38th National Students' Congress – Day 1 and Day 2

The Pinoy Teens duo, yours truly and Princess attended the 38th National Students’ Congress at the Felis Resort Complex last December 8, 2011. The NSC is a 4 days affair organized by the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP).

Present at this years National Students’ Congress were more or less 65 student leaders from all across the country. The event was dominated by participants from Luzon, whilst the delegates from both Visayas and Mindanao combined, make up even half of the Luzon delegates.

It’s a bit ironic though, because this Congress is held in Davao City, with about 4-5 attendees coming from our very own place.

The 8th of December marked the arrival of the Student Leaders flocking in from all over the archipelago. There hasn’t been too much going on, reports Princess. Since all that was done on the first afternoon was a mere Orientation about the 38th NUSP NSC.

I have been around during the second day (December 9) of the Congress, and I have to admit that I feel pretty lucky about it to be around and present. There’s much to learn for both students and teachers alike – since there have been a few teachers who attended the NSC, too.

Topics that have been discussed in the morning includes the Opening Remarks to the whole affair hosted by Einstein Recedes, NUSP National President.(at which I wasn’t around yet)

Eyeopener on Tuition Fee Increase, Dubious Miscellaneous Fees and Budget Cut

Lucky me, that I made it to the first forum discussion entitled Misedukasyon (Miseducation). “We have learned a lot during this talk. It was a real eye opener to us when we learned about how irresponsible the government acts towards the education sector. It’s very careless from them to cut the budget from the education sector while adding insult to injury in adding the K+12 system.”, says one of the delegates. Another delegate notes that “K+12 is certainly not the solution to the poor graduates that we produce. We certainly need higher quality education which goes along high quality facilities, teaching staff and teaching material – certainly not MORE years to burden our parents with.”

There is so much more that I have personally learned at this Congress. The unreal increase of tuition fees and the dubious miscellaneous fees really hit the nail on the head for me. It makes me want to double check what’s included in the miscellaneous fees at my school.

The highly interesting topics noted above were followed by games aimed at getting all delegates together. It somehow gave them the feel of belongingness and be responsible for each other. One mistake could mean the loss of ones group. It was fun, while challenging for others who acted highly competitive. The best thing of all during the games was everyone showed exceptional sportsmanship.

NSC Leadership Workshops 1

It would be a waste of time if the Student Leaders around won’t go home with some valuable skill… that’s why there have been various Leadership Workshops that each could take part of. Each of the classroom discussion tackled a different topic ranging from Global Crisis down to Semi-Feudalism.

Dinner Time at Felis Resort with fellow Delegates

I’m not a real delegate here, but I find it really neat and kind at how welcoming and hospitable the other delegates have been towards me and Princess. I sat in at one of the workshops and I was immediately accommodated by the participants who were waiting for their speaker. They even thought that I was the one leading the workshop.

Dinner time soon followed after Mykel Andrada gave his talk on Culture Change. It was such an interesting topic that I can’t accommodate all my thoughts within this post. I’d probably go on and write a separate article on that in soon time.

The abundance of food amazed me. I find it kind of the Felis Resort to cosponsor the 38th National Students’ Congress.

It has been a very tiring day for all of us… but I just had to write about this immediately after the organizers called it a day. I’ll get back to all of you with another post as soon as I can. Meh, the people here are really hard working, while the delegates are already asleep, we’re still going on about what to do tomorrow.

But that’s got to be a whole new post.