In July 2014, the Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo, Philippines, started to prepare youths and adults for the Accreditation and Equivalency program of the Alternative Learning System (ALS). The ALS is a Philippines Department of Education program for people who have not finished their schooling. Those who pass the ALS at the high-school (secondary) level can qualify for tertiary education. GTC embarked on this program in partnership with a local school.
Angelica Amodia comes from East Malaysia. Her parents are Filipinos from Mindanao. To escape the civil strife and poverty in their province, they went to East Malaysia, where the family lived as undocumented aliens. As such, the children were not entitled to state education.
Angelica learnt literacy, numeracy, and had some basic schooling at a Goducate learning center in East Malaysia, after which she helped to teach others at one of the centers. However, she wanted to further her education. So she returned to the Philippines to undergo the ALS at GTC. She passed the examination at the secondary level and now, aged 19, is a freshman at the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College in Lemery, Iloilo, taking up Hotel and Restaurant Management, but she plans to switch to Education because she has realized that her passion is in teaching.
Her hope is that when she graduates she will be able to help her family and community. Meanwhile, she spends her spare time as a volunteer in Goducate’s community work in Lemery.
*Our guest writer is Joanna De Leon, a community development worker.