West Rembo robotics team gets financial aid from Mayor Abby

The West Rembo Elementary School Robotics Team has received financial aid from Makati City Mayor Abby Binay for its participation in the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship from April 25 to May 3 in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Despite the school being put under the jurisdiction of Taguig City, the team—two Grade 5 and two Grade 6 students, namely Rio Pauline Dames, Cassandra Elyze Cruz, Andrew Lijarso, and Zyric Abines—visited Binay at the City Hall to meet her personally and receive the aid.

“Even though West Rembo Elementary School is no longer part of Makati, I decided to help them using my personal funds so they have less to worry about and can focus on the competition. They bring pride to the nation and deserve our full support,” Binay said.

She explained that the parents of the students had earlier contacted her asking for support, telling her that the funds provided by the Taguig City government were not enough to cover the team’s expenses.

“I am saddened by the seeming lukewarm support shown by the Taguig local government to the West Rembo Robotics Team. It gives me reason to worry if Taguig will be able to maintain the level and quality of the Robotics program introduced by Makati,” the mayor stressed.

The Robotics Program was introduced in Makati public schools during the school year 2007-2008.

During Mayor Abby’s first term, a new Robotics program was integrated into the curriculum for Grades 3 to 12 in the city’s public schools.

Developed by the city, together with Department of Education (Deped) Makati, the Makati Robotics curriculum caters to a wide range of skill levels and is designed to hone students’ problem solving skills and develop their ability for critical thinking.

"For the past seven years, Makati has been providing public school students with age-appropriate Robotics kits suited to their development level. Entry-level kits featuring simplified designs and intuitive controls enabled them to start with simple skills like simple construction/building of robots and simple coding. For the more experienced users, advanced kits with sophisticated features and capabilities were provided, such as complex construction of robots and complex programming," the city government said.

Makati students also have the advantage of having a complete game field and game elements during practice and inter-school competitions, making them more adaptable to competing at a broader scale.