BACK TO SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Feedback on the 50 E Learning Modules

2008-07-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Feedback on the 50 E Learning Modules given to the Mentors for the Alternative Learning System for the Out of School Youth

Modules were provided by Education Outreach (EDO) of the Sandiwaan Learning Center in Smokey Mountain, Manila.

Last July 19,2008, techies from EDO from Manila arrived in Cebu to train the Rotary Alternative Learning System ( ALS) mentors on the use of the modules prepared by them for the Department of Education Bu. of Alternative Learning System pilot schools. EDO provided the Rotary E Learning - ALS program with 50 modules on English, Match, Science and Civics
These modules will be used in the Rotary E Learning Centers and the street educators equipped with the laptops donated by the Canadian Dream Team who visited Cebu last March.
This is the immediate response we received from Sister Emirose on the modules.

Dear Sir Jun,

Truly the Lord is so good, He uses people to meet our needs.

Thank you so much for providing me an elearning for our ALS. Since Monday, I started teaching the modules to my learners both at CGGF (our main church at Gun-ob) and at DPC (our church in the dump site). The learners were quite impressed at the same time they're quite apprehensive that the lessons might be above their heads. Praise God, we're able to touch English (Parts of Speech), Math (The Metric and English System) and Science (The Nervous System), and they discovered that all the lessons we've taken up were easy to understand and easy to learn. Hence, they are now excited to attend our ALS, and they testified that they learned easily, unlike in formal school that they have a hard time understanding the books as well as the explanations of the teachers.

At DPC, I have 50 learners 19 Basic Elementary, 15 Elementary and 16 Secondary. I started teaching the Basic Elementary at 9 in the morning, followed by the Elementary at 10 and 11 until 12 for the Secondary level. Some of the learners are attending everyday but the scavenger learners are attending in alternate basis due to their work in the dump site. Our ALS at DPC started on July 1and after a week ALS was also started in CGGF (July 7). In CGGF, I have 13 learners and all are in secondary level. From the dump site I only take 1 hour rest and at 2:30 until 4 in the afternoon is our class. Our ALS is from Monday to Friday, then on Saturday I conduct Bible class and feeding to the children in the dump site. On Sunday is our whole day worship activity at CGGF.

In CGGF, we've open a Child Care and Development Center for free to very poor and needy preschoolers. We have 23 K 2 and 19 K1. Praise the Lord that 4 of our church members give their voluntary service in teaching those little ones. Most of our ALS learners are young mothers of our Child Care children. Thank God for Rotary Club of Mactan they donated school bags, school supplies to our children and 6 tables. Not only the little children are receiving free education but as well as the mothers. To God be the glory!

Attached are ALS pictures taken both at CGGF and at DPC. Included pics. are our Child Care & Development Center at CGGF.

It's a great privilege to be working with you. I thank God for people like you who have love and concern most specially to the very poor and needy people. Be assured you are in our prayers. The Lord abundantly blesses you.

Blessings in Christ,

Sis. Emerose T. Nemenzo

Clubs involved in the ALS program are : RC Mactan, RC Mandaue North, RC Mandaue East, RC Cebu East, RC Cebu North.

Become A Child Sponsor And Donate Today! Click here : http://www.backtoschoolproject.org

LETS GET GOING

2008-07-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

THE BACK TO SCHOOL MENTORS

Children are regarded as the country's most important asset being the same adults who will carry on into the future the work of building a just and humane society.

Our experience with slum children indicates that there is a desperate need for positive role models. Many of the kids come from broken families, abusive parents, and absentee parents. Other troubling data are the number of kids addicted to drugs , children involved in gang and criminal activities, working children, early marriages, unprotected sex.

Mentors are drawn from volunteer residents of the target communities who have had previous teaching or education-related experiences.

The Mentoring program therefore goes beyond mere academics. Its relevance are in the goal of enabling the child to fully realize and utilize his/her own potentials for development as well as his or her capability for self-expression consistent with the rights of others as he/she is protected from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

More importantly, he/she gets to form the right values of being god-loving and proud of being a Filipino, reared in the context of his/her cultural heritage.

Photo below The Back to School Mentors in their orange uniforms with the visiting Dream Team of Canada last March 2008.

TRAINING FOR THE MENTORS

SEMINARS TO HELP CHILDREN READ

Last June 6 at the UP Visayas Cebu College, Lahug, Cebu City, B2S mentors Amor Sanchez, Mary Jane Edil, Marjorie Omaňa and Roselle Avergonzado were sent to a seminar-workshop for teachers in Special Education and primary schools conducted by the University of the Philippines (UP) Open University, in partnership with English Retorika Educational Services.

Dubbed as “Prevention and intervention of reading difficulties in the classroom,” the activity updated teachers on the early identification and intervention to prevent reading difficulties. The workshop also focused on the assessment and instructional support for children with reading difficulties.

Department of Education 7 Director Carolino Mordeno said reading is one of the weak areas among school children in the region.

The speaker for the seminar-workshop was Marie Grace Reoperez of the College of Education of UP Diliman and concurrently of the UP Open University (UPOU).She is an author of several books on the strategies for teaching decoding and writing for beginning readers, specifically on the use of the Ma-rungko technique and Fuller technique.

ORIENTATION ON THE ALTERNATIVE LEARNING SYSTEMS

This followed the April Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) Orientation designed to bring literacy into the workplace, the streets and the marginalized communities. Last April 2008 Cebu, DepEd Region 7 and the Rotary Clubs of Mandaue East, Mandaue North, Mactan, Cebu East and Cebu North and their partners in service- The Rotaract Club of Mactan-CITE Chapter agreed to collaborate on an ALS pilot Project, with the former providing learning modules and the curriculum for the beneficiaries to enable them to take the accreditation and equivalency exams.

The government, through the Department of Education, institutionalized the Alternative Learning System in 2004 as a strategy for providing Education For All (EFA) Filipinos.

By creating the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems or BALS, The Department of Education has linked the Formal and Non Formal Programs to come up with a more effective learning system addressing the problems of high rate of dropouts, shortages of school buildings and classrooms.

The EFA 2005-2015 incorporates The principle of Inclusive Education which means that no one should be left behind in terms of accessing quality basic education services – formal schooling or alternative learning systems. Basic Education should not only be the sole responsibility of Department of Education, but of the whole society. By initiating the Alternative Learning System orientation The Rotary Clubs in Cebu became the first partners in learning of the Department of Education in this regard. And the mentors they have sponsored in the Orientation Program were duly given accreditation by the Department of Education as “Street Educators”.

RENALDI BAJA'S CASE

2008-06-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

The Case of Renaldi Baja of Tarcum

It was raining when Sally Baja registered son Renaldi age 8 for the Back to School Project at the Blessed Sacrament Parish Social Hall in the North Reclamation Area. He will be in Grade 2 at the Bagong Lipunan Elementary School this school year.

To reach the registration site, Sally and Renaldi had to cross a swollen river from their home in Tarcum to get to the highway where they boarded a jeepney to get them to their destination some 4 kilometers away.

Renaldi and his friends would use the river as their playground during summer but at the first sign of rain they would make a mad dash for home.

When it rains hard, the threat of a flashflood and dangerous river crossing is real. The water level in the river becomes more than a meter deep.

Tarcum is a settlement in the hills of Lahug where the 100 families evicted from the Cebu Port Area for the ASEAN Summit were allowed to relocate. Tarcum is basically a wilderness. There are no provisions for electricity, water and sanitation. Because of its inaccessibility, it is said that Tarcum has become a haven for criminals hiding from the law authorities.

To reach Tarcum, one has to ride the “habal-habal” or motorcycles for hire from the highway to navigate the river bed and steep footpaths.

The habal-habal ride ends at the foot of a steep hill where a flight of stairs has been carved out from the hillside.

In this particular rainy day, Sally had to carry her son on her back while crossing the river to avoid falling into the knee-deep waters. On nearing the river bank, Renaldi gets off his mother’s back and together they walked one kilometer to the highway for their ride.

“But if the river’s water level is high we have to miss our classes.” Renaldi said, explaining why his report card showed so many absences. When it rains hard, the threat of a flashflood and dangerous river crossing is real. The water level in the river becomes more than a meter deep.

Mother Sally works as a surrogate mother to the children in the child minding school of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at the Blessed Sacrament Parish where she earns 200 pesos a day ( US$ 5) barely enough to feed and educate her four children. Her husband works off and on as a porter in the port area relying mostly on tips from passengers.

Having grown up in a farm in Mindanao, Sally has introduced the Rotary urban gardening concept in Tarcum to help unemployed parents grow their own food for feeding their children.

Picture below shows Renaldi ( encircled ) with his friends and relatives.

ROCHILDA MOBE'S CASE

2008-06-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

The Case of Rochilda Mobe

Despite overwhelming odds and distractions from living in a slum area, Rochilda graduated from high school last year at the top of her class. She was immediately offered a full college scholarship by a private university. She was also given an allowance to work at the school library as an assistant librarian ( at 16 years of age, Rochilda by law is not qualified for employment.

Rochilda and her 4 other siblings almost missed going to school last year if it were not for the Back to School Project. Rochilda’s mother said, the family had no money to pay for collectibles of the school incurred from the previous year amounting to P592 for all five kids.

Mrs. Mobe’s husband, a plumber, earns only the minimum wage (P200/day before taxes). Work is uncertain. There are days when, because the company he works for lacks building materials, he would have no work to do.

When this happens, the Mobe family goes without food for the entire day. On those days, Mrs. Mobe says she advises her children to stay home. “I don’t want them to faint in school.” This happens almost every week.

Today Mrs. Mobe has found work as a sewer in the Livelihood Cooperative Center to augment the family income.The Center was founded by Sister Anne Healy of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and assisted by the Rotary Club of Mandaue East to provide a sustainable means of livelihood for mothers in the slum areas of the North Reclamation Area.

Rochilda,16 is shown here( third from left) along with PDG John and Cora Van Laar, Jun Ferreros ( extreme right) and the rest of the B2S children sponsored by the Van Laars during John Van Laar’s trip to Cebu as RI President’s Representative to the Cebu DISCON held March 13-15, 2008.

SCHOOL YEAR OPENS

2008-06-19T02:43:00.000-07:00

School Year 2008-09 start last June 10, 2008

Though this year’s school opening was relatively smooth, there were reported shortages of classrooms, books, desks, teachers, and pupils unable to enroll. In the cities in Cebu, congestion has always been a problem. Classrooms are often filled to the seams with students. Such conditions discourage children to participate or stay in school. There are also reports of some schools turning away potential students for lack of space.

“Until the economy is robust, until the national budget is big enough, you have to do deal with the realities on the ground,” according to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.

The latest Millennium Development GoalMid-Term Assessment Report noted the non-school factors contributing to the low or non-participation and completion of the school-age children.

These include: social conditions such as poverty which force children to work; family-related factors such as children of broken families; parents’ attitude towards education, especially those who have not undergone schooling; and children-in-conflict situation, among others.

In the meantime a record number of parents have heard about the success of the Back to School Program and have registered their kids in the list which now totals about 500 children.

In the meantime, feverish activities were undertaken to facilitate delivery of uniform materials and school supplies to catch the school opening.

THE PROJECT

2008-06-16T01:53:00.000-07:00

Education in public schools is supposed to be free. But the cost of uniforms, school supplies which the teachers require from the students at the start of the year may be beyond the reach of most of the parents belonging to the poorest sectors of Philippine Society.

Despite prohibitions by the Department of Education, in many public schools, teachers collect money from students for test papers and identification cards and other incidentals. In the course of a year, these fees pile up and unless the parents settle these outstanding fees, the children cannot get the report cards needed for promotion to the next level.

BACK TO SCHOOL- LEARNING A WAY OUT OF POVERTY PROJECT was developed by the Rotary club of Collingwood South Georgian Bay, (district 7010) and District 3860, Philippines to provide some relief to poor families to enable them to give their children an education that can start a transformation from a life of desperation to a life of hope. A minimal donation of Can$ 35 helps poverty-stricken child in the Philippines with necessary items such as a school uniform, shoes and school supplies needed for school. Donations also help fund the school programs that benefit these children.