OLVC Mission Bulletin (Online) June-September 2004 Issue
PHOTO REPORT: OUR LADY OF VICTORIES CATHOLIC SCHOOL
THE SOCIETY’S MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES OPENS ITS FIRST SCHOOL IN ASIA
After some considerations and well-pondered discussions, and as due to the urgent need of opening a school (N.B. the children who were possible students of the planned school were already growing up and parents were beginning to worry where to enroll them), the District Superior approved the idea of converting the church basement hall into ‘provisionary rooms’ for the ‘temporary school.’
This gladdened the parents and the soon-to-be parents of the mission. St. Anthony was quick in looking for us a ‘provisionary’ location of the school!
Finally, the wish of the Church, i.e. to restore the educational institutions to Christ, was to be realized in this mission land.
A meeting was called where interested parents and educators came. Teachers were then hired and the enrolment and school opening date was set and announced.
Due to the lack of space (as we only have two rooms), and due to the requirements of the Philippine Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) for opening a proper school such as some facilities that needed to be present, the enrolment was opened only to Nursery and Kinder Levels.
Preparations as to who would teach which class, the schedule of classes, the interior design of the rooms, paper works, etc. engrossed the teachers, workers, faithful and priests alike. As the conversion of the basement hall into school rooms proved to be a challenging job, the enrolment date had to be moved a week later in order to make sure everything worked out fine.
And on the 21st of June, 2004, the prior and also the school’s first Director, Fr. Joven Soliman, formally opened the school. This was witnessed by the first students and teachers of the school, the parents, priests, brothers, nuns and the faithful. Everyone was delighted with how the basement was transformed into school rooms! It should be noted that the hall used to be an open basement hall where regular Catechism classes were held for adult parishioners after the Sunday’s 9:00 am Sung Mass.
The school, with its two rooms, as it was envisioned only to be a provisionary building, could also be converted into one continuous hall. The partition wall of the two rooms is a collapsible wall, a sort of an accordion-type wall, which may be opened to make a one long hall, so Catechism classes, parish programs and other activities may still be held in the basement.
With this progress in our mission, we are still praying for a ‘permanent’ property for our school as we project the school (levels, student population, etc.) will increase as years come by. We are hoping to open a Preparatory Level next year, then two years from now, the Elementary Levels, hence, our fervent prayers for such property.
In the Philippines, we have a six-year Elementary School followed by a four-year High School. After which, the students may choose either to take College undergraduate courses or Technical (we call it Vocational non-degree) courses, some are four-year courses, others are three, five and even ten-year courses (as in the case of Law and other higher courses) depending on the nature of the course.
During the opening, Fr. Soliman congratulated everyone, the parishioners, teachers, priory workers and youth volunteers, for the successful concretization of this long-held project.
In it, he also thanked Our Lord and Our Lady as well as St. Anthony for this grace of obtaining, finally, a school for the mission. He also explained the meaning of the various elements in the school’s coat of arms (see next page). The new teachers also gave their remarks and congratulated the parents for enrolling their children in this school.
In the Philippines, it should be noted that there are a lot of pre-schools, specialized institutions and private elementary schools that are continuously opening due to the constant growing number of children—there is no legal abortion here and contraception is still considered immoral by most Catholics; big families still exist here. Hence, schools are opening almost everywhere.
For the Missions of Asia and Vocations
