Sr. Merceditas Ang, SPC (University President) and Dr. Jeremy Godofredo Morales (Director, International Relations) were among the awardees in the 2021 Global Education Summit and Awards. Organized by the International Center for Excellence in Education (INCEED) and the Society for Perpetuation of Art, Culture and Education (SPACE), the summit was held virtually on June 6, 2021.
The awards were given in recognition of their exceptional contribution to various fields in education. SR. MERCEDITAS ANG, SPC was conferred “OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AWARD” while, DR. JEREMY GODOFREDO MORALES was recognized as “OUTSTANDING LANGUAGE TEACHER OF THE YEAR”.
Sr. Merceditas and Dr. Morales joined the roster of honorees together with their fellow educator-awardees from over 20 countries, like India, Philippines, Malaysia, Fiji, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Canada, and Pakistan.
The said international conference on education also featured the keynote address of Dr. Som Naidu, (Pro-Vice Chancellor/Director of the Center for Flexible Learning, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji), who expounded on the theme: ” Flexible Learning during Educational Disruption in the Contemporary Scenario – The Way Forward.” Accordingly, in the context of the of COVID-19, several countries have adopted various flexible teaching and learning approaches in their education systems. He stressed that, “flexible learning is a set of educational approaches and systems concerned with providing learners with increased choice, convenience, and personalization to suit their needs. In particular, flexible learning provides learners with choices about where, when, and how learning occurs, by using a range of technologies to support the teaching and learning process.”
Moreover, the discussions of Dr. Shauli Mukherjee (Founder/Principal of Adamas World School and STEM World School, Kolkota, India) and Dr. Jyothi Ramachandran (Former CBSE Principal & Awardee, Maharashtra, India) focused on online education as one of the main approaches in flexible learning. For them, online learning, as a subset of distance education, has always been concerned with providing access to educational experiences that are at least more flexible in time and in space than campus-based education by utilizing different types of technologies. They reiterated that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and educational leaders are entering uncharted territory to find solutions to assure the continuity of learning.
