This school year 2017-2018 marked the first senior high school graduation nationwide with the theme, “K to 12 Learners: Ready to Face Life’s Challenges”.
The Antonio Balmes National High School (ABNHS) recently concluded its first senior high school graduation on April 4, 2018.
This was attended by the school officials from the Schools Division of Tacloban City headed by District Supervisor Cesar C. Corpin.
A total of 27 first batch graduates (18 boys and 9 girls) received diplomas.
The boys had chosen the Technical Vocational Track (Automotive Servicing) while the girls preferred the General Academic Strand (GAS).
The guest speaker, Roxbelle Sabela, who is an alumna of ABNHS, shared her true-to-life story that she came from a poor family.
There were times that she wanted to give up life’s challenges, but, she did not. Instead, she made it as a motivation not to marry early and focus and finish her studies and look for a job.
Now, she was able to find a job in the government and helped her parents.
She emphasized to the graduates that they should not give up with the difficulties in life but strive hard and focus to finish their studies and look for a job.
Every single word that she uttered got the attention of the graduates and audience, which in exchange gave her a resounding applause.
The graduates were also motivated by the graduation speech of Antonio Lababo, Jr., who is an honor student in this school.
Lababo expressed that his family had faced a lot of difficulties in life, especially when his father committed a terrible mistake which greatly affected their daily subsistence.
At that time, he said to himself that he should not stop his studies whatever may happen because he had seen his mother cry at night and he could felt her pain.
He wanted to give her a good life and peaceful living. That is why whatever challenges that may come into his way, he always sees it positively. He also vowed that he will focus and finish his college studies in order to become a professional someday.
Lababo, in a private talk, when asked the question, “How do you feel finishing the senior high school education?” answered that he “feels happy, prepared, and confident to face life’s challenges because the curriculum of senior high school honed him to be more prepared to enter the labor force.
He enjoyed studying with the different subject areas although some problems cropped up along the way in its first two years of implementation, but, its long-term effects will be beneficial to us Filipinos.
He believes that change in our society starts with education. He hopes and pray that the implementation for the second batch of senior high school students will be near perfect, if not perfect, he added.
