Ladies and gentlemen, Good afternoon.
A week ago I received an email from Ma’am Cecile informing me that ISA had successfully complied with the requirements to enable ISA to remain in the Readers Cup “Winners’ Circle”, and as a matter of tradition I have to say a few words during the Readers Cup Awarding ceremony.
So, here I am this afternoon, proudly representing the Iloilo Scholastic Academy school community for the 4th time to personally express our gratitude to Scholastic Philippines and to the men and women behind the reading advocacy named as Scholastic Prime English Program, which I would fondly refer to as the Scholastic Reading program. I also take this opportunity to congratulate not only the winners in the 2022 Readers Cup, but all the partner-schools of the Scholastic Philippines.
I feel very proud speaking in front of you today not because ISA is one of the winners in the Readers Cup, but because I take pride in being a partner of Scholastic Philippines. For more than a decade now, Scholastic Reading program has been an indispensable platform in the realization of creating in our campus a thriving community of readers. I can’t imagine how our school can manage to sustain the reading momentum which has now deeply ingrained in the consciousness of every ISAer in the absence of this reading program.
I take pride in having correctly decided to seamlessly integrate the program with our English curriculum, which in the past ten years has consistently placed our learners at the top rank in various government and non-government academic evaluations.
I take pride while listening to the testimonies of parents saying “we love our school reading program”. Well, for them the Scholastic Reading program is OUR SCHOOL’s reading program. Thereby unwittingly infringing on the legal rights of Scholastic Philippines. So, I would tell these parents, “Ma’ams and Sirs, it is Scholastic Reading program”. “It’s our school reading program, all the same.” They would insist. So, to the ladies and gentlemen of Scholastic Philippines, it’s OUR SCHOOL reading program. Hope you won’t mind.
Thank you. To all our colleagues in the academe, keep safe everyone.
Watch the virtual award ceremony held on October 13, 2022: