New Teacher Institute Background

1965 saw the beginnings of SAIDI when Sr. Jacqueline Blondin, MIC, launched a special program in educational media and technology for educators all over the country. This program was called as the Summer Educational Media Institute (SEMI) and operated in the old campus of SAIDI in Intramuros, Manila. Several years later, SEMI’s success became a full graduate program of SAIDI offering a master’s course in the field of educational media and technology. (A shift in the major thrust of the graduate school occurred in 1972 when Sr. Jacqueline E. Blondin, MIC, founder and director of SAIDI Institute, decided to focus and channel the resources of the institute to the development of a relatively new field of studies – Organization Development. In this program, the systems theory, used as a foundation principle of Instruction Development, was adapted and applied to organizations).

Three decades later, in the summer of 2002, SAIDI – Graduate School of OD, revisited its commitment to the continuing professional development of educators (from both private and public schools) coming from the different parts of the nation. This fortuitous event brought about the confluence of several factors. The Dean, Dr. Rosalina Ora’a-Fuentes, had felt the need to be more actively involved in the continuing education of our teachers. The resounding suggestion made to the foundation’s Board: It was time to pay more attention to the other graduate program of the School of OD-- the Master of Arts in Instructional Development and Technology. This is a program tailor-made for teachers who will become teacher-leaders or teacher agents for change. Timely there was Fr. Jose Maria B. Legaspi interested in Instructional Technology who readily offered his services to be involved in an undertaking that will improve the knowledge competencies and skills of teachers in integrating technology in their classroom work. SAIDI endorsed his application for a scholarship grant with FAPE for graduate study in this area @
Columbia University, New York City, USA. Dr. Fuentes agreed to look more closely into the program. She brought with her three SAIDI candidates namely: Jomar Legaspi, Nona Ricafort, and Nellie Ilas to experience a week-long “taste” of an abbreviated version of the program offered by Columbia University.

Today, eight batches of educators, with 63 graduates, have taken this worthwhile academic journey. Our NTI graduates come from all over the country spanning the three major islands of the Philippines – from Benguet in Northern Philippines, Palawan, Visayan Islands such as Antique, Iloilo, Negros, Cebu, Leyte, and Samar, to Misamis Oriental (Northern Mindanao) and Davao City, the last being the southernmost area represented in the NTI program. The pride of this program: Scholarships (full and partial) are made available to the program participants. Generous donors like, Tan Yan Kee Foundation, the World Bank, and individuals had responded to support the cause of “graduate educators for the Basic Education Teachers.”

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