The memorandum was issued two days after last Saturday’s Binibining Pilipinas pageant at the Araneta Coliseum. It said the country’s education officials were so elated at how the contestants breezed through the Question and Answer (Q & A) portion that they want other students to emulate the example.

It said that after the success of the Beauty Pageant Wave, a program of the Committee on the Promotion of Congeniality Through Beauty Pageants and...]]>

MANILA – The Department of Education’s Committee on the Promotion of the English Language Through Beauty Pageants and Other Funny Activities issued yesterday a memorandum urging all schools to hold more beauty contests to arrest the decline of English proficiency in the country.

The memorandum was issued two days after last Saturday’s Binibining Pilipinas pageant at the Araneta Coliseum. It said the country’s education officials were so elated at how the contestants breezed through the Question and Answer (Q & A) portion that they want other students to emulate the example.

It said that after the success of the Beauty Pageant Wave, a program of the Committee on the Promotion of Congeniality Through Beauty Pageants and Other Funny Activities, it is now Q & A’s turn to uplift the country’s standard of education.

“While we now enjoy the fruits of our labor in promoting the Wave, let us not sit on our laurels. There’s still the decline in English Proficiency to think of. We’re confident the Q & A can do the job,” an education official, who requested anonymity, said.

The memo includes guidelines on how questions should be formulated to encourage brilliant answers. The samples include “If you were a frog, which country would you prefer and why?” and “If your house were a rainbow, which color is your mother’s room and why?”

“I don’t have a problem with ‘World Peace’ questions,” another education official, who also requested anonymity, said. “Our youth should strive to be like Mother Theresa. But we need questions that will encourage them to think out of the box and help them remember their adverbs like ‘actually,’ and helpful phrases like ‘well, as for me.’”

To stress that the program is meant to promote global competitiveness among the youth, the memo includes samples of excellent answers to beauty pageant questions worldwide. It cites last year’s Miss Teen USA that launched the YouTube career of Miss Teen South Carolina.

To the question why one fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a map, as shown in surveys, Miss South Carolina answered: “I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and that I believe our education like such as South Africa and the Iraq, and everywhere, such as, and I believe that they should our education over here in the US, should help the US, or should help South Africa and help the Iraq and the Asian countries so that we will be able to build out our future for us.”

“If only our young girls could talk like that,” the two education officials, who insisted to remain unknown, said. With last Saturday’s Binibining Pilipinas pageant, however, education officials see a bright future as the event showed the country’s youth are not really that far behind. The memorandum ends with an excerpt from the pageant’s Q & A (name of contestant withheld as she is a minor).

“Question: What role did your family play for you as candidate to Binibining Pilipinas? Answer: Well, my family’s role for me es so important, becos… der was dow, dir, dey was da one… whoo’s…very… haha… oh, I’m so sorry. Um, my pami-ley, my fami-ley… oh my God. I’m… OK, I’m so sorry. I, I told you dat I’m so honfident. Eto, ahmm wait: Ahahahaha. Um, sorry guys becos des was really my perst pageant ever! Because I’m only seventeen years old. And, ahaha-hee. I, I did not ikspek dat I came from… I came from one of da taff ten. Hmm… So… but I said, dot… my family es da most important persons in my life. Tenk you.” (PR)

(sun.star, march 11, 2008)