MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A 15-year-old high school student from Aurora province recently bagged the grand prize in the PLDT HomeFibr Broadband Quiz, an online academic contest participated in by top graduates of PLDT’s flagship education advocacy program Infoteach Outreach Webinar Series.
Ma. Eugenie Yvette Gata, a Grade 10 student from Casiguran National High School in Aurora, won the grand finals, winning a cash prize of P25,000, a laptop, and a gold medal for herself; and two laptops and a printer for her school. All winners and their respective schools and DepED Division Offices also received plaques of appreciation.
Aligned with the PLDT Group’s core value of malasakit, the PLDT HomeFibr Broadband Quiz, now on its 11th year, is the yearly culmination of the Infoteach Outreach Program, PLDT’s flagship project for its education pillar.
“We at PLDT and our partner, the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), conducted the 2020 and 2021 Infoteach Webinar Series with relevant topics intended to provide beneficial digital literacy training to high school students,” said PLDT FVP and Head of Corporate Communications Cathy Yap-Yang. “We now have with us lifelong learners, whose passion for learning goes beyond the required lessons,” she added.
First runner-up Key Calpito, a Grade 12 student from Cabarroguis National School of Arts and Trades, Quirino province, gained P20,000 cash, a laptop, and a silver medal; and a laptop and printer for her school. Another Grade 12 student, Jobelle Enverga, of Jesus Dela Peña National High School, Marikina City, got the 2nd runner-up award, with P15,000 cash, a laptop, and a bronze medal; and a laptop for her school.
“Abiding by the health protocols of the government due to the pandemic, we continued the Infoteach training in webinar format in 2020, and rolled out Phase 6 of the Webinar Series this year,” related PLDT Community Relations Head Katherine Diaz De Rivera, noting that, “This is a milestone event, being the first time we conducted virtually the Infoteach graduation and awarding of the Broadband Quiz winners.”
UPOU Chancellor Dr. Melinda Bandalaria thanked the DepED and other partners “for working with us closely so we can find the most appropriate way of implementing the training rollout in the online mode of delivery. For our student-participants, it was indeed a tough journey… We congratulate all of you!”
To help drive its advocacy #NoLearnerLeftBehind, the PLDT Group strongly advocates for education, committing to help the Philippines attain the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG#4: Inclusive Quality Education.