Innovative teaching seen to improve access, quality of education

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) has rolled out a new project promoting innovative teaching in public schools, which is seen to improve access and quality of education nationwide.

In an aide memoire issued last week, Education Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua said the advent of technology has enabled educators to have more access to learning resources online.

Pascua noted the existence of open educational resources (OER), or learning materials that are available for free for anyone to use, modify or share. 

These may include lesson plans, videos, songs or even entire online courses or curriculum that may support the students’ learning process.

Pascua said OERs are seen as very potent tools for enhancing the quality of and access to education, noting the high prices of textbooks and other printed learning materials that may not be affordable for teachers and students.

“Quality education need not be expensive. Teachers can find a way to facilitate learning and be unwavering in their pursuit to nurture each learner,” he wrote.

“OERs, with its inherent purpose, reduce costs by reusing learning materials. The use of OER results in tremendous cost savings to benefit families of students as well as impact their performance and completion rates in schools,” he added.

The DepEd official said the use of OERs is in line with the agency’s Digital Rise Program, noting that these may solve challenges encountered by public schools as regards access to learning materials.

Pascua also noted that OERs have been widely used in other countries for schools with no internet connectivity as well as those affected by disasters or conflicts.

“OERs also allow teachers to create materials that are customized for their classes,” he said, noting advantages such as flexibility to adjust and improve their materials.

Pascua said they have created a training team to introduce OER to public school teachers, noting that the magnitude of materials may overwhelm educators at first.

He cited existing OERs supported by various organizations and institutions, including en.wikibooks.org, pitt.libguides.com/openeducation/biglist and schoolofopen.p2pu.org.

“It is high time that the Philippines, through the DepEd, take advantage and support the use of OER to revolutionize the Philippine education system to promote equitable and quality education for Filipino learners,” Pascua said.