NO SECTOR now more direly needs community than education.
Jaclupan National High School (JNHS) in the hinterland of Talisay reached out for assistance to ensure that their students, without means or access to digital learning, continue to learn when classes open soon under pandemic protocols that prohibit face-to-face learning.
And the community did not disappoint. The Ford Ranger Cebu Group (FRCG) recently donated 100 transistor radio sets for the JNHS students to use in monitoring the modules transmitted by their teachers through the school-based radio hub, reported Wenilyn B. Sabalo on Sept. 6 in SunStar Cebu.
A group of car enthusiasts, the FRCG chose to donate to the JNHS after reading in SunStar Cebu about the initiative of principal Eamon Alido and the JNHS teachers to use radio-based instruction (RBI) after a majority of students and parents expressed their preference for this due to the physical isolation of the barangay and limited access to digital media.
The first in Central Visayas to pilot the RBI, the JNHS secured a radio frequency modulation (FM) broadcast band and installed a radio booth in the school through the assistance of several individuals and groups.
The school launched a Teachers’ Program Initiative (TPI) to secure brand-new or used transistor radio sets for the less privileged, composing more than the majority of their 1,632 enrollees.
Other citizens donated transistor radios or cash. Rhea Gullas, wife of Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr., also pledged to donate transistor radios.
Alido told SunStar Cebu that the first batch of transistor radios, purchased at P290 each, will be prioritized for students living farthest from the school. The RBI mode benefits students who otherwise have to walk long distances to attend in-school classes.
The JNHS FM radio hub has potentials for becoming a community medium. Principal Alido is inviting other public schools to air public service announcements during the noontime break in between transmissions of the instructional broadcasts.
To sustain remote learning when classes begin on Sept. 10, alumni, students, and mentors are tapping civil society to boost the connectivity of Communication enrollees at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu.
Posting on social media, the non-profit organization Communicators of UP Cebu Alumni Association, the Comm-UP Student Organization and the faculty of the Communication, Art and Design College (CCAD) of UP Cebu launched “Abag sa Pagtungha” to solicit used or new gadgets and cash donations to help the online learning of Communication students.
A donation of P500 and P1,000 can cover online support for 25 and 50 students, respectively, according to an “Abag sa Pagtungha” Sept. 1 post.
The pandemic-caused recession has led to the exodus of many students from private learning institutions to public colleges and universities. However, based on survey, more than the majority of enrollees have inadequate resources or funds for the successful transition to remote learning, wrote Jeruel Roa, the Communication program representative of the UP Alumni Association Cebu Chapter, in a post published on Facebook.
For transparency and accountability, Roa wrote that cash donations may be channeled through UP’s “Kaagapay sa Pag-aaral ng Iskolar ng Bayan” program.
The latest stakeholder to respond to the “Abag sa Pagtungha” campaign is telecommunications company Smart Communications Inc., which donated Smart Pocket WiFi devices for the UP Cebu Communication students. The company also donated similar gadgets for the College of Management in the UP Visayas.
“(W)e must do our share to help ensure that there will be no students left behind in the learning process,” CCAD professor and Communications program coordinator Jason Baguia noted in an article posted on the Facebook page of the Communicators of UP Cebu Alumni Association.