Gokongwei Brothers Foundation

Teachers are the cornerstone of educational transformation. Recognizing their critical role, GBF continues to invest heavily in teacher development programs designed to strengthen instructional quality, deepen subject mastery, and empower educators with innovative teaching tools.

Innovating Through the GBF Class Builder Platform

The GBF Class Builder platform serves as a flagship initiative supporting STEM teachers across the country. It is an innovative platform that provides teachers with learning resources while simultaneously helping them build their content mastery and pedagogical skills. Its integrated coaching modules allow teachers to continuously refine their practice through guided instruction anchored on the lesson material itself.

Throughout 2025, GBF significantly expanded the platform's reach, onboarding 41,000 teachers across 6,000 schools in six regions. The foundation aims to further scale this initiative, targeting 120,000 teachers by 2026. This growth reflects a strong demand for high-quality teaching resources and improvements in pedagogy.

Content development remained a priority throughout the year. New lesson materials for Math were expanded to cover Grades 3–6. The CB Reading Remediation Toolkit was also launched to support literacy remediation among Key Stage 1 struggling readers. GBF also partnered with Let’s Read Asia for access to thousands of digital storybooks to strengthen the learning experience.

The Class Builder Teacher Development Curriculum was also developed in collaboration with leading Teacher Education Institutions, including Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and Philippine Normal University. These consultations ensure that the content is grounded in strong pedagogical research and aligned with national curriculum standards.

In addition, GBF began incorporating AI-assisted content development tools to improve efficiency in producing lesson materials. This innovation reduced development lead time while maintaining high standards for instructional quality.

Building an Active STEM Educators Learning Community

The GBF STEM Collab program continues to grow as a vibrant community of educators committed to strengthening STEM teaching and learning.

In 2025, the program delivered five learning series comprising 24 sessions, attended by teachers from across the country. A major highlight was the ARAL Remediation Series, which attracted more than 210,000 live participants, the biggest online audience to date.

The community tripled its membership from 81,000 members by the end of 2024 to almost 265,000 by the end of 2025. Community engagement increased dramatically, and the number of daily active members grew from 7,900 to over 42,000 teachers. Moreover, the program encourages peer learning through the implementation of Learning Action Cells (LAC) within school Communities. GBF STEM Collab Community members are able to access a full resource library, including presentation materials from experts, worksheets, and LAC guides that empower teachers to share their learnings with peers and apply them in their classrooms.

GBF’s scholarship programs continue to support talented Filipino youth pursuing education in STEM fields and teacher education. By expanding access to quality education, the foundation helps cultivate future innovators, educators, and leaders who will contribute to national development.

Since its establishment, the scholarship program has supported 3,428 scholars, with nearly 2,000 graduates already contributing to various sectors of society. 

As of 2025, 1,263 scholars remain actively supported across multiple scholarship tracks.

To further support scholar development, GBF introduced a holistic scholar development framework centered on Character, Competency, Career, and Community Engagement. GBF gathered scholars for a needs assessment to determine the support they needed beyond financial grants, and areas such as self-care, leadership, and time management emerged. Five modules are being designed to support their various needs across their tertiary education journey.

Module 1, the introductory module, focuses on self-awareness and goal setting. This first module was piloted in 2025 across 5 locations, gathering 147 scholars from Ilocos, Quezon, Calamba, Batangas, Iloilo, Iligan, and Davao.

Developing Future STEM Educators

According to a study published by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM2), 62% of high school STEM teachers teach subjects outside of specialization. Therefore, GBF launched the TeachSTEM Certificate Course Scholarship to address the gap of teacher-subject mismatch. This certificate course scholarship provides an accessible avenue for teachers to master their current teaching assignments. The first three cohorts focus on Science, Math, and Educational Assessment at university partners, namely Centro Escolar University, University of Sto. Tomas, and University of the Philippines, respectively.

Raising Opportunities Through Technical Vocation

The GBF Technical Training Center (TTC) in Calamba, Laguna, continues to provide technical vocational scholarships to underprivileged youth through the GBF Iskolar Ni Juan (INJ) program. For over 10 years now, GBF TTC has produced 649 techvoc graduates, and in 2025 alone, 133 new scholars have been onboarded to undergo training on Mechatronics Servicing NCII.

Last September 2025, 48 INJ students from Batch 24 and 25, supported by Shang Properties Inc. and the Kerry Group Philippines Foundation, officially graduated. After their training at GBF TTC, they completed their OJT with Schneider Electric Philippines towards full employment. These two batches represent a milestone in the program, where they were the first to be supported by an external funder and employment partner outside Universal Robina Corporation.

Beyond education programs, GBF remains deeply committed to uplifting communities through volunteerism and service.

The Juan Community program mobilizes employees across the Gokongwei Group to support education projects in local school communities. In 2025 alone, 123 volunteer activities were conducted, engaging over 1,700 Gokongwei Group volunteers who contributed more than 10,000 hours of service. These activities included storytelling programs, STEM learning initiatives, school improvement projects, and donations of much-needed school equipment.

Through key partnerships, such as Shang Properties Inc. and the Kerry Group Philippines Foundation, GBF was able to donate lab equipment and TVs to partner schools in Metro Manila.