The Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF), the philanthropic arm of the Gokongwei Group, marked its 33rd anniversary with a celebration that highlighted more than three decades of education initiatives in the country. The intimate celebration brought together partners from the Department of Education (DepEd) headed by Secretary Sonny Angara, education champion Congressman Roman Romulo, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), heads of academe, and other private partners. 
Mr. Lance Gokongwei, Chairman of GBF, opened the night with a tribute to his father, “Dad believed that education is a great leveler. He wanted to help improve lives through the gift of education. Dad also believed that education is a cornerstone to a stronger nation. He knew that education would empower our workforce to help drive economic progress.”
Founded in 1992 by siblings John, Johnson, Henry, and James, GBF has become one of the country’s most active private foundations dedicated to education. Its early years focused on major endowments to top institutions, including the Ateneo John Gokongwei School of Management, De La Salle Gokongwei College of Engineering, John Gokongwei Innovation Center, and of late, the Ateneo Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design.
Scholarships and STEM Advocacy
Inspired by the late John Gokongwei Jr.’s belief in education as a great equalizer, GBF has supported over 3,300 scholars to date. Apart from scholarships, GBF has been advocating for love of science among the youth by producing viral videos showcasing student research and innovations from winners of national science competitions of DepEd and DOST. These videos available on the GBF YouTube page have reached over one million viewers online.
GBF also invested in technical education through the GBF Technical Training Center (TTC), which has upskilled more than 13,000 workers and launched technical-vocational careers for over 500 graduates. A new five-year roadmap is being developed to expand its role in advanced technical skills training and industry partnerships.
Improving Teacher Quality
In response to gaps highlighted by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), GBF has pivoted its teacher development programs to address highlighted gaps. The TeachSTEM Certificate Program now provides targeted certificate courses in Math and Science teaching to address teacher-subject mismatches, while new scholarships offered in Measurement and Assessment aim to strengthen expertise in evaluating learning outcomes.
Meanwhile, the GBF Class Builder platform, launched in 2023, is a tool to improve teachers’ content mastery and pedagogy while assisting in daily lesson planning and delivery. It offers teachers ready-to-use science and math lesson materials and teacher guides that strengthen both their mastery of lesson content and teaching techniques to improve student learning. It has already reached over 15,000 teachers and approximately 1.8M students, with a goal to scale nationwide by 2029 to potentially benefit 15 million learners.
In addition to the programs above, GBF also hosts an online community of STEM teachers called the GBF STEM Collab Community which started with only a few thousand members in 2022 and has now grown to 220K teachers. This community aims to foster knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer collaboration together with providing accredited training in partnership with the Department of Education.
Helping the Fight for Literacy and Numeracy
Recently, GBF STEM Collab produced a learning series on Reading Remediation to support the implementation of the ARAL program. This first day of the three-day live series was attended by a record-breaking 209K teachers nationwide, proof of the commitment of the teacher community to support the country’s urgent learning crisis.
Other than this, GBF is scaling its effort in addressing this literacy and numeracy problem by integrating our on-ground community remediation framework into the GBF Class Builder platform, expanding the platform to produce teachers guide and lesson materials for remediation and English Grades 1 and 2.
A Shared Mission
Through its Juan Community initiatives, GBF also engages partners, local stakeholders, and Gokongwei Group employees in supporting education programs nationwide, from Brigada Eskwela to teacher appreciation campaigns.
“When we work together, with God’s help, the possibilities are boundless. Our hope for our youth and for our country is simple but powerful: Posible!” the foundation’s Executive Director, Ms. Grace Colet, punctuated her brief update with this hopeful statement.
General Manager, Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng recapped the night by thanking partners and reiterating GBF’s commitment to its mission of building the nation through education—empowering teachers, uplifting students, and uniting communities for lasting impact.
