Gift of Knowledge bears fruit

Three years ago, Knowledge Channel (KCh) Foundation introduced educational television (ETV) in public elementary and high schools in  far-flung barrios in Mindanao. Many, if not all, of the  kids had never seen a TV set before, nor watched “Sesame Street” or “Eat Bulaga” or some such inane lunchtime TV shows. They gobbled up KCh programs that encouraged them to learn and appreciate English, mathematics and  science. Today, ETV’s impact on the kids’ academic performance is evident. It’s like, well, knowledge implosion.

To mention a dramatic example, two weeks ago Education Secretary Jesli Lapus and USAID Mission Director Jon Lindborg were impressed by the report that all 15 schools in the province of Zamboanga Sibugay provided with KCh have posted significant increases across all subject areas in the Division Achievement Tests (DAT).

The report, made by Zamboanga Sibugay Schools Division ETC coordinator Froilan Menez, noted that the Habib Moin Anduhol Elementary School posted a significant increase in its Mean Percentage Score (MPS) from 25th place (43.03 %) in the division in SY 2005-2006 to seventh place (61.34 %) in 2006-2007. Bangkerohan Elementary School also  showed an increase in its MPS, rising from 27th place (50.35%) in 2005-2007 to first place (68%) in 2006-2007 in the DAT. The school’s high rankings were considered very significant by a proud Division Superintendent Gloria Mudanza.

Lindborg said, “Knowledge Channel is a great example of a content provider and also as a first stage solution to getting information and educational access out there.” 

Secretary Lapus on the other hand, praising KCh’s efforts, talked of education as a prime mover of economic well-being and conflict resolution. “Education in general is considered the number one measure in poverty alleviation and an excellent instrument proven worldwide to be an instrument of peace in areas of conflict,” he said. Well said, considering that KCh schools are located in conflict-stricken and very poor areas.

An invited guest, Southern Philippines Development Authority Chairman Saeed A. Daof said the advancement of students’ proficiency in math, science and English, is commendable and should be replicated in all deprived areas in Mindanao. He expressed the wish that USAID will continue to assist KCh  beyond the 150 projects just concluded, and give more students access to educational television programs.

KCh Foundation operates the education-by-satellite TV infrastructure under the program “Television Education for the Advancement of Muslim Mindanao” or TEAM Mindanao. The three-year USAID-assisted project started in 2004, providing some 150 public schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Regions 9 and 12 with access to educational TV programs covering the DepEd’s basic learning competencies in math, science and English. So far, KCh has been benefiting some 78,529 students on a yearly basis in the most remote and isolated areas of Mindanao, i.e. in 31 municipalities within eight provinces including Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi.

Lindborg and KCFI, through TEAM-Mindanao project director Doris S. Nuval, turned over the “Gift of Knowledge” KCh facilities to San Isidro Elementary School in Cotabato City. San Isidro is the 150th and last school in Mindanao to have the KCF installation with the support of USAID.

Lindborg and KCFI also turned over business and livelihood video modules titled “Negosyo Ko, Asenso Ko,” a KCH Foundation production that trains out-of-school youth in livelihood skills production. This series is supported by the Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQuALLS), which is a USAID-funded education project launched in 2004 to improve access to quality education and livelihood opportunities for children and out-of-school youth in Mindanao.

Another USAID-assisted project is the 10-episode video series on peace education based on peace education exemplars of the Department of Education. These are intended to help students develop attitudes and skills conducive to peace in the individual, interpersonal, national and global levels, and to help students understand the process that leads to harmony or conflict and be aware of the various approaches to constructive conflict resolutions. The “Salam” 20-minute episodic series, according to Nuval, is aired over KCh at least 10 times a year on its “curriculum block,” and ABS/CBN News Channel and ABS/CBN Broadcasting Corp. (Channel 2) airs some episodes on weekends. The target audience is 10-to 12-year old students in Grades 5 and 6.

With Team-Mindanao, the Knowledge Channel is now in the southernmost municipality of the country — Sitangkai, Tawi Tawi where schools were electrified with solar panels before the ETV infrastructure was installed. “Tawi-Tawian children as well as their teachers in the ‘hinterest’ of islands now enjoy and learn from educational television like their Manila counterparts, in effect equalizing teaching and learning opportunities.”

Nuval described the first three years of KCh’s operation. “The last three years have been dotted with adventures of the riskiest and richest kind — getting lost in the middle of the Sulu Sea looking for island barangays which disappeared in the mist, crossing crocodile-infested waters to get to the mountain schools of Zamboanga del Sur, getting caught in the crossfire of feuding families in Basilan, and installing satellite dishes in the midst of military operations in Maguindanao to flush out ASG leader Janjalani. No doubt, there were times when we asked ourselves if the effort was worth all these; and we found the answers in the faces of little children whose eyes lit up and stay lit upon seeing television for the first time.” 

Said Nuval “Educational television and technology is finally at work in Mindanao — at least in these 150 schools whose administrators never dreamed of having a technology-driven educational intervention assist them in the way that the Knowledge Channel has.”

TEAM-Mindanao, Nuval continues, is “a prototype of project sustainability.” Parents-teachers and community associations of some 16 schools in North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Zamboanga Sibugay and Tawi Tawi have raised funds on their own to buy a total of 45 additional television sets for their schools. This, said Nuval, “is  no mean feat, considering that all of these communities are mired in poverty and belong to 5th and 6th class municipalities.” Some local government units have also given their share to the project by paying their schools’ electric bills, improving KCh viewing rooms by repainting or decorating these, providing floor mats for children to sit on, and most importantly maintaining and ensuring the safety of the TV infrastructure with the help of barangay tanods.

KCh end-users — students and teachers — have expressed the hope that USAID will continue to support this valuable education-by-satellite project.

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