Ms Catherine Linobo

Part 1: Alternative Learning System (ALS) Mobile InstructorsPart 2: Informal InterviewPart 3: I Can Read System Experience

Dr. Lourdes Quisumbing

MOBILE TEACHERS HELP DROPOUTS MOBILE TEACHERS HELP DROPOUTS FINISH SCHOOLFINISH SCHOOL

By Patricia Andrea PateñaCebu Daily News

Posted on the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Part 1: Alternative Learning System (ALS) Mobile Instructors

Alternative Delivery Modes of formal education (ADM)• The creative and non-restrictive way of reaching out and ensuring that primary education can be universalized amidst the known limitations of both children and formal education itself.

•“If we don’t help them, who else will?”

“They are the ones whom society calls outcasts. They are the ones who dropped out of school and if we don’t give them a chance, what will happen to their future?” Guarin asked.

---Roy Guarin, division coordinator of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) in Cebu City.

• Along with other mobile teachers, they have been providing education to out-of-school individuals in Cebu City for almost 15 years.

• The ALS program is designed to give out-of-school youth and adults the opportunity to finish elementary and high school through informal education.

Sec. 2 ART. XIV of the Philippine Constitution

• Formal Schooling – takes places within the four walls of classroom, with textbooks and teachers.

• Non-formal Education – takes place in workplaces, factories, shops etc., to upgrade skills of workers/ provide skills to youth and adults.

• Informal Education – learning derived from the home, church, mass media and other community institutions.

• Indigenous Learning Systems – include ways and methods within said communities, taking into account their needs while allowing for the influx of external cultural factors.

The story of Amor Pangan• Leslie and John’s mobile teacher said that dealing

with out-of-school individuals is more challenging compared to regular class students because of how she handles learners of different occupations, backgrounds and ages.

• Most of her learners are in their mid-twenties and thirties. Some students are over 50 years old.

• She was advised by her doctor to stop handling classes in the mountain barangay of BUDLAAN because of her pregnancy but she refused to do so.

• “My learners are varied. There are those who were victims of abuse. There are those who work as waiters, construction workers, and household helpers. So I always have to adjust in handling them,” she said.

• What frustrates her most is when learners suddenly quit from the program usually due to work and family responsibilities.

• “I can’t afford to leave them because it would all go to waste. I already started teaching them,” she said.

• She said her most fulfilling moment was when a student wrote her a note saying “Thank you for inspiring me to finish my education.”

• According to Department of Education Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud, ALS is very helpful because it gives out-of-school individuals the chance to learn in a place where they feel accepted.

• Compared to regular teachers, ALS mobile instructors visit mountain and urban barangays around the city, to gather individuals whom they can teach.

• “With the formal school system, children report to the classroom. With ALS, you are the one to find students to teach. You go to their houses, you visit their families, check their status and the kind of families they have. It is that challenging,” said Guarin.

• The gathered ALS learners go through a year-long period of classes and training based on three programs depending on their needs.

1.The Literacy Program - designed for those who can’t read and write.

2.The Functional Literacy Program - for elementary or high school drop outs with experience in basic education.

3.Literacy Cum Livelihood Program - combines academics with entrepreneurial and technical skills.

Accreditation and Equivalency Exam• In October, they will take this exam that would determine if they could be granted an elementary or high school diploma.

Part 3: I Can Read System Experience

• Created by registered psychologists, Annabel Seargeant and Tony Earnshaw.

Part 4: Informal Interview with Ma’am Evelyn Zolina Fabellon

Sources:Blog entry by nbimperial. Posted on: December 2, 2010.Wordpress.com

Online source: DepEd site.wordpressPhilippine Daily Inquirer online“Textbook on the Philippine Constitution”. De Leon Hector

“Social Dimensions of Education” © 2006. Vega,Prieto, Carreon.

Informal Interview with Ma’am Evelyn Zolina Fabellon

Part 1: Multicultural Education (Reflective Understanding)• Its related goal is to help ALL students develop more POSITIVE attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, cultural and religious groups.

Alternative Learning System: A Brief History• May 13, 1977 the post of Undersecretary of Education and Culture, Incharge of Nonformal Education, was created by the President of the Philippines with Assemblywoman for Region III, Dr. Felicita G. Bernardino as the Deputy Minister.

• Since then a nationwide program of nonformal education has been launched by the Ministry of Education and Culture involving the 13 educational regions and all the schools, colleges and universities, both public and private.

• The rapid expansion of nonformal education in the country is a recognition of the importance attached to it by the Government. It is now an accepted fact that nonformal education is not only a supplement and complement of formal education but is an indispensable component of a lifelong learning system.

• It is also recognized that nonformal education plays a very important role in national development.

• It is the only effective way of providing education to the millions of out-of-school youths and adults to enable them to participate more effectively in the various development programs of the government.

• It has also developed innovative strategies and methodologies in planning and curriculum/materials development specifically for nonformal education but which may also be adapted to other disciplines.