Secretary Briones • 1, Regional Director Bayocot

Greetings from DepEd NorMin!

The past two school years have not been easy, and to come out resilient and survive the crisis make this occasion extra special. Therefore, this commencement ceremony after the rain depicts strongly our young learners’ dedication, hard work, accomplishments, and triumphs. This occasion is a meaningful moment for both parents and teachers to rejoice and celebrate their children’s and student’s educational milestones, not to discount the teachers’ and parents’ nobility in this period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As we passionately collaborate as a country, this year’s graduation rites are memorable more than ever since we now seeing the brighter light to the end of this pandemic. Thus, today’s learners, completers, and graduates are the ones who experience the hard-fought battle to help contain the virus and provide support to those who emotionally struggled during the height of the OCVID-19 surge.

The Department of Education (DepEd) highly celebrates these acts of our learners because we have developed within them a mind that is capable of thinking and deciding what is right not just for oneself but also for the greater good and a heart that is sensible enough to willfully care for and support the needy. These learned life skills are the greatest treasures in this most trying time, which highlight the K to 12 curriculum sets of skulls and competencies. Indeed, DepEd has produced holistic learners.

This year’s graduation theme – K to 12 Graduates: Pursuing Dreams and Fostering Resilience in the Face of Adversity – underscores that resiliency already manifests in our daily lives as we continue to endeavor with life’s adversities even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning today, you, our learners, graduates, and completers are in the inception of taking your quest to the next level beyond the comfort of your schools or grades. Apparently, this occasion signals the start of the tougher and more tedious life. Never fear, for you are geared up to ensure your successes. Your DepEd family is confident that you can hurdle every border beyond. Face every hindrance that comes your way as you continue the path to your dreams. DepEd is one with you in this journey. Our thanks to the families of all our learners in DepEd Region X. Thank you for entrusting their education to us. Also, our utmost thanks to our numerous stakeholders who have never hesitated to help in ensuring our children’s quality basic education. Indeed, our learners’ success is all our victory. Congratulations and Godspeed!

On this special occasion, I express my heartfelt felicitations to the DepEd officials, local executives, teachers, parents, personnel, and all stakeholders who are instrumental in educating and molding our graduates and completers of School Year 2021-2022. They were the ones who steered the educational vessel as it sailed through the turbulent waves of the pandemic. We know for a fact that the global pandemic has greatly affected our learners and no situation has ever been more challenging than ensuring learning continuity amidst an unprecedented health emergency and crisis. This phenomenon has made definite and clear that we are living in a world that is constantly characterized by volatility and complexity.

Volatility is defined as the liability to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse. In our Department, the new normal contributed to the volatility of the situation. We needed to do a paradigm shift, immediately. We needed to change, in reptilian speed, our navigational strategies. The Be More Initiative (Bringing Excellence by Maximizing and Optimizing Resources in Education) helped us refocus all our human and financial resources to what is urgent, relevant, and necessary. It helped us cope with the sudden shift of processes and systems. It is a living testament that for us to rise above volatile change we need creativity and innovativeness- for we need new solutions to new problems and new mindsets to new situations.

How did we deal with complexity? The best antidote to complexity is collaboration. Adaptive strategies to deal with complexity in the delivery of education in the midst of the pandemic were collaboratively developed. Through collaboration with the Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental, the Local Government Units, Government agencies, NGOs, parents, internal and external stakeholders we were able to develop a shared problem perception, creating a common understanding of complexities. To deal with complexity we promoted critical thinking in the organization. This is important to help improve decision-making, refine research skills, stimulate curiosity, and enhance problemsolving ability. For instance, over the last two years, our teachers conducted educational researches as part of optimizing the talents of our teachers as our most important resource. They explored all key result areas and tackled all possible problems that affect the new modalities of teaching and learning in all to help learners and parents handle the rigors of instructional delivery during the pandemic. Volatility and Complexity taught us a lesson that Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking help us rise above even the worst situation. To the graduates and completers, the best skill you acquired from this situation is RESILIENCE. And because you emerged victorious and STRONGER, you will be able to hurdle every problem that will come your way as you continue to tread on the unfamiliar path to pursue your dream of getting the best version of yourself. Again, CONGRATULATIONS!