Nonformal Education: Learning from afar

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http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=42470
Non-formal education reaches remote upland villagesFirst posted 10:52pm (Mla time) July 05, 2005 By Delmar CariñoInquirer News Service
BASIC education continues to elude the Cordillera's remote upland communities due to poverty and geography, but the Department of Education (DepEd) is trying its best to bring alternative education to these hinterlands.
The remote villages where no schools exist include Aeta settlements in San Isidro and Zumiguin, and rebel returnee communities in Marag Valley, all in Luna town in Apayao.
Through the so-called "alternative learning systems," the region's education officials have been given the task of fighting illiteracy in the remote areas to mobile teachers who walk 10-20 km to reach their places of assignment.
Dr. Agapito Delmas and Dr. Gloria Felipe, education supervisors of the DepEd regional office in Benguet, said the Cordillera region has 27 mobile teachers who render at least 40 hours a week of non-formal teaching.
The teachers walk through mountains and forests to reach children and adults and teach them basic math, reading and communication, Delmas said.
He said the teachers tried to visit even the region's five farthest towns- Tinglayan in Kalinga, Sadanga in Mt. Province, Tinoc in Ifugao, Kibungan in Benguet, Tineg in Abra, and Calanasan in Apayao.
Felipe said the absence of schools in the remote villages had continued to cause a dent in the achievement of a 100-percent literacy level in both elementary and secondary education in the region.
Delmas said the DepEd's non-formal education had been restructured and renamed "alternative learning systems" to become more adaptable to the learning environment in the remote areas.
"The pedagogy (teaching method) used is community-based where basic and functional literacy are taught in the phonetic language using indigenous materials," he said. Teaching language includes the use of the vernacular so the teacher could communicate better with the students.
To help the mobile teachers, Delmas said they brought 36 prescribed sets of literacy modules prepared by the DepEd.
The students must complete 200 hours of basic literacy and 800 hours of "accreditation and equivalency learning" over the five strands of the alternative learning system-communication skills, problem solving and critical thinking, sustainable use of resources or productivity, development of self-confidence and sense of community, and expanding one's world vision.
Since the approach is non formal, the subject areas are taught using practical approaches that reflect the daily life of the people in the community, Delmas said.

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