Posted on

Sabah Goducate Learning Centers double their enrolment in 2 months!

Just 9 weeks ago, when I visited our Goducate Learning Centers in Sabah we had about 500 students enrolled (it’s impossible to give exact figures even though we register our students because parents sneak in additional kids all the time and most of our classrooms do not have walls to keep out additional kids!)

Last week week when I visited Sabah again, I heard that the present enrolment is over 1100 students – and expanding by the day. It’s just too painful to turn away mums and their children who have walked an hour in the hot sun!

Goducate had earlier set a target of 1500 students by the end of 2010 but last week we had to re-set our target to 2500 student in 10 centers by the end of this year – if funds are available. There is no shortage of children who want to learn to read and write and no shortage of mums who are willing to be trained to teach their own children. The bottle-neck is funds to pay for school supplies, teacher training, teacher allowances, visas, etc.

2500 students sounds a lot but it is really a drop in the bucket because it is estimated that there possibly 500,000 children who are unable to attend school because they are “undocumented aliens” from war-torn southern Philippines. This is possibly one of the largest unrecognized “refugee” (for want of a better word) groups in the world. Half a million children who grow up without education or discipline will definitely be huge social problem for their host country – and eventually for the neighbouring countries.

Let’s do our part to help these poor people to help themselves.

Goducate believes that every child deserves a decent education and a decent start in life!

Posted on

Weekend visit to our literacy centers in Sabah

This Friday about a dozen Goducate supporters from Singapore will fly to Sabah to visit our literacy centers. The team consists of about seven Goducate volunteer workers and 3 or 4 staff members from our corporate sponsors, MHC Asia.

The last time we visited the centers in February, there were just 2 centers with about 400 students. This time the team will visit all 5 centers with about 1000 students. These students are unable to attend normal schools because they are “undocumented aliens” who have fled from the poverty of war-torn southern Philippines to the peaceful shores of Sabah.

It will be a lightning trip over a weekend because most of the Goducate volunteers have to return to work on Monday.

We will arrive on Friday evening, in time to enjoy a lovely seafood dinner in a restaurant built over the sea. On Saturday, we will start off early to visit the centers. Two of the centers are short distances from the road, one requires a 30 minute walk up a jungle path, another requires a 20 min walk over a soggy swampy ground, and another is a balancing act on a narrow plank walkway over a swamp.

On Sunday morning the team will return home – hopefully able to share what they saw and experienced with other Singaporeans and convert them into becoming supporters of these poor children because Goducate believes that every child deserves a decent education.

Posted on

Alternative learning system (ALS)

Many people have asked me “After your students graduate from your Goducate literacy program, where do they go?” This is a very needful question to ask, seeing that we presently have almost 1000 undocumented alien children (ie, illegal immigrants) in our Goducate literacy programs in East Malaysia. As almost all of these kids are originally from the Philippines or descendants of Filipinos, we hope to help them to get an education that will allow them to go back to the Philippines to finish their education and hopefully get gainful employment there or in other countries.

We hope that all our graduates who have already learned to read and write and mastered elementary mathematics will be able to continue their education through a program that has been developed by the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd). This system called “Alternative Learning System” (ALS) was developed because only 65% of Filipinos who enter Grade 1 finish Grade 6 and only 45% finish high school. A major reason for this is poverty and the need for children to help earn income for their families. Many children in farming communities are pulled out of school by their families to help during harvest season, and are then unable to return to school because they have fallen out of the formal schooling system.

ALS allows children to catch up according their own abilities and diligence using modules produced by DepEd. These modules are made available in soft-copy for the user to download. Past experience has shown that matured students can cover much ground at great speed because of their motivation, more matured minds and prior non-formal learning experiences. For example, one of our Goducate students was able to go from illiteracy to Grade 9 in just over a year!

ALS students can take DepEd approved tests that qualify them for a Philippine nationally recognized high school diploma, which will allow them to apply for college entry.

Our dream is to see our first Goducate student from Sabah enter a college in the Philippines in the near future. A kind Filipino businesswoman has promised to sponsor Goducate students who gain entry into college.

The dream of helping every poor child get a decent education is fast becoming a reality!