Pasay City - The Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) which calls for the training in chess of DepEd officials by grandmasters belonging to the NCFP. This is part of the move to institutionalize chess in public elementary and high schools.
The MOA targets a 90-percent chess literacy in the Philippines. It also aims to regain Philippine chess supremacy in Asia.
Lapus cited studies which have shown that chess improves individual organization and analytical skills. Children when exposed to this game at an early age achieve academically better or even faster than those who have not been engaged in the same game.
The event also established the National Chess Academy (NCA) which will serve as the training venue for chess teachers, coaches and arbiters. NCA will hold office at De La Salle University under the supervision of NCFP Vice-President and Former CHED Chairman Rolando Dizon, FSC. The Executive Director is Bong Belen, whose school in Tanauan, Batangas, the First Asian Institute of Technology and Humanities (FAITH) will be the main training center.
Starting May 2009, Grandmaster Bong Villamayor will head a team of trainors who will provide training for 195 DepEd Chess Coordinators and School Coordinators who will be sent by their respective schools.
A three-day seminar workshop will be given, after which a Certificate of Chess Competence will be awarded to those who successfully pass a Competency Test to be administered by the NCFP through the NCA.
Chess will be implemented effective October of SY 2009-2010 in grades 3-6 (Edukasyon sa Pagpapalakas ng Katawan) and at high school 1-4 (Physical Education), as stipulated in DepEd Memorandum No. 1, s. 2009.
(via DepEd Communications Unit)
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