2 "eSKWELA centers" launched

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Education and the Municipality of San Remigio, Cebu launches today two eSKWELA centers following the establishment of a municipal-wide wireless connectivity last month.

The activity is the offshoot the establishment of Community e-Learning Centers in the said municipality for the Out-of-School Youth and Adults.

The event would be led by Mayor Jay Olivar, Vice Mayor Miguel Martinez and provincial schools division superintendent, Dr. Arden Monisit, and his assistant, Dr. Agustina Reynes.

San Remigio, a northern Cebu town, is the second to have eSkwela center, next to barangay Tejero in Cebu City.

The undertaking used to be a joint project of the local government unit and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology but President Benigno Aquino III transferred the supervision over this to the education department.

The eSKWELA used to be the flagship project of the CICT through its Human Capital Development Group (HCDG) that is envisioned to provide ICT-enhanced educational opportunities for Filipino out-of-school youth and adults.

San Remigio’s eSkwela project shall take its major objectives along with the ICT program focusing on teaching the participants various software applications that they may use to create User-Generated Content (UGC) in line with their assigned module projects.

Last November 2010, four eSkwela workers of San Remigio were sent to Ormoc City for eSkwela training specifically for Learning Facilitators (LFs) to build on the existing knowledge and skills in implementing the instructional model. It covers sessions about project-based learning and manipulating open source software that can be used in making projects.

The pursuit was made possible through the persuasive effort of its Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator, Engr. Romie Cabellon who is also the Community eCenter Manager.

To date, San Remigio has four Community eCenters; the National Computer Center's (NCC) pilot CeC at Municipal Building, the NCC pilot Barangay CeC in rural areas located in Barangay San Miguel and now, the two eSkwela Centers located in San Remigio Central School I, in Poblacion, and the San Remigio Central School II in Tambongon which is also situated in rural area.

 The realization of eSkwela centers is attributed to the cooperation of Dr. Oscar Romanillos, District Supervisor of San Remigio Central School I, and Oscar Pestano, Jr., the officer-in-charge District Supervisor of San Remigio Central II who supported the project by providing Computer laboratory and trained ALS as their counterpart for the project. –(FREEMAN)