ARMM Students Learning More Via Text

By Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao

3/14/06

For children in the war-torn areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), text messaging goes beyond just sending jokes and love notes.
It allows their teachers to bring better English, science and mathematics into their classrooms just by using a phone.

This thanks to the Text2teach technology brought in by the Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance (Elsa) of corporate social arms and humanitarian organizations.

The technology was started in 2003 by the US-based International Youth Foundation (IYF) in collaboration with Nokia, Pearson and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Global Support System.

The system integrates digital satellite broadcasting and mobile phone communication, allowing the transmission of video learning materials directly to the classroom and on a 36-inch TV screen.

Last month, Elsa organizational representatives said the program has been expanded to include English in ARMM.

Mayor Muslimen Sema cited Cotabato City's public schools for posting the highest mean gain score among eight pilot provinces nationwide.

This means that the students here learned the most using the technology among the provinces covered by the program.

IYF's Nancy Sheppard, Elsa program manager, said the program provides disadvantaged schools with cutting-edge learning materials through media-rich mobile technology.

To some 720 trained teachers, text messaging enabled them to produce 360 new lesson plans, align with national standards for math, science and English, and produce instructional videos for English classes with the help of Pearson, Elsa representatives said.

ARMM Governor Zaldy Uy Ampatuan commended the program organizers and the active Muslim youth participation, saying the alliance "will surely survive the test of time as it helps young leaders gain greater sense of awareness and appreciation of their personal gifts and, potentials and limits as well as their leadership values and principles."

"The political leaders in the Autonomy are one in endorsing and supporting this with nothing but full confidence in the pooled energy of its leaders and the strong vision for the active involvement of the greater mass of the people--the young," Ampatuan said in a statement read by ARMM Information Director Samson Gogo.

IYF, Sheppard said, works "to identify young people's most pressing needs and aspiration, and supports effective programs to be able to address them."

Elsa, a convergence of various organizations, including IYF, is a three-year program that has led to the construction of 28 new classrooms; upgrading and renovation of 27 classrooms; provision of desks and chairs for 27 classrooms, and 277 medical kits for rural nurses and midwifes.

Elsa's other member organizations are Ayala Foundation Inc., Consuelo Foundation, Petron Foundation Inc., the Philippine Business for Social Progress, and the southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and technology.

The corporate social arms of these firms helped provide the system's hardware for Grades 5 and 6 pupils in 15 schools in Batangas, 13 in Cotabato City; 10 in Quezon City and each in Manila and Laguna.

The group's alternative learning system (ALS) has also brought 300 out-of-school youth back to school, providing them with integrated technical courses that match skills development activities with industry needs.

Elsa representatives said 1,814 were also provided with study grants, and 1,470 children of school age benefited from the group's supplemental feeding program.

Fifteen year-old Rowena Usop of the Talayan Municipal High School told her story of renewed hope to pursue a college education in the medical field with science laboratory facilities that Elsa had provided her school.

Dr. Thomas J. Kral, chief of the US Assistance for International Development Philippine Mission's Education Office, said his office had partly funded the facility out of its aid program for the country, which ranges from $600-900 million a year.