Ama E’ Diamond sold bananas on the streets of Marantao before Covid-19 struck in 2020. Despite the difficulties that accompanied his source of livelihood, he remained grateful for having the strength to support his family despite his frail condition continually. Ama, already a senior citizen, also suffered from partial blindness. He would walk long distances each day to be able to sell bananas every day. However, when the pandemic and its accompanying lockdown hit Marantao, his only source of income was severely affected. He remained at home and joined the many other community members who had to rely on government assistance.
Last May 03, in the Spirit of the Muslim feast of Eid Fitr, marking the end of the holy period of Ramadan, Ama became one of the beneficiaries of “A GIFT FOR EID”. The SK leaders of Marantao spearheaded the project. For several days during Ramadan and on the celebration of the Eid, they went around the different houses of the vulnerable groups of the community to distribute food packs that the group solicited from various groups and organizations.
The laudable initiative of the youth leaders was an offshoot of the BRAVE for Youth program, which Synergeia conducted in the Municipality of Marantao , together with ten other municipalities across Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu from August 2021 to March 2022.
Project BRAVE provided young people from 12 municipalities across Mindanao with different opportunities to participate in governance and community development. It created spaces were young leaders interacted with peers, giving them greater freedom to express their ideas without inhibition.
The program strengthened the Sanguniang Kabataan ( SK), an institution in long been neglected in local governance. Project BRAVE harnessed the potential of SK in engaging the youth to participate in the prevention of violent extremism actively and become leaders for bringing peace and positive changes in their communities.
Project BRAVE used arts, culture, and heritage as platforms for mobilizing, empowering, and building the capacity of our young leaders. An appreciation of cultural diversity fostered fairer,
inclusive, and pluralistic societies. An understanding of their heritage strengthened their sense of identity and their desire to protect their communities by resisting attempts at violence.
The arts festival provided young people with opportunities to express themselves on the following themes: education for all, justice for all, good governance, unity in diversity, and good citizenry. SK
members gave meaning to the themes through drawing, photography, poetry, and dances.
SK members shared their advocacies behind their artworks. Finally, these advocacies were summarized into an action program that the SK in every village could implement.
( with reports from Saliha Masorong – SK President – Marantao)
KASpaces: Accelerating Progress and Equity in Education
November 22-24, 2021
I will be sharing with everybody what we are doing these past months especially when the pandemic struck.
The Department of Education, the national agency that governs basic education in the Philippines, prescribed a learning continuity plan for us to respond to the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically teaching and learning in schools. This directive advised all schools to implement a plan of action to sustain education through the use of learning delivery modalities that are relevant and adapted to current situations in the country.
And with schools doing distance learning, because children cannot leave their homes and go to school physically, teachers have never been more creative and more innovative than ever in using instructional tools and techniques that will ensure that students effectively learn even when they do school at home.
In the division of schools where I come from, the text-based modular learning class is the most preferred modality for learning. It uses home-based modular lessons and limited online class through the use of mobile messaging platforms, like Facebook Messenger. For selected classes that meet virtually from time to time, Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams are commonly used.
For us to operationalize these learning modalities, we developed self-learning modules for use in home-based classes because they are the most appropriate instructional tools to use in a remote learning setup which we began implementing last year. This is also the default learning format in our schools this school year. These self-learning modules have been developed using the most essential learning competencies that we call the MELCS, which is like the compressed basic education curriculum that is imperatively done to fit a fair amount of lessons in a school year when time and task learning is limited.
As to how our learning modules are used, our students accomplish tests in the modules on their own with help from their parents who serve as Home Learning Partners. Both students and parents follow a plan of instruction which we call Weekly Home Learning Plan. This is a written plan that indicates which tasks and activities in the modules that students need to complete usually on a weekly basis. Our teachers, on the other hand, provide direction and guidance to their students in using these learning modules. Teachers also check and analyze results of the students’ performance in the accomplished tasks and activities for necessary interventions and actions, especially for students who may find some lessons very difficult.
The modules were designed using self-instruction techniques, so our students can use them with little to no assistance from Home Learning Partners. Some of the teaching techniques that were incorporated in the development of these modules were directed instruction, inquiry-based and discovery learning model, project-based learning tasks, differentiated instruction, and meta-cognitive learning. There is also a provision for learning tasks and formative assessment which are necessary for teachers to know whether learning actually takes place. The self-learning modules are also arranged in a way children can follow them very effectively. Each module has a pre-test and post-test for the student to take for formative assessment. The students’ scores for the pre-test and post-test are used by teachers to identify which group of students need reinforcement and enrichment.
There are also activities in the modules that allow for a review of a previous lesson or integration of a related competency with the target topic. The lessons are presented in a very interesting way to capture the interest of the students when they accomplish the modules. Explicit discussion of the topic is usually provided so that students can clearly understand concepts and, when examples are necessary, they are also provided to help students process lessons more successfully.
Teachers supplement their classes with other online activities by using mostly digital platforms, since they are very applicable in the virtual classrooms, like Hoot, Quizzes. They are usually preferred by both teachers and students because learning can be interactive and fun. The Google Jamboard is also used when the class requires student collaboration. These are the resources and strategies that we are using to adapt to the changes in the manner of teaching and learning in light of the global health emergency.
Noticeably, they are driven by three factors – accessibility, technology, and reliability to effect learning in a remote classroom setting. It can also be noted that even though innovations have been made in the teaching tools and approaches to suit the distance learning classroom, some teaching methods and practices that we used before the pandemic are still used when they are relevant. This is most apparent in classroom situations that still require common instructional strategies, like beginning the lesson through motivation activities, guided instruction, inquiry-based learning, question-and-answer lessons after the discussion, doing practice exercises, and others that have been proven to be effective approaches to teaching and learning that transcend diverse learning delivery modalities.
We should not leave our learning practices to certain prescribed teaching tools and approaches because they are the latest trends in education. It is more helpful to diversify our pedagogical techniques by combining the innovative and unconventional approaches with traditional and common classroom practices, just as we do for common instruction in our school division.
Nick Toong: Do you have to upskill the teachers to be able to deal with whatever teaching situation in the last two years?
JC: Definitely, it is a must. Remember that everybody was in shock when the pandemic struck. Early in March or February last year. And so, with the upgrades, the changes in how we do teaching in the classroom, definitely, our teachers need to be retooled or upskilled to be able to adapt their proficiencies to the learning situations that got around, especially in the Philippines because this is really something new for almost everybody. For some cases, distance learning, modular lessons, are learning modalities that are less familiar to most teachers in the Philippines and for us to cope with these changes, the appropriate learning and development activities need to be carried out to help our teachers be retooled and upskilled in their professional proficiencies.
NT: Does innovation in teaching always have to involve technology? Can it come in other forms?
JC: For most innovations in the classrooms nowadays, the potential of technology has always been tapped but my advice is it should not be the case all the time, especially in the Philippines where you talk about technology, the concern and issue of financial resources will have to be considered. There are still places in the country without access or poor access to Internet facilities. As long as our teachers are able to reinvent their effective practices in the classroom and as long as what they do in the classroom brings in positive learning outcomes, these learning and teaching tools and approaches can still be considered innovative or even inventive without incorporating technology. Then again, it would be better that our teachers would be able to have access to a lot of technologies but for situations where technology is not very much available, it is just a matter of being creative in our teaching tasks. We can already innovate in our classroom practices.
NT: Can the use of self-instruction materials really enhance learning? How can you know if the students really did them by themselves and not that a brother or sister or other family member helped them?
JC: I believe that any initiative that we undertake or carry out for the purpose of teaching and learning will already do good for providing education to our students. I mentioned earlier that, in the Philippines, we are very much into modular classrooms and that these are the default learning delivery modality in most schools in the country.
For us to be able to implement this classroom in the New Normal, one effective way in this kind of learning environment that everyone is experiencing right now is to do self learning, since our teachers can’t be physically present for the students because of the threats of the virus and so we resort to doing self-instructional classes by way of self-learning modules that we issue to our students.
Currently, we are piloting face-to-face classes in selected schools in the Philippines to prepare ourselves for the gradual return to the “Old Normal” and, with these preparations, our teachers should prepare themselves mentally, emotionally, and professionally for the kind of classroom setup that will take place in a post-COVID world. There will definitely be new policies in the implementation of the curriculum of instruction to help societies adapt to an environment that is vulnerable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA).
The pandemic has revealed the many frailties of the system of education that we used to know and experiences that we have encountered. While we struggle to use different teaching tools and approaches to sustain education of children in the middle of a pandemic, this should point us to creating a classroom that will be resilient to any interruption.
Schools of the future will use hybrid classroom modalities and so more instructional technologies will be prescribed in the classroom to make learning more holistic. Essential learning competencies will make up a curriculum that is more relevant and more compact thereby decongesting the instruction of unnecessary lessons.
With all these education reforms, teacher proficiencies must be upgraded because the teachers are the front liners in implementing all these policies and programs. Definitely, we need to adapt our instructional methodologies to the kind of classroom that could be somehow be the same as before the pandemic struck, but a kind of classroom that will be hybrid and more holistic and, in doing so, we should always put the abilities and interests of the learners at the center of our pursued upgrade and innovate our teaching skills as teachers.
Rogie Espulgar: A pleasant afternoon to all of you. It’s really an honor to be a part of this sharing engagement across the regions through the Konrad Adenauer Political and Civic Engagement Spaces.
There are a lot of teachers that show the present status of education in the Philippines, from the evolution of the curriculum, to the existing infrastructure, to the availability of learning resources, to the completeness of physical facilities in our schools, to the extent of stakeholder engagement and teacher development programs, among others.
Schools have different contexts in terms of needs and vary on how these needs are given attention. The COVID 19 pandemic was among the challenging events in the implementation of basic education in our country and Bacjawan Sur Elementary School in the municipality of Concepcion, Iloilo Philippines, where I am presently connected, faced a lot of struggles in the New Normal.
To give you a scenario of Bacjawan Sur Elementary School, it is a primary school turned into a complete elementary school because of the sudden increase of enrollment from a hundred to three-fold of that (number). This increase of the learner population was due to the presence of housing units provided to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. There are 14 teachers catering to around 370 learners but there were only five standard classrooms for temporary learning spaces and single detached segregated toilets; handwashing facilities and water sources are also limited. These are just few of the issues and concerns that need to be addressed by a single school prior to the opening of the School Year 2020-2021 under the New Normal. Our topic is focused on infrastructure and teacher development and I will be sharing our experiences on how we thrived.
The provision of standard classrooms will take a lot of process, such as reporting to the Enhanced Basic Education Information System. It’s a data base of education statistics, sector performance indicators in public and private schools, learning centers, and other education service providers. The needs were identified and included in the planning for the allocation of funds. All the rest of the processes entailed schools to wait.
But, of course, the lack of classrooms for our learners was a need that had to be addressed immediately. Our school division provided us P400,000, enough to build six temporary learning spaces. Our local government, headed by our municipal mayor, Dr. Bañez, also provided us an additional P400,000 for the improvement of the TLS. We saved a lot of donations for an additional site for the proposed additional classrooms from the local government unit and other NGOs. Our barangay officials were also on top of giving us assistance.
The point of sharing this is we have lots to be addressed when it comes to infrastructure. It is not only the concern of the Department of Education. In the present educational structure, our local education stakeholders can also do their share. It is indeed everyone’s responsibility to provide the best possible learning spaces for our learners. As mentioned by Mayor Rex yesterday, it really takes a village to educate a child.
The New Normal in education has the Department of Education exploring different learning modalities to cater to the various needs of our learners, and this is a new experience on the part of our teachers. When we started distance education, each school prepared the contextualized learning continuity plan adopted from Department Order No. 12 Series of 2020. From each school, the interventions were laid down to ensure learning continuity, and that includes capacity building of teachers. We went through a series of training to include LDM 1 or what we call the Learning Delivery Modalities for administrators, and the Learning Delivery Modality 2 for our teachers. These short term courses capacitate teachers to handle distance education and it is on its second year of implementation. Each school is also conducting SLACs or what we call the School Learning Action Cells based on DepEd Order No. 35 series of 2016. What we do in SLACs is we have sessions conducted by groups of teachers engaged in collaborative learning sessions to solve shared challenges encountered within the context of the school. A lot of virtual trainings were conducted by our division, our regional office, and our DepEd central office on different topics to include the preparation of the contextualized self-learning modules, capacity building of our LSAs or the Learning Support Aids, mental health, and psycho-social support, to mention a few.
While we believe that DepEd is facing a lot of cuts focusing on infrastructure and teacher development, school principals are empowered by Republic Act 9155, where decentralization takes place. It’s really in the hands of our school heads to improve operations through the proper utilization of financial and human resources. I believe that the successful implementation of basic education in the Philippines even during this time of the pandemic will lie mostly in the capacity of school leaders to navigate the school.
I am Mr. Rogie Gonzales Espulgar, the school principal. It is my priority to provide quality education to our Filipino learners. Para sa bata, para sa bayan.
Alina Reiss: it’s different from the other perspective that we’ve heard so far. So, because you put a lot of esteem on the role of principals in delivering quality education, what would you share as the best practices in difficult times that we could take home to our own schools and check whether certain things are in place or planned in the same way?
RE: This pandemic really affected the implementation of education in the Philippines, not only in our locality, but also in the whole Philippines. And if there is one thing that I have learned in my 15 years of teaching, is that education is really a shared responsibility. If we want to get the most in providing basic education to our students, we must involve all the stakeholders. We must involve the whole school and the community. More than ever, during this time of the pandemic, the more that we involve our parents, the guardians, our local government unit, our community members, the more we can provide more quality, accessible, relevant basic education delivery. It really takes a village to educate a child, so if you want to provide quality education, you have to help each other—all the members of the community must be involved.
AR: So how do you do about it? Do you have a parents’ roundtable? How easy is it to engage the parents and what are your mechanisms to engage other stakeholders, especially in COVID times, which makes it more difficult?
RE: When we started distance learning, most of our students in the Philippines had module print learning modalities, meaning self-learning modules. The teachers are not there. The learners are learning at home. We talked with our parents, our guardians, members of the family who can provide technical assistance to our students. They served as learning support. So, before we conducted the School Year 2020-2021, we prepared a school learning continuity plan on how to go about the very next school year. We wanted to involve all the education stakeholders. We conducted meetings with our parents, with our local officials, and we have this collaboration with the LGUs. The question was, who will be serving as learning support aids of our learners? And so we utilized our parents and guardians. We provided trainings to our parents, we taught them how to go about accomplishing the learning support materials of our learners. It’s not easy, much more because we find it difficult to communicate with our learners. It’s either we conduct home visits or call those learners who have mobile phones. And that’s one thing that we have to strengthen in the distance learning education that we have, that is, providing learning support to our learners. This is how parents and guardians play an important role in the delivery of distance learning.
AR: As a principal, what kind of support do you wish for from the government?
RE: I think if there is one thing that I would like to improve in the implementation of distance learning in this time of pandemic is the Internet connection. Majority of our schools in the Philippines have no stable Internet connection and we know that most of our learning competencies are through the Internet. We want to have that stable Internet connection for us to improve our teaching and learning processes. In Concepcion, there are 36 schools, including high schools and I think only the mainland schools can access Internet connection. Those schools in the islands, in the mountains, can hardly reach the signal for the Internet connection, so I would appeal to the government that if there is one thing that we want to improve in the Department of Education: some of our curriculum, our competencies require Internet connection and so there are some things that we cannot do and that are beyond our control.
AR: We have someone from the audience asking whether the online learning platforms are free of charge. Are they available or do you use your own applications to facilitate student learning? How do you do it in your school?
RE: As what I have mentioned earlier, in the municipality of Concepcion, or even in the school division of Iloilo in the Philippines, majority of our learners are learning through our self-learning modules. So, we may combine Internet connectivity platforms but we are mainly using printed modules. The parents get the modules from the school, then these will be answered by our learners at home. We hardly use the Internet in this time of the pandemic because of issues in the Internet connection. So, I can say that majority of our learners are using printed modules instead of the Internet.
