Category: Philippines

The Goducate Model Farm in Laguna is where people are trained to produce crops that have the highest nutritional values, and with least impact on nature. Thus organic farming is promoted there.

Towards the end of last year, people who were victims of the severe flooding brought on by “Typhoon” Hagabat were trained at the model farm and employed as part-time workers. The crops they helped to plant in November last year were harvested in the second week of January. The crops harvested included cucumbers, red chilis, fresh string beans, pechay (pak choi), and native peanuts and corn. Some were kept for consumption by the staff and workers and their families, and the rest sold on the market.

The Goducate Model Farm also cultures African night crawlers (a type of earthworm that makes compost). The sale of the earthworms and the compost produced adds to the income of the model farm.

When a new literacy center was started at Ulik, Mabacan, in Laguna Province, in June 2012, it consisted of little more than tarpaulin strung over a few poles. It was a branch of another Goducate literacy center in Mabacan that was opened in 2011.

In October 2012, construction work began on a more permanent building. The building has now been completed. During the construction period, the students attended classes at another Goducate literacy center. The center is headed by a Goducate worker, aided by a volunteer mother, and is currently attended by 9 nursery-school students.

The plan is to use the center for other other classes as well, such as tutorials for older children, or music classes. As with other Goducate centers, the aim is to help children in the community develop a passion for learning.

Knowing the learning needs of children, their learning abilities, and their learning styles will help teachers in designing a curriculum that will achieve optimum learning.

Last week, as a basis for implementing a community-based literacy program, we (a Goducate team of literacy teachers) administered a simple diagnostic test that we devised to the children and teens in Tagumpay, an urban village of about 2000 people on the shores of Laguna de Bay affected by the floods brought on by typhoon Hagabat and other typhoons. The test consisted of reading, coloring, and working out a word puzzle. The reading and word puzzle tests were designed for the elementary graders (ages 7-13), while the coloring and color identification exercises were administered to the nursery and preparatory grade children.

26 children participated in the diagnostic tests, which took place either in a small house of one of the residents, or by the way side. Some action songs and games were also used to assess the students’ ability to follow instructions and styles of learning.

We found that preparatory-grade pupils have difficulty in coloring the drawing sheets and in identifying the colors. Out of the 10 elementary-grade pupils aged 7-9, 7 had difficulty in reading. For the 10-13 year olds, lessons in correct pronunciation, reading comprehension, and vocabulary will be appropriate. We will now develop a curriculum appropriate for the community.

We had been in touch with this community some months back when they were first flooded out. Then we had informal gatherings with the children and teens telling them stories, facilitating games, and teaching them action songs. Some of us were then sent to the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo for a spell of training. On our re-establishing contact with the community, one mother said, “Before, you would look for these children. But now they are coming to you”.

We intend to bring in the mothers as our partners in the literacy program because they know better than us their children’s study habits and school performance. The mothers are busy with their household chores, but we intend to do a household survey to give us a glimpse of the socio-economic profiles of the families there, and then to plan a schedules so that the mothers can take an active part in their children’s education.