KCFI conducts a face-to-face mentoring session for teachers in Lobo as part of ‘Agham Para sa Pagbabago’ with the Lopez Learning Synergy SummitThe holiday season is in the air! Yet, the last two months of the year remain the busiest as we celebrate the 23rd broadcast anniversary of the Knowledge Channel, National Children’s Month and National Reading Month on top of our other continuing programs this year.

The Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI) we know today started as SKY Foundation Inc. in 1999. Twenty-three years later, the videos and resources of Knowledge Channel have reached all 17 regions, 73 provinces and more than 8,000 public schools in the Philippines through its various channels on air, online and offline.
More importantly, we continue to ensure that our videos are relevant to the needs of Filipino children by aligning our inventory of more than 2,000 multimedia learning resources with the most essential learning competencies set by the Department of Education and the National Early Learning Framework of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council. We have come a long way and are even more excited about what lies ahead!
Another highlight for the month of November is our celebration of National Children’s Month. We partnered with the ECCD in their celebration of the Early Years Fair. For our part, we cohosted a multi-sectoral symposium on Nov. 24 with the Asian Philanthropy Circle and its member organizations in the Philippines, namely Ayala Foundation, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. and the Zuellig Family Foundation. National and local government officials, community organizations, teachers, parents and other stakeholders attended the event. Our keynote speaker was Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a distinguished advocate of mental health and education, who spoke on this year’s theme, “Sama-samang Alagaan at Pagtibayin ang Kaisipan ng Bawat Bata at Pamilyang Pilipino.” The LEGO Foundation, OneSky Foundation, Centre for Evidence and Implementation and the Department of Health joined us in this event. They discussed best practices in early childhood care and answered the questions from the audience. We truly hope that those who participated in the symposium will be able to bring these lessons to their ECD programs and initiatives in their communities.
November is also National Reading Month. In support of this celebration and in response to a request from Yapak Elementary School, KCFI staff recorded storytelling videos in Filipino and English. We dream that initiatives like this can help more Filipino children find joy in reading.
We continued with the rollouts of Knowledge Channel Teaching in the New Normal or KCTINN, a teacher training program aimed at equipping teachers with the skills needed for effective blended learning. For November and December, we catered to roughly 600 teachers from the schools division offices of Mandaue, Roxas, Isabela and Siargao. This school year, we also had our first face-to-face mentoring session with our partner schools in Lobo, Batangas. This initiative is part of the “Agham Para sa Pagbabago” or APP program, a partnership with the Lopez Learning Synergy Summit to help science teachers in the area to improve their science pedagogy.
Finally, I want to share with you one of our biggest face-to-face events this year— the grand school tour of the EcoProject on Nov. 18. The EcoProject is a partnership that we have with UnileverBreeze Philippines, the schools divisions of Taguig City and Pateros as beneficiaries, which aims to educate and empower young students, their families and school communities to participate in environmental protection. We missed being with the students face to face, and we are happy to see them back to school, healthy and excited to learn.
As the year ends, we hope you will have a meaningful and peaceful Christmas celebration. Many call this time the “season of giving,” and in this light, we invite you to partner with KCFI so that we can continue to provide teachers, parents and students with access to thousands of video lessons and other digital resources. Please help us bring hope and encouragement to our partner school communities by donating to Knowledge Channel through BPI Acct. No. 0201-0409-14. Please email a copy of your deposit slip to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for documentation purposes. For updates and more educational materials from Knowledge Channel, visit our official website (knowledgechannel.org).

(Story/Photos by:Rina Lopez)