There’s no doubt English is the official language of tourism on Boracay, and that the children of today will be Boracay’s entrepreneurs and employees of tomorrow.

So starting them young in English language training means giving Boracay’s schoolchildren a shot at a better future.

Some 60 schoolchildren are getting this head start at an English Improvement Course being held weekly for the next two months at the Paradise English Language Institute at Manoc-Manoc near Cagban.

These Grade 1 to Grade 4 pupils from the Balabag Elementary School are being taught how to speak better English by volunteer teachers from the Paradise English institute and the Boracay European International School. This special course began in January.
“At the end of two months, the kids should be able to pronounce English better; increase their English vocabulary and form better English sentences,” said Claus Bauer, organizer of this special English program and president of Paradise English institute.

He noted that the pupils were “…receptive and incredibly enthusiastic. They have a fantastic attitude and are really into learning English.”

“It’s easier to teach a child that wants to learn than a child that wants to be taught,” Bauer explained.

He noted, however, that they still need the community’s help to continue teaching and feeding the children.

“What would be great from the community is sponsoring our teaching materials and sponsoring teachers,” Bauer said.

“It would be great if a resort could sponsor the lunch for our 60 kids.”

Community support is essential for the success since the program will now be year-long instead of only two months as was the case during the pilot program in 2011.

“We intend to train another group two months from now. We’re trying to go every two months or six times this year.”

He also issued an appeal for more teacher volunteers to make this expanded training possible. More teachers would permit them to expand the English language course to include high school students from the first to fourth year.

Bauer said the teacher volunteers don’t necessarily have to have a graduate degree in Education or English. They should, however, have a good command of English and experience in tutoring, if possible.





go to top page