Saturday, May 02, 2009

RP Launches National Academy

While a few of the regular furnishings of Australian chess are at it again over on ChessChat, this time over the format of the next Juniors Championships to be held in Hobart - the Phillippines, on the other hand, are getting on with the business of creating future grandmasters. RP's Department of Education and the national chess body signed a memorandum of agreement wherein both organisations will work towards an amazing target of "90 percent chess literacy and regain Philippine chess supremacy in Asia" through a new institution named the National Chess Academy.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus was quoted as saying, "It is because chess is considered a game that encourages a higher level of thinking that DepEd this year will start teaching it in elementary and high school."

Apart from the aims mentioned above, other goals of the new NCA are to produce a Pinoy GM ranked in the top 10 in the world as well as to climb up to the top 10 in the Olympiad.

Next time you, my Aussie readers, spot an ACF official, tap them on the shoulder and ask: "So buddy, what's your plan for the future?"

And by the way, I wish all juniors and parents the best of time in Hobart. It's a gorgeous town with fresh, clean and crisp air. It's also been recently dubbed "Tasmanian Angel" by Monocle magazine.

2 comments:

Denis Jessop said...

You are a kick behind the play, Amiel. The CCF discussion is not now about the format for Hobart, which is settled, but the format for the future, which is not.

The ACF and the AusJCL are doing their bit for elite junior development in Australia per the Ergas Elite Junior Development Squad, now in its eighth year if my counting is right.

DJ

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to see what is happening outside Australia. On a similar vein, the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, Canada, has recently approved Chess as a full credit high school course. http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2009/03/chess-in-schools-in-bc.html