History

    Montessori Education in the Philippines did not start with the rich. It started with a school established among the poor mostly relocated squatters in Sapang Palay, Bulacan. Its mother organization Operation Brotherhood International (OBI) was founded by Oscar Arellano in 1956. OBI provided medical help and community upliftment assistance to the war refugees in Vietnam and Laos.

    When OBI started operations in the Philippines in 1963, village projects became its first priority including schools for the poor. Ambassador Preciosa S. Soliven who had been teaching young children in Vietnam and later worked with a Swiss Montessori preschool teacher in Makati was asked by OBI to manage these schools.

    The experience inspired Ambassador Soliven to pursue a complete Montessori course in Perugia,Italy and London in 1966. Upon her return to the country, she put up a school for the middle class while maintaining services to the poor. The first full-time Montessori Nursery School was organized and conducted at the Syquia Apartments in Malate, Manila. It was named O.B. Montessori Children's House. Most of these Children's Houses were established in rented mansions in Paco, Makati and Quezon City between 1966 and 1970.

    The Grade School level was opened In 1970 after Ambassador Soliven completed her AMI Elementary course for 6-12 year olds In Bergamo, Italy. Due to the numerous requests of the parents of the grade school graduates, Amb. Soliven launched the O.B. Montessori Professional High School in 1983. She applied what she saw in the curriculum of various academic and technical schools in Europe, Australia and the US to the high school program. In 1995, Amb. Soliven set up the O.B, Montessori college to arrest the mushrooming of false Montessori schools all over the country. indentAfter 40 years of making a difference in the lives of millions of Filipino families, this Montessori operation has become the largest in the world with nearly 5,000 students enrolled in the four branches in Manila, Las Piñas, Greenhills and Angeles, Pampanga.

    It has gone way beyond its academic programs and now includes a multi-purpose theater that has a seating capacity of more than a thousand, an Italian restaurant with its satellite Cafes, an 11 hectare farmland in Alfonso, Cavite patterned after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Self--Sufficiency Farm, several ecumenical shrines and a 23-year old Child and Community Foundation that reaches out to the rural communities through the Pagsasarili Schools and Mothercraft Literacy Course. lt is equally proud of its full military brigade of 700 high school CAT cadets and 100-member Marching Band, both of whom have won top honors in inter-school competitions. indent O.B. Montessori Center, Inc. has developed a new breed of Filipinos. Inspired to be independent and motivated by a spirit of excellence, they stand out in various fields; whether culture, business, politics, communications or sports. indent They are a new generation of Filipinos who will generate us into becoming a better country and make us, in truth, a new people embarking with confidence into a new life.