Cebu Mary Immaculate College

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WELCOME TO CMIC

GRADUATION MESSAGE

Dr. Montana M. Phua
CMIC Director & Principal

    Mr. Alfredo Phua, Chair of the CMIC Board of Trustees, CMIC President, Dr. Marc Achilles Phua, Chair of the Parents’ Circle, Dr. Reynette Christine Ligaray, Administrators, parents, children, teachers & staff, guests, friends, a wonderful morning to you all!

    Finally you have achieved new heights in your educational formation that you cannot help but celebrate what may seem to most of you the pinnacle of your success! But let’s not just leave it to words. High school, Grade school, and Kindergarten graduates… all the graduates, please indulge me right now. Please stand, exchange congratulatory smiles or handshakes… and now give yourself a very warm round of applause! Everyone, let’s give them the applause they all deserve today! After all the challenges you had to face, after all the hard work and time you invested, and after all the sweat, the tears, and all your prayers to Father God in Jesus’ name and through the intercession of Mother Mary, my heart now swells with pride to see all of you, my Graduates…MY CHILDREN, happy because of your success! And now your happiness is my happiness today. Thank you all for making me feel that way. You may now take your seats.

    Without a doubt, your love ones who have been anxiously waiting for this moment with you feel as elated as I do. I am also sure that our school chaplains like Father Arnie Visitacion of San Carlos Seminary, and Father Greg Short of the Oblates of Mary, feel equally as proud, that their efforts to enrich your Christian values with God’s word have been met with success.

    Your teachers also share this elation after seeing how the very overwhelming tasks of molding your hearts and minds just to meet the CMIC standards, bore wonderful fruit. And we know that at the end of the day, after the selfless and persistent efforts to keep you in line would have left them exhausted, your success renews their energy and vigor to do more for other children who will come after you. That is every bit the true educators they are! (Glance at your administrators and clap at them).

    Many parents have often approached me complaining about the CMIC standard. Many saw that it was far from easy. For others, it was just too much work for their children. There were even a few who considered it an unrealistic ideal. But I commend all these parents for sharing all their hearts’ doubts and desires for their children, because I had the opportunity to improve their own outlooks. A child’s attitude to work and school is significantly influenced by their parents’ attitude. A wise man name Konusuke Matsushita once was once quoted as saying, “Change your thoughts, and you change your behavior. Change your behavior and you change your attitude. Change your attitude, you change your habits. Change your habits and you change your personality.” I have been witness to many changes recently, mostly for the good. What you see before you is a product of that change, necessitated and realized to achieve the CMIC standard. Behind those radiant faces are stories of that change. Most stories were already expected, given the 21 years of experience this school has had. Some stories are very encouraging, they keep us educators on the frontlines of our profession. But then there as some stories which are down-right awe-inspiring, they become examples not just for teachers, but for parents as well. I have been witness to one such story of change, and that story belongs to none other than Joshua Jover. Joshua, please stand for a moment to be recognized. A round of applause for him please! Thank you Joshua!

    Joshua garnered a general scholastic aptitude rating of 92% in last August’s National Career Assessment Exams. Yes, you heard right…92%. And if all the other parents wish their children to achieve the same, then they would want to know how he did it. In a nutshell, half of the story concerns what he did, since he was, after all, the one who personally answered the exams. Half of the story belongs to Joshua’s parents, who realized early on that their deep involvement in Joshua’s school work was essential. Instead of questioning the CMIC standard for their child, they chose to face his trials with him. To do that, they were always beside him during his journey. Congratulations Betty and ______ . The story you share with Joshua will remain in CMIC history. Remember children and parents? Thoughts, behavior, attitudes, habits, personality. Another modified adage goes like this, “Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. Remember, it is everyone’s destiny to reap EXCELLENCE.

    I am also grateful to all those parents who personally share how their sons and daughters in Kinder 2 have become fluent speakers, excellent comprehends, and good readers and writers. The Grade 6 graduates have accomplished all the requirements set by the Department of Education, and have passed all the mock-exams, and have met all requirements for the National Achievement Tests (NAT). Furthermore, the Fourth Years have hit our target for the simulated National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT), where 100% of takers garnered scores of 85 and above. My dear learners, teachers and parents, we have once again witnessed the wonderful results of your relentless cooperation. May this cooperation continue to flow in voluminous amounts.

    On November 8, 2008 a Taiwan and Hong Kong Professor Cheng Yen Cheong of the Hong Kong Institute of Education postulated that home-school cooperation is becoming the core mission of school education and a core task of school administrators; so systematic regulations on home – school cooperation should be imposed and its effectiveness should be one of the indicators of school performance. Accordingly, education should inspire the students’ high value-added competencies, which mostly cannot be obtained from books. Parents and teachers should play different roles to assist the children to develop these skills through various activities and education processes. In Taiwan, Miss Chin Hsiu-lan, former principal of Taipei Country Luh-Jiang Junior High School, was a pioneer in promoting a new school operation model with home-school cooperation in secondary school.
We the school heads have annual meeting with the Presidential Task force for Education headed by our government officials. This year, I will lobby the proposal that home-school cooperation should be compulsory modules in teacher education, particularly now for the added curriculum for 5th year college levels. This is to intensify and make other schools benefit from what we have been implementing in this school.

    Furthermore, CMIC will be implementing further improvements including:

The hiring and consultation of an additional education expert to assist our basic education administrators and teachers, and to maximize classroom learning and instruction in both campuses.
The installation of surveillance and monitoring cameras in the school vicinity and classrooms for more efficient and effective centralized monitoring.
Adoption of the recommendations by the Presidential Task Force on Education. Our government has taken an active stance in the general education of the citizens of tomorrow, due to the alarming prospect that the Filipinos might be at the tail-end of results in international academic evaluations. It wants us to compete with other countries like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, whose academic ratings have been internationally recognized. As you have noticed, the reviews and re-takes undergone by many of our learners to meet the 85% average cut-off have helped us raise our school standard.
We are also increasing the scholarships to provide more access for deserving students.
We are sustaining programs on quality assurance through the upgrading of faculty qualifications by sending them to universities to complete their masteral degrees.
We are continuously implementing massive renovations and other facility improvements such as a covered basketball court, new comfort rooms, electric drinking fountains, classroom and structural renovations in the D. Jakosalem campus.
In our Talamban campus, we are formulating plans for the construction of an out-patient medical center and emergency room as a prelude to plans for a 100-bed mini-hospital. This is in view of the subsequent establishment of seven para-medical courses for the tertiary level.

To you my dear parents, students, teachers and staff, I thank you very much for contributing to the growth of Cebu Mary Immaculate College, and for making yourselves a part of this big family. May the Triune God through the intercession of Mary Immaculate bless our family and guide us in all our undertakings!

Once again, Congratulations everyone and enjoy the graduation festivities!

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