marks, was not spared from the brickbats.

Such is the point of the Centre for International Education (CIE), a 23-year old school with campuses in Cebu and Makati cities, which prides itself as The School for Leaders. It believes that the Filipino should not just roll over and die when subjected to the myriad of difficulties, both natural and man-made, that it is going through at this time. Rather, the Filipino should use these adversities to polish itself and become better persons, individually and a better nation, collectively.

This phenomenon is best illustrated in the creation of the pearl, the only precious gem that is created from a living organism – the oyster. Seemingly secure at the ocean floor, the oyster’s shell of protection is breached, and its tender tissues violated by irritants called “teredos”. In an act of survival, the oyster coats itself with nacre, putting its original form to rest, but in time resurrecting as the shiny gem called the pearl.

CIE celebrates the Filipino’s resilience and other positive values by publishing two books: “The Legend of the Pearl of the Orient”, and “The Pearl Principle: Ang Diwa ng Perlas ng Silangan.” The books are written by Prof. Nelia Cruz Sarcol, founder and concurrently president and chief executive officer of CIE.

The Legend of the Pearl of the Orient is an illustrated storybook that depicts the perilous journey of merchants from prehistoric China in search of wealth of the neighboring lands by which to trade. Shipwrecked, they are guided by the like glitter of lights from the islands of what are now the Philippines. They think that the lights come from legendary mermaids who are said to possess pearls that have extraordinary glitter. However, the shipwrecked traders are rescued by the island’s inhabitants, who showed them that the greatest treasures are found in the hearts of the people.

The Pearl Principle: Ang Diwa ng Perlas ng Silanganan probes deeply into what could be a workable modern-day Philippine ideology. Through its “Ten Tenets of the Pearl Principle”, it presents its worldview “that is rooted in the transformation of adversity into a gem of a life … as in the creation of a pearl.”

The launches will be held in Cebu City on September 20, 2008 at the Casino Espanol de Cebu and Makati City on September 30, 2008 at the Makati Sports Club.

Within the classrooms of CIE, The Pearl Principle and love for country are embraced right into the academic mainstream and taught to every student. The essence of caring for the community and the country is best reflected in a programme called the Gift of G.O.L.D. It essentially means the”Giving of One’s self to those who have Less and are Disadvantaged.” While the acronym reflects giving per se, the concept goes far beyond the old ways of charity.

Today, the Gift of GOLD has been integrated into CIE’s Basic Education academic programme, from Levels 7 to 12 (equivalent to Grades Five to Fourth Year High School). Under this program, the children learn the basics of business, learning practical skills to come up with marketable products and eventually set up a small enterprise. The difference in the way CIE does it is that each class will be putting up an enterprise with an economically-disadvantaged family as partner.

By creating micro-enterprises with beneficiary families, these families are helped to liberate themselves from poverty. At the same time, CIE students are developed to become social entrepreneurs, primed for leadership to become future captains of industry who open opportunities for others to grow.

The Gift of GOLD defines the kind of leaders that CIE grows and primes; the very one described in the CIE Vision: “CIE is a veritable institution in the Asia-Pacific that develops and nurtures influential generative leaders who champion the upliftment of the quality of human life.”

“Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas. Gagawin ko ang lahat upang siya’y maiangat sa pagkakasadlak.” This is a pledge that Teacher Nelia and other advocates of The Pearl Principle solemnly swear to. If more and more Filipinos would just keep the essence of this pledge to heart, then perhaps the Philippines will be able to conquer the adversities of the past and the present and subsequently shine forth to the rest of the world.

The Pearl Advocacy Makes Landfall in Occidental Mindoro

(Article written by Virgilio Paralisan, Executive Director of the Pearl Principle, for Volume 3, Issue 2 of The Village Centrex and published here with permission. The Village Centrex is the Official Publication of the Centre for International Education.)

Mamburao is an out of the way town in Occidental Mindoro. The sleepy capital town of the province, it has a population of 30,378 people and 6,259 households. It can be reached from Metro Manila by taking a bus to the Batangas City pier, taking a roll-on-roll –off (RORO) to Abra de Ilog Pier, which is about two hours travel, and finally riding a vhire, jeepney or bus to the town proper.

Mamburao is geographically cut off from most government services and most government agencies are not based in Mamburao but in Oriental Mindoro. There are limited opportunities for development.

Most of the time nothing much happens in Mamburao. This has changed. Last June 2007, the Centre for International Education (CIE) opened a Pearl Principle Formation School (PPFS) in the town in partnership with the Jubilee Parents Association (JPA). This special pre-school is called the JPA Learning Center.

You might ask why all the excitement about a pre-school in Mamburao? The PPFS is part of our Pearl advocacy- our effort to initiate positive change in our community and country. The PPFS, in particular, is our response to illiteracy in the urban and rural parts of the country. Making a PPFS work and even turning a profit in a community like Mamburao will give us the opportunity for learning and experience to make PPFS work in other areas with no investment from government, and no grants from foreign funding organizations. Since a PPFS is a social enterprise and a social franchise, it operates on a sound business model and has the capacity to replicate its success.

The establishment of a PPFS in a far off province like Occidental Mindoro was made possible through our partnership with the Jubilee Parents Association, an association made up of parents of children who were beneficiaries of the programs formerly managed by the World Vision Development Foundation.

World Vision Development Foundation is a foundation based in Canada. Preparing for the eventual phase out of the project funded by World Vision Development Foundation, the parents decided to establish their own support program for education and formalized the existence of their association. The Jubilee Parents Association was formally recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 1989.

JPA is currently governed by a Board of Directors made up of parent volunteers. These directors have served JPA for almost ten years now. The members of the board are:

Mary Ann Nares
Chairperson

Lorena Umali
Vice Chairperson

Estrellita Alafriz
Secretary

Givi Paglicawan
Treasurer

Soccoro Tesorio
Assistant Treasurer

Pilar Alfaro
Member

Rowena Aquino
Member

The program funded by World Vision Development Foundation was officially terminated on September 30, 2005. When the JPA considered running their own school, the development of the curriculum and the management of the school itself became a challenge. Initial information gathered by officials of JPA introduced them to the difficulty of setting up a school not only because of the legal requirements but also because of the experienced needed to set up a school that can deliver quality education.

The Pearl Principle Formation School is a special pre-school program developed by Professor Nelia Cruz-Sarcol, the founder and president of the Centre for International Education. It draws on her long years of experience in starting and running the Child Development Center of CIE, Cebu Campus. The PPFS uses the first-rate curriculum developed by Teacher Nelia for preschool children.

The PPFS was introduced to the Jubilee Parents Association through Jay Tabana, a Pearl Principle Advocate. Pastor Jay, as we call him, works through his Lighthouse Ministries. He encouraged one of JPA's most dedicated volunteer and youth leaders, Arturo "Art" Alafriz, Jr., to get involved in the Pearl Principle which eventually got him educated about the PPFS concept on August 12, 2006, in a PPFS Phase 1 Orientation held in Cordova Condominium, Makati City.

On August 14, 2006, the Board of Directors of JPA led by its Chairperson, Mary Ann T. Nares, unanimously voted for the operation of a PPFS and the creation of a committee to oversee its operation. The board also authorized the participation of Mr. Alafriz and two more teachers, Lianne Joy Saberola and Chandeleth Yanzon, to the PPFS Phase 2 Orientation in Cordova Condominium on December 9, 2006.

Even though CIE would have helped JPA prepare the feasibility study for the PPFS in the Municipality of Mamburao, JPA took the initiative of investing on a feasibility study themselves. It gave them confidence that they can actually operate a PPFS in their community. Clearly, JPA wanted the school to operate as early as June of 2007.

Against the limitations imposed by their own project schedules, JPA sent its volunteers to the CIE PPFS Training Workshop for Administrators and Mentors on May 21-23, 2007, at Cordova Condominium, Makati City. The three-day intensive training started as early as 8:00 am and finished as late as 8:00 pm.

The three volunteers, Art Alafriz, Lianne Joy Saberola and Chandeleth Yanzon, who all have bachelors in education and are licensed teachers, went through a rigorous introduction to the CIE methods and techniques of teaching developed by Teacher Nelia. These principles and strategies form the foundation of 21 years of pre-school education in CIE. Now for the first time these methods and techniques are being shared with institutions outside CIE in a common effort to end illiteracy.

In a wholehearted effort, Teacher Nelia not only gave them access to CIE programs an methods for preschool teaching, she also mentored them herself. The whole Presidential Management Staff (PMS) was also in the workshop learning for the first time how we are making life-long learners out of our own CIE pre-school kids through our academic programmes.

The JPA team was clearly very interested in learning more about preschool education. They took a lot of notes and asked very good questions about the learning process of pre-school age children. Teacher Nelia was very patient in going through the slow process of explaining the teaching principles she used in designing lessons for our pre-school.

The workshop covered topics on learning, the reading process, teaching math, teaching science, and critical thinking and culminated in the actual writing of lesson outlines. The participants were then required to make a teaching demo using their written lesson outlines for the different learning areas.

The PPFS training is an on-going process because the rest of the training is spent on site. The JPA mentors are submitting their lesson outlines via email and we critique each of these lesson outlines and then send them back for use for a week's set of lessons. Presently the mentoring and consulting are done through our Global Examinations and Qualifications or GEQ (pronounced "Check") and of course under the very methodical supervision of Teacher Nelia.

After the JPA Team successfully completed the 3-day intensive workshop they had to start the tedious process of organizing their school, marketing it and preparing for the opening of classes. We were quite optimistic that the school would not start empty. However, we did not expect them to get more than ten pupils by opening week.

They had barely two weeks to prepare for classes and they were still sending their lesson outlines a week before classes. Added to the challenge was the fact that there is a reputable pre-school in the poblacion that almost all pre-schoolers go to. Everyone's fingers were crossed.

We sent them the forms they will need to get their student registration process up and running. The Office of the CEO also sent designs for collaterals they can use for marketing the school. JPA tapped its network of volunteers to distribute flyers to inform the community that JPA Learning Center would be opening this June 2007.

Just as we were opening classes here in CIE Main, JPA informed us that they opened as scheduled with two classes in their first term with more than thirty pupils. It was an exciting feat for JPA Learning Center considering that they had barely a month to market the school with severely limited resources.

The JPA Learning Center just completed their first grading examinations. CIE has sent the first batch of official report cards for students to Mamburao. Parents’ sessions for Pearl Principle value formation are done at least an hour and a half every Saturday. Everything is coming into place for the JPA Learning Center. We will be evaluating the JPA Learning Center this coming first quarter of 2008 to find out if they have come up to CIE GEQ standards. We are very optimistic about the outcomes.

CIE Conducts Its First Pearl Principle Formation School Orientation for 2008 in Makati on January 12, 2008

The Centre for International Education will be conducting the First Pearl Principle Formation School Phase 1 Orientation for the National Capital Region for 2008 on January 12, 2008 at CIE Makati Extension Campus at the Ground Floor of Gold Tower, Palanca Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City, Philippines. The Orientation is open to the public however because of limited seating capacity of the venue prior reservation is necessary. No registration fee will be collected from participants.

Phase 1 introduces the Pearl Principle Formation School or PPFS. It covers the Pearl Principle Movement that the Centre for International Education founder Prof. Nelia Cruz-Sarcol started and the background of the PPFS itself. Phase 1 participants will walk through the Pre-qualification process to get an overview of the regulatory and organizational requirements of starting a PPFS. Participants don't have to bring anything.

The Senior Management Group of the Centre for International Education is now allowing individuals to qualify for a license to operate a PPFS. This will now give individuals or persons to set up a PPFS in their communities; however, the same stringent process of qualification and quality assurance still applies.

If you would like us to assess your suitability for this programme please bring your Articles of Incorporation and By-laws if you are a corporation (profit or non-profit) or your comprehensive resume if you want this to be a personal enterprise.

Program

Registration & AVP Presentation 10:0 0 a.m.

Welcome & Introduction 10:15

The Pearl Principle and Social Engagement

The Pearl Story 10:25
Social Engagement 10:40

The Pearl Principle Formation School 11:10

PPFS Process: An Overview 11:40
PPFS Survey 12:00

When reserving a seat please provide us your:

• Full Name
• Your Designation
• Organization's Name
• Complete Address with ZIP Code
• Phone with Area Code
• Mobile Phone
• Email

For immediate confirmation of your seat reservation please contact:

Carol Villanueva
Makati Extension Campus
Centre for International Education
Ground Floor Gold Tower
Palanca Street, Legazpi Village
Makati City, Philippines
Call: (02) 888-0909 / 892-3088