Enhanced, strengthened ALS 2.0

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SSISTANT regional directors and Schools Division superintendents from the regions of Visayas and Mindanao participated in the Batch 2 of the series of orientations to brief and get the support of the top level officials of the Department of Education (Deped) in the implementation of Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) version 2.0 conducted at Ritz Hotel, Davao City on August 20 to 23, 2019.

The activity which was conducted after all regional directors were also called for the purpose a month ago is in line with its efforts to improve the quality of non-formal education in the country as Deped will soon roll out the enhanced ALS curriculum.

Deped Secretary Leonor M. Briones in invoking the content of Deped Order No. 3, s. 2019, announced previously the roll out of the “ALS Version 2.0” which according to her is “substantially different from the existing ALS Program.”

To successfully implement ALS 2.0, Secretary Briones created ALS Task Force and its members led by Deped Assistant Secretary G.H. Ambat with Dr. Marillete Almayda as the Task Force head.

Mentioned positively during the President’s State of the Nation Address, “strengthened and expanded” ALS is noted by Deped as one of the major enhancements” to the K to 12 Basic Education Program of the government and also included in the 10-point agenda of Deped under Briones’ leadership entitled “Quality, Accessible, Relevant and Liberating Basic Education for All” which was released in November 2016.

Aside from the transformation of ALS, changes will also be applied to the learning materials, learning delivery system, learning environment, and learner assessment and certification system and changes in the system support components of ALS which include capacity building, financial management, advocacy, social mobilization, and partnership strategy.

Deped “is now engaged in rolling out” a new version of the ALS curriculum and noted that “a comprehensive fiveyear ALS Roadmap has been developed” under the supervision of Ambat, who has been assigned to oversee the ALS Program.

As to the creation of ALS Task Force, Briones pointed out that it is needed “in order to provide a coordinated leadership of ALS as a priority program” of the Deped and to “ensure continued delivery of inclusive, accessible, relevant and liberating learning opportunities to out-of-school children, youth, and adults.”

The Task Force “will act as a focal point for the coordination and integration of the range of activities under the ALS roadmap towards the full development and operationalization of the new ALS 2.0 program.”

This Corner hopes that the enhanced ALS and its curriculum will serve its purpose as an alternative to formal schooling but still not shortchanging the quality of education being offered as the formal and non-formal setup belong to one Deped.* I

T CRACKED me up when in a conversation with a friend, she described something as “amoy Katoliko” (smells Catholic) and I knew exactly what she meant.

The description was precise, as memories flooded us of our separate but similar childhood. The smell of the “poon” (statue) that our mothers would make us kiss while lifting as up as toddlers so we can reach the hand or the feet of the statue on a pedestal. That would be the Black Nazarene, the Sacred Heart or Mama Mary most of the time. Before or after us would be an old lady wearing a long lace veil wiping the poon’s feet with a handkerchief that also smells “Catholic”.

So what have we agreed on as “amoy Katoliko”? It’s very similar to the perfume of our lola’s abaniko (fan). A hint of lavender mixed with the musty smell of being kept in a handbag full of stuff including pressed powder, a rose-scented wooden rosary, and coins plus a whiff of burning candles and incense from the church surroundings. Yes, that odd mixture of scents that bring you back to those days when women still wore veils when praying in church.

Then there is the smell of a Buddhist/taoist temple. That would be the smell of sandalwood incense with a whiff of floor wax from the well-buffed wooden floor.m

A July 2018 science news reported of a new study by neurobiologists of University of Toronto identifying a mechanism that allows the brain to recreate vivid sensory experiences from memory, shedding light on how sensory-rich memories are created and stored in our brains.

In the study published in the journal Nature Communications in that month, the scientists “found that information about space and time integrate within a region of the brain important for the sense of smell known as the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON).”

In this region of the brain, the study says, the sense of smell combines with sense of space and time such that a what-when-where memory is brought forth.

Thus my friend and I, while we grew up in different places and did not know each other as children associated certain odors with specific places simply because the practices in these places follow a norm.

In the Catholic church, there will always be candles burning and a whiff of incense from a mass just ended on top of perfumes of elder women that most of the time smell of lavender or rose. While Buddhist or Taoist temples will always have incense sticks burning.

Then we have memories associated with newly-cut grass, the smell of rust of a jeepney’s hand bars, the perfume of someone we once held dear, and yes, Vicks Vaporub. What Filipino child doesn’t know this smell and the care we associated with its application, whether on our chest, our soles, or melted in hot water for us to inhale the steam.

Then there is “amoy Christmas”. The odor of pickles, canned fruit cocktails, and apples.*