President Arroyo has directed the Department of Education (DepEd) to beef up its program of hiring education graduates as mobile teachers under the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems (BALS), “so we can reach out to more learners.”
She also called on DepEd to strengthen its recognition program for outstanding teachers and educators, particularly those who serve in remote localities.
“Our public school teachers are doing an outstanding job in providing education for our children despite the difficulty of accessibility to schools in some areas,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
“They are virtually heroes, crossing mountains and rivers just to provide basic education to out-of-school youth and adults who still want to learn,” she added.
Mrs. Arroyo noted that the budget for alternative learning has been increased three times from P76 million in 2006 to P230 million in 2007, enabling the hiring of 300 more mobile teachers.
The DepEd recently commended Dr. Edwin Ferrer, a mobile teacher, for having been chosen as 2007 National Awardee in the Search for Outstanding Volunteers.
“We need more teachers like Dr. Edwin Ferrer,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the mobile teachers’ contribution to alternative education is “invaluable” as they serve as “bridges for the department to reach out to all kinds of learners.”
By hiring education graduates to become mobile teachers, BALS seeks to make education accessible to out-of-school youth and adults, especially those who live in remote areas, Lapus said.
Unlike regular education where students go to school, mobile teachers seek out the learners. Learning sessions, with the aid of learning materials that are user-friendly and indigenous, are held in community learning centers (CLCs), which may be a barangay hall, chapel, factory, reading center or a house.
Ferrer was chosen from among 38 nominees from both public and private organizations. He has been teaching for eight years as a volunteer, and has been covering 86 barangays in Pangasinan.
The DepEd-BALS’ Mobile Teacher Program seeks to improve the quality of life in communities by raising the level of literacy.
The program’s target areas are those with high illiteracy rate, a huge population of out-of-school youth, and Strong Republic Schools where learners are displaced due to insurgency.
To date, there are 1,381 mobile teachers deployed in deprived, depressed, and underserved (DDU) communities all over the country where literacy is most wanting.
DDU communities are determined by the mobile teachers themselves who go from house to house to determine the number of non-readers in each household.
The Search for Outstanding Volunteers was launched by the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency and the National Volunteer Month-Steering Committee.
The search committee was composed of officials of the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and National Economic and Development Authority.
Presidential Proclamation No. 55 mandates the celebration of National Volunteer Month in December of every year.
To supplement this initiative, Mrs. Arroyo also ratified Republic Act 9418, or the Volunteer Act of 2007, last April 10, institutionalizing volunteerism as one of the strategies for national development.