School on wheels boosts alternative learning program in provinces

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) has received a donation of two modern “mobile” school bus that it will use for its Alternative Learning System (ALS) education program mainly targeted for out-of-school youths and adult learners.

Donated by UNTV, a private media organization, the two “Dunong Gulong” ALS “school-on-wheels” equipped with state-of-the art learning tools, will soon be deployed to ply the roads of Quezon and Masbate provinces to bring ALS mobile teachers to hard-to-reach areas there.

Called DepEd-UNTV Dunong Gulong, the two buses worth P6.5 million each will have learning tools, generator for power supply, folding chairs and tables, a toilet and a sleeping quarter.  

The two brand-new Hyundai buses will serve as mobile classrooms to bring ALS to illiterates, school drop-outs, indigenous people and those with physical disabilities. It will also carry programs for adolescents, Muslim migrants, parents and disadvantaged children.

The ALS program of DepEd is the novel approach to deliver education services to learners who are outside the formal school system. It is designed to stay for a month in the targeted area for the enhanced delivery of learning modules.

Education Secretary Br. Armin Luistro, FSC said the Dunong Gulong project with UNTV was a model of how public-private partnership can help achieve the government’s goal of making education accessible to all Filipino learners.