Education program brings hope to out-of-school youth

“Gusto ko mubalik og skwela aron makatrabaho ko og tarong pero maulaw na

ko mosulod kay tiguwang na ko (I want to go back to school to have a decent job but I’m shy because I’m old now),” said Biboy.

In the Philippines, one out of every eight Filipinos or 6.24 million of the estimated 39 million Filipinos aging six to 24 years old is an out-ofschool-youth, according to the results from the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicator Survey released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

Indeed, this is quite a number. But quite a number of them too are working hard to alleviate themselves from this frightening situation and to open doors for themselves to have decent jobs in the future.

Such is the plight of Biboy, not his real name, 16, a resident of Brgy. Mabolo, Cebu City. Due to financial constraints, Biboy was forced to stop schooling when he was in fourth grade. Since then, Biboy has been messing around the community with his friends instead of going to school.

But looking at other youth who go to school everyday, Biboy realized that education is important for him to have a better life in the future. “Gusto ko mubalik og skwela aron makatrabaho ko og tarong pero maulaw na ko mosulod kay tiguwang na ko (I want to go back to school to have a decent job but I’m shy because I’m old now),” said Biboy.

Recognizing the youth as key agents of socio-economic development and technological innovation, AboitizLand and Aboitiz Foundation extend their support to the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Mabolo and the Department of Education (DepEd) by helping to put up an eSkwela Center in Mabolo.

Since 2009, AboitizLand is able to help 840 out-of-school youth and adults and made their dreams come true by being able to go back to school through this program. Out of these enrollees, 176 of them already earned their diplomas while the rest need to take the exam again.

The eSkwela Program is a flagship project of the Commission of Information and Communications Technology (CICT) together with the DepEd-Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS).

Parallel to learning system that provides practical option to existing formal instruction, the eSkwela, under the Alternative Learning System (ALS), provides ICTenhanced educational opportunities for the country’s outof-school youth and adults.

Like the ALS, the eSkwela can be a substitute whenever one does not have or cannot access formal education in schools. The difference between ALS and eSkwela is that ALS uses a traditional modular medium of instruction while eSkwela uses computer and internet modules.

AboitizLand is one with the government and other nongovernment organizations in believing that collaborative effort is needed to ensure that the right of all citizens to quality education is provided and that appropriate actions are taken to make education accessible for all.

With this, AboitizLand hopes that many more Biboys out there would regain their courage to go back in the classroom.