At a young age, Ma. Rowena Juan-Matti was exposed to the education industry. Her mother, Ma. Rosario Tambunting-Juan started Sacred Heart School in 1968 and was very hands-on in the development of the school. Even Rowie became part of the school’s team by being a young accountant at the registrar’s office.
Her involvement in Sacred Heart School inspired her to take the path in education. After taking up Psychology and Marketing at De La Salle University, she took up another course (Day Care Administration) in the States. Her exposure to different schools in the US made her so excited to come back to the Philippines to try out the different things she learned and experienced during her stay there. Her desire to improve the educational system in the Philippines strengthened after taking up her masters’ degree at the Asian Institute of Management. Thus, the Galileo Enrichment Learning Program was born.
“The idea of Galileo was born out of the intention to uplift the education industry. We saw that the model for learning was evolving with the times,” explains Rowie who serves as Galileo’s Chief Executive Officer. “We saw the growing rate in tutorial services prompted by fast-paced and demanding schools trying to cope with the demands to produce competent and competitive members of society. However, not all children march at the same pace. There are those who learn differently and others who are not suited for big classroom environments.”
After evaluating options, Rowie and her team saw the need for an effective program that not only answers parents’ requirements for children to learn, but also the need for children to enjoy the learning process. “Since we are an enrichment program, we needed to make sure that our program answers the individual needs of children. It turned out that no other program here or abroad has designed a learning method that taps into the different learning styles of children.”
Rowie recognizes that Galileo’s competitive advantage lies in its methodology and service. For each Galileo session, children do five different activities. “But these entire activities are hinged upon the topics they are learning about—so learning is instilled in a manner that they can understand the best.”
Galileo’s Telescopic Approach was inspired by the contribution of famous Galileo Galilee to science, the telescope. “Like it, we find and focus on the individual learning needs of children by providing different learning activities to bring out the star in every child. We also have our own mascots, whom we call the All-Star Team that makes the learning process fun and alive for every student.”
It is Rowie’s dream that the educational system in the country be further improved “so that we can train children to become leaders who bring progress to the Philippines. I believe that through Math and English, children will be able to become better in all the other subjects and they will be able to study and learn more effectively and efficiently.”
