Contributed by: Carrie Tharan, Synergeia Program Officer for Bohol
Amidst the gloom and doom of the pandemic are stories of kindness and compassion, of hope, and strength of character and tenacity of the spirit.
The story of Scott Angelo, a 19 yr old senior high school student of Pagnitoan National High School, a rural school in Maribojoc, Bohol is a story of struggle, of perseverance and hard work.
At a very young age, his parents separated, leaving him to the care of his paternal grandfather and aunt. His mother moved to another province and he does not have any recollection of her. His father also left for another place and has since raised a family.
Scott’s grandfather and aunt took care of him until he was in 8th grade when he was forced to leave home because his aunt could no longer afford to support him. From then on, his life was one of moving about from one friend’s house to another, working as an errand boy in exchange for shelter and food. He became a houseboy and later also worked at a ‘carinderia,’ an eatery. In school, he sold snacks to earn a few pesos as pocket money. At night and weekends, he worked at internet cafes to partially support his schooling. Later, a teacher adopted him under the AGAK Program, a province-wide DepEd initiative of caring and nurturing wherein teachers give support to poor deserving students. Scott was provided with financial assistance to help him pay for school fees and school projects.
In the midst of these struggles, Scott Angelo found comfort and solace in his classmates and teachers who were very supportive of him, cheering him, encouraging him to carry on and believing in his capacity to fulfill his goals. Thus, he was highly motivated to do well in his studies. Scott earned honors in Grade 11. He won as Student Government President and garnered 8th place at the Provincial Video Tour Guiding contest in Bohol. In his senior years, he participated in Technical and Vocational Livelihood related contests.
During this pandemic, he lives with a newfound friend who has offered to shelter him and provide food. In exchange, he does house chores and helps his friend with his school work. Managing time has become a real challenge for him especially as he also has Friday deadlines to beat to be able to accomplish his school work.
The daily grind of waking up early in the morning, meditating and saying prayers, doing household chores, completing module assignments, is a testament to the struggles of this young man.
Scott Angelo remains hopeful and persevering. He says:
“My classmates are lucky to have their parents beside them, guiding and supporting them in their studies. I am on my own. But I am also fortunate to have met people along the way, who have encouraged me and motivated me to persevere in life and in my studies despite my difficult circumstances. God has given me a life and I need to take every opportunity that comes along and make the best out of it.”
A teacher uses the TV sets to teach children in the different communities in Bubong.
Community development practitioners often say that the best solutions would always come from the community members. People in the community know better how to deal with the challenges they experience. Given the right tools and materials, they can often provide innovative solutions to the most pressing problems they have.
The capacity of communities to thrive through creative means can be considered one of the best lessons of the school year that has just ended.
It has been a challenging year for everyone. Local Chief Executives had to contend ensuring the effective delivery of services in the middle of the pandemic. School Officials grappled with the delivery of quality education. Parents had to balance work and tutoring their children. Yet, despite the difficulties, communities chose to face the challenges with out-of-the-box solutions.
When the school year opened last October 2020, Palawan D. Lawansa understood that parents and the whole community needed to undertake an extraordinary role in children’s education in the middle of the pandemic. Being the head of the School Governing Council of Panalawan – Montia-An Central Elementary School in the Municipality of Bubong, one of the first steps he undertook was to convene the different community members to tackle the challenges Covid19 brought to the children’s education. The aftermath of the initial meeting was the provision of two-way radio sets for the teachers of PMCES. With some families living in far-flung areas, teachers used the radio sets to communicate with the parents. Some of them also used the radios to offer simple coaching sessions to children who had difficulties grasping their lessons.
However, Mr. Palawan did not stop with the radios. When all the SGCs of the municipality gathered for their assessment, he made a bold request. He asked the meeting facilitator if Synergeia can provide TVs to the 15 elementary schools across the municipality. According to him, the community can organize mobile classrooms with the use of TV sets.
The other SGCs seconded his request in the meeting. Before long, the Local School Board of Bubong made the request official to Synergeia Foundation.
Before the school year ended, each of the 15 elementary schools of the municipality finally, received the TV sets. And true to the original plan of Mr. Palawan, the TVs are now being used in the Outreach Mobile Support Program initiated by the school heads of Bubong.
If the SGCs in Bubong used TV sets to reach their students, the community of Tamparan thought of a different strategy. With the end of school year 2020- 2021 , the community has decided to set its sights in preparation for the next school year. They are already planning to conduct remedial reading classes for the various barangays during this school break. To ensure that teachers are heard when they deliver the children’s lessons, they requested 18 portable speakers. They plan to use the speakers in the community reading program they intend to start this August.
Mayor Juhar Disomimba leads in the distribution of the speakers to the school heads in Tamparan.
We all know that the pandemic has not only affected the academic life of the students. Mayor Akira Alonto of Marantao understood that the pandemic also affected his young constituents’ physical and mental health. With lockdowns preventing young people from meeting and playing with their peers, Mayor Akira thought about safeguarding the other aspects of young people’s lives. Hence, with the approval of the Local School Board, he requested Synergeia Foundation, to help in the construction of 2 playground sets for the children. With the playground sets in place, children can have the time to reconnect once again with their peers.
All of the examples cited above were not a product of a one-time meeting among the different school governing councils of the three municipalities. Instead, the innovations made by these communities are part of the extensive process that Synergeia has painstakingly tried to build over the past years. It is a process of empowering communities to decide for themselves. It is the process of asking local leaders to trust in the wisdom of their constituents. It is also the process of asking the local people the courage to actively work together and find creative solutions to their challenges as a community. And if you ask any community development specialist – these are the ingredients for real community development.
The playground sets in Marantao, ready for the use of the children.
A teacher tutors a Grade 1 student in Punta Central Elementary School in Parang, Maguindanao. The Inter-Parang District held tutorials to help Grade 1 pupils who struggled with remote learning.
By Manolo Serapio Jr.
In an extraordinary year when the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered schools, students needed all the help they could get to learn remotely. And in a school district in Maguindanao province, teachers and parents worked hard to help young learners during their first year of school and to make sure that no student would drop out.
From teachers holding remedial classes and delivering learning modules using motorcycles to parents helping other parents and students struggling with distance education, the collective efforts of of the Inter-Parang school district in Maguindanao reflect a community’s commitment to ensure that learning continues in the middle of a global health crisis.
At the top of Virgie Balucas’ priority are Grade 1 students who had to spend their first year of elementary school outside a classroom. She wanted to check whether they picked up anything from self-learning modules which they had to answer from home.
As the head of the Inter-Parang district in Maguindanao, she launched a tutorial program that tested and reinforced their knowledge in reading, writing and arithmetic.
“Not all parents are capable of teaching their children, so I wondered whether these Grade 1 students learned anything in the past months and if they are ready to move to Grade 2,” said 55-year old Balucas.
That gave birth to Oplan 5Rs in the New Normal or the Remediation and Reinforcement in Reading, (W)Riting and (A)Rithmetic program. The tutorials, which ran from April to June, were given in person to Grade 1 students to help those who struggled with the lessons and reinforce the learnings of advanced pupils.
Parang is among the more than 400 local governments that work with Synergeia Foundation in improving the quality of basic education. In partnership with international organizations like the United Nations Children’s Fund, with support from the Government of Japan, Synergeia helps strengthen Local School Boards and School Governing Councils and advocates for more efficient ways to teach children during a pandemic.
Parents sit in with children
The Inter-Parang district, which comprises five elementary schools and one primary school, administered assessment tests in early April to determine the proficiency levels of the students ahead of the remedial program.
Balucas said about 62% of all enrolled Grade 1 students joined the once-a-week tutorials where participation was voluntary and parents’ approval was required. The classes ran for about two hours a day and were done with compliance with health and safety protocols. Barangay officials and health workers needed to sign off on the tutorials before they were carried out.
Grade 1 pupils who had below average scores in the assessment tests learned how to write the letters of the alphabet and use phonetics in both Filipino and English after the tutorials, said Raihana Ariman, a teacher from Punta Central Elementary School who handled 41 students under the program.
The intervention was necessary to help the learners, said Ariman who began teaching last year. “If we’re not going to make a move, who will make a move to help our new learners?” she said.
In Nituan Elementary School, 42 pupils joined the tutorials, representing 58% of Grade 1 enrollees, said Roxanne Sagucio, also a newly hired teacher.
“I asked the parents to sit in with their children because many of them are unschooled. I ended up teaching both the children and the parents, so the parents can continue teaching their children at home,” said Sagucio.
‘Help each other out’
Parents also got involved, with mothers assisting other mothers and students in understanding the modules.
Forty-one year old Noraisa Adao Mama from Barangay Orandang is only a high school graduate, but she helps other parents who did not get an education, to understand the learning modules, often translating them into the Muslim language so they would grasp it.
“It feels good to be able to help even if what I know may be limited,” says Mama, whose daughter, a college student and one of her six children, assists her in mentoring other parents. “We do it because it’s the proper thing to do,” she adds.
A parent volunteer in Parang, Maguindanao assists other parents in understanding the learning modules so they can tutor their own children at home.
Mama works as a barangay kagawad, or councilor, and participated in a training seminar organized by Synergeia Foundation in Davao City in 2018.
Maria Modin Barao, from the remote barangay of Kabuan, picks up modules for more than 20 children, mainly first to fifth graders, to discourage their parents from making them drop out of school.
“Most of the parents would like their children to stop studying because they can’t teach them at home, so I volunteer to tutor the children,” says Barao, 35, who was unable to finish high school.
Another parent volunteer, Dai Mastura Datumanong, seeks the help of some teachers to assist the children of her friends and neighbors.
“We should help each other out. Let’s encourage our children to study. They don’t need to be a president or a supervisor as long as they finish their education. That in itself will be their biggest treasure,” said Datumanong.
Modulivery, two-way radios
Balucas, the District-in-Charge, clearly runs a tight ship, and is supported by equally passionate teachers.
One elementary school in the district, Sagasab Elementary School, printed QR codes for parents to facilitate contactless pickup and return of learning modules, said teacher Renzo James Sara. He said there is a plan to implement this system in the whole district.
Teachers in the district also bought, through their respective schools’ Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses budget, two-way radios so they can communicate with the parents and children at home.
Many places in the Philippines opt for two-way radio in the absence of Internet connectivity and electricity.
Teacher Hamphrey Dequiña, also in charge of the information and communications technology of the entire district, helped set up the two-way radio system as the main means of communication between the teachers and students.
A teacher in Parang, Maguindanao uses two-way radio while he delivers learning modules using his motorcycle.
The 28-year old Grade 6 adviser is also among teachers who personally deliver modules to children’s homes after they noticed that the number of parents picking up modules from the schools had declined soon after classes opened last year.
Using his own motorcycle and money for gas, Dequiña distributes modules to students belonging to eight families in remote areas. “We call it modulivery,” he says.
“Our goal is that no Bangsamoro learner will be left behind, so we do whatever we can to make sure we meet that goal. This is all borne out of our love and passion for teaching,” says Dequiña.
