Saturday, September 23, 2006 3 schools pilot areas for alternative education strategy
THREE elementary schools in Mountain Province have been identified as pilot areas for the Expansion of the Modified In-School-Out-School Approach (Misosa) alternative delivery mode of education for public elementary schools.
Provincial Misosa coordinator Albina Dominguez said the program aims to solve congestion in schools with big enrollment, address the needs of children for inadequate materials, mobilize and strengthen community support and improve performance through alternative delivery mode of learning.
She identified the schools involved in the project as the Paracelis Central School (grade 6-B), Poya-ao Elementary School (grades 4 and 5)-Natonin District, and Otucan Elementary School (grade 4)-Bauko District. This project will be implemented as soon as the free modules, which would be provided by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), arrive.
Self-instructional materials (SIMs) in English, Filipino, Science and Health, Mathematics and Makabayan for Grades 4-6 classes would be utilized for the project.
Dominguez also explained that the grade level of the three schools would be divided into two groups. One group of pupils would use the SIMs with the supervision of a trained para-teacher/teacher volunteer to be housed in the community center while the other group would remain in the classroom with the subject teacher.
The SIMs are self-learning module that contain lessons to be learned for the day. These materials include learning objectives, activities to work on and exercises and questions to answer. Enrichment activities are found at the end of each SIM. These activities would be discussed with the teacher in the classroom before a new lesson is taught.
The activity is scheduled Monday to Thursday. On Friday, the two groups would be combined to evaluate the group performance. These two groups would be swapping every week until end of the school year.
The teachers, meanwhile, would play key roles in the implementation and success of the project, which aims to lessen the bulk of work, manage the reduced number of learners in a class, give more focus on the day's lesson, maintain classroom discipline and implement simple classroom routine, and can provide more opportunities for interaction among teachers and pupils.
The program would be monitored by officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) like teacher/principal, education supervisor/coordinator, school superintendents and assistant superintendents, and district supervisors.
Achievement tests would likewise be administered by the teacher at the end of the school year.
(September 23, 2006 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
