ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERYONE

JENNIFER A. GUINTU

There should be opportunities for educators, students, learners, and community members to gain access to personal, professional, and academic opportunities through literacy education in English.

This was the reasoning behind the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Department of Education (DepEd), Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA), and the Peace Corps (PC) recently for a renewed partnership for sustainable education programs.

The DepEd is grateful for the renewal of the partnership with the Peace Corps, looking forward that it will respond to the programs and priorities of DepEd. The Department also expects that theirs will be a useful partnership with significant role in the region as well as to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the DepEd stressed that the Alternative Learning System (ALS) is currently the main focus of DepEd, including the curriculum, and urged the PC to address challenges.

According to the Department, it hopes the PC will even more take interest in the ALS because the DepEd is giving more attention to the curriculum, the kinds of textbooks, the teaching aids and materials, the content, and the strengthening of ways of thinking of educators.

Under the Terms of Reference (TOR), the PC shall deploy Education Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) to co-teach with Filipino teacher-counterparts and share responsibility in planning class programs, and in actual classroom. The PCVs will also work with ALS implementers in the Community Learning Center to design, develop, and implement ALS literacy programs and activities for the identified learners; and design and conduct training programs for ALS implementers.

Meanwhile, DepEd’s regional offices shall identify a PC regional coordinator as point of contact, and facilitate communication among DepEd, the division office, and local schools on volunteer activities and accomplishments. The division office shall also recommend suitable local schools for volunteer placement; provide volunteer-teacher’s school uniform; and facilitate practicum school identification, and school field trip visits as part of the pre-service training of volunteers.

The role of the local school with PCVs include housing identification; smooth and efficient integration of the volunteer in the school community; assigning of teacher-counterparts; monitoring of volunteer’s work performance; providing guidance and support to the volunteer in the development and implementation of school-community projects and activities; and ensure appropriate DepEd contribution to PCV.

— oOo—

The author is Master Teacher I at Tinajero Elementary School, Madapdap, Mabalacat City