Category: Learning Centers

In Laguna Province, Philippines, Goducate helps out-of-school youths, as well as adults who have not completed their schooling, to go through the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System (ALS)

In March, 19 engineering students from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos campus, became our partners in teaching through the ALS. The partnership was arranged by the municipal district ALS coordinator. As part of their community work the university students taught our ALS students for the first 4 Saturdays of March. They also provided all the materials needed for the teaching.

They plan to return during to teach during the second semester of the next school year (ie, in November).

Abegael Benedicto is a teacher at one of the Goducate Literacy Centers in Laguna, and also an Instructional Manager for the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System. Last year she represented Goducate Literacy Centers at a meeting of all the stakeholders of the Department of Education in our municipality and received the Certificate of Recognition for Goducate to be a Department of Education partner in providing education.

Last month, the principal of Tranca Elementary School invited Abegael to help teach grade 1 students at the school. The school then recommended the Municipal Government to make her a member of the school’s teaching staff. Later she was invited to become the teacher of the school’s kindergarten. The recognition of Goducate Literacy Centers by the Department of Education means that students from our literacy centers will be eligible to enter government schools when they finish their kindergarten program. In the newly introduced K-12 system of education, which lengthens the period of schooling from 10 year to 13 years, Department of Education schools will accept only those students who have undergone kindergarten education in a center accredited by the Department of Education.

The Philippines has an Alternative Learning System (ALS), a non-formal system of elementary and high school education that can be achieved without attending classes in school daily. The ALS enables students to choose their modules and learn at their own pace. It is used by school dropouts, working people, and even senior citizens. Those who pass the appropriate examinations may be able to get back into formal schooling or into college.

In Laguna Province Goducate has been teaching school dropouts through this system. However, for administrative reasons, the program was dropped last year.

This year the program has been resumed, and students will be taught at three centers. One center is the Goducate music studio, and the other two are in somebody’s house. So far 30 students have registered. Most are out-of-school youth but there are 2 mothers (one aged 55) and a father.

Goducate in Laguna now has 7 teachers who are certified to teach through the ALS. The 2 who received their certificates only this year are now at the Goducate Training Center for further training as English language teachers.

Apart from the ALS teaching and the nursery and preparatory grade classes held at the Goducate literacy centers, Goducate also conducts free literacy and numeracy tutorials for unschooled children, as well as tutorials for school-going children who need help to cope with their schoolwork.