On Feb. 4, Ateneo de Manila University’s campus paper The Guidon announced that Ateneo will be establishing a new school focused on education and learning design this August. The School of Education and Learning Design (SEALD) will be the fifth Loyola school set to open this year.
A memorandum released by university president Fr. Roberto C. Yap, SJ, states that the school “constitutes the university’s strategic response to the challenges of Philippine education and will enable us to address these challenges more effectively through what we hope will be a strong institutional identity and presence in the national educational landscape.”
The idea to form SEALD was proposed 20 years ago by former acting Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng,PhD., who said that the approach has since evolved.
According to Cuyegkeng, “We want to approach [Philippine education] from a very holistic perspective that draws upon Jesuit education [and] principles. We want it to be innovative and collaborative.”
The Guidon report said that “SEALD will house the Education Department, which is currently under the School of Social Sciences, as well as the Department of Educational Leadership, and Department of Catholic Education Philosophy and Practice. It will also house the Ateneo Teacher Center as its arm for teacher training, the Ateneo Science and Art of Learning and Teaching Institute (SALT) for research and innovation, and the Pathways for Higher Education for Outreach.”
