Tinian hosts education summit today

Tinian will host today an annual gathering of representatives from various community sectors in an education summit that will attempt to gauge over-all perceptions and expectations of the state of CNMI’s public education.

The forum dubbed as “The Great Expectations” is anticipated to bring together over 200 participants to include parents, teachers, business leaders and other community members.

Board of Education Chair Frances H. Diaz yesterday extended an invitation to the whole Tinian community to take part in one of the largest education dialogues scheduled for the year.

“This would be the best opportunity for community members to air out their concerns as well as their expectations on what direction they want public education to take,” said Ms. Diaz.

Organizers said the forum will not dwell on specific topics for discussion, rather participants will decide during the summit itself what subjects they want discussed, in order of priority.

“They will be divided into eight groups and each group will come up with a topic they think is most important to them,” said the BOE chair.

Today’s keynote speaker is former senator and doctor of Education John Salas while Tinian High School Counselor Barbara Eavey will be the facilitator during the general session.

Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos is also expected to present today a report on the state of CNMI’s Public School System.

Registration begins at 7 a.m. to be followed by the opening ceremony where Mayor Francisco M. Borja, BOE Vice Chair Roman Benavente, Municipal Council Chairwoman Juanita Mendiola and Sen. J. Adriano are expected to deliver their welcoming remarks.

The latter part of the summit is reserved for the series of workshops which will center on Special Education: The Law Presenter, Inclusion, modified curriculum, lesson planned grading, and Multiple intelligence using Social Studies contents.

A similar forum will also take place on Saipan tomorrow at the Hopwood Junior High School, spearheaded by the CNMI Council of Parent-Teacher Associations and PSS.

Mr. Benavente said the summit’s main thrust is to restructure and strengthen character education in schools.

The event will feature an off-island guest to deliver talks on parents’ roles and impacts on a child’s learning growth.

“We are pressured with a lot of social problems in our schools. Primarily, these problems somehow reflect on the parents. This is a community call to advise parents to be more sensitive to their kids’ needs…we should talk to our kids, encourage them to strive for their dreams and instill motivation in them,” said Mr. Benavente, who is chair of the BOE Parent Involvement Committee.

The board member underscored on character education as a significant part of student achievement, saying it is as important as academic learning.

Furthermore, the forum is already eyed to alleviate miscommunication between education leaders and community residents.