CALASIAO, Pangasinan—A 16-year-old Grade 10 student from San Juan National High School in Ilocos Sur will participate in the Philippine Health Insurance Co.’s (PhilHealth) National Quiz Bee in February next year to represent the regions of Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Cordillera Administrative Region.
Venice Kristine Myr Veloria won the area level quiz bee on Tuesday with the total score of 17 from the three categories, two points ahead of Analene Andress Bongat of Namillangan National High School in Ifugao.
“I did research with the help of my coach and prayed to God. That is what I will do again in preparation for the national [competition],” Veloria said in an interview.
She also lauded the Universal Health Care (UHC) law as a “big help” for Filipinos as it provides financial risk protection, among others.
PhilHealth’s National Quiz Bee is part of the agency’s information drive campaign to instill knowledge on UHC among the young.
“We thought of ways on how to disseminate information about the law. Then we thought why not use the students as advocates and so we partnered with the Department of Education [DepEd],” PhilHealth-2 Vice President Arsenia Torres said in a forum Tuesday here.
The two agencies’ partnership resulted in inclusion of UHC law as part of the K to 12 curriculum of DepEd, particularly on the subject Mapeh (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health) under the consumer’s health topic, she said.
“After we finished the learner’s material, we asked DepEd to use it, and we are working on adaption and certification for the learners in private schools to use it, as well,” Torres said.
Prior to the National Quiz Bee, she said, a poster-making contest was conducted by PhilHealth and DepEd, where the winning pieces were used in the 2019 calendar distributed by PhilHealth.
“We thought of quiz bee as we wanted more schools to participate and it is not just about UHC law but also about health,” she added.
The quiz bee was opened to Grade 10, 11 and 12 students from the different schools in the country who competed first on the division level. Winners advanced to the provincial, regional, area and to national level.
The questions were derived from PhilHealth learner’s material, PhilHealth web site and circulars, UHC law, other health-related materials or references and general information.
Veloria as area level winner received P10,000 cash prize, while her coach and her school received P5,000 each. The first runner-up and the second-runner up won P6,000 and P4,000 cash prize, respectively.
Meanwhile, the area level winner will have the chance to win P100,000 cash prize, computer package for her school and P30,000 cash for her coach when she emerged as the national champion.
Hilda Austria/PNA
Image credits: PNA/Hilda Austria
1 comment
VILORIA po hindi Veloria