From the start of this year, Sabah had a second lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first Movement Control Order was made in March last year (see Goducate blog 2020-07-31). Only two of the 10 Goducate schoolhouses went back to the face-to-face teaching in January and February this year, but we are aiming for them to go online.
Through its Sabah GOALS (GOducate Alternative Learning Schoolhouses) Program, Goducate had been helping “undocumented aliens” in Sabah who are not entitled to education in government schools. It had been doing so by training mothers to teach the children in the community. Mothers offer their homes to be used as Goducate schoolhouses.
Thanks to technology, and through constant encouragement, the mothers and youth had become open to learning new ways of teaching. We are grateful to those donors who helped to provide smartphones and monthly food and mobile data allowances for the teaching-mothers and the youth. The recipients are now given training on how to maximize the use of their phones.
The online trainings for the teachers are to equip them for the new-normal method of education. Using different phone applications such as Zoom, Messenger Chat Room, Google Meet, and WPS Office the teachers can now connect with and teach their students without exposure to health risks associated with face-to-face contact. The trainers are from Camp Goducate Iloilo, Philippines.
The teachers have been grateful for what they have received. One teacher wrote, “Thank you so much, these smartphones are a big help for the children and teachers in our schoolhouses for trainings and meetings”. Another teacher wrote, “Without these phones, I am not sure if I can join the available seminars or even one day teach to an online class”.
*Our guest writer is Pamela Kaye Dingal, who is in charge of the Sabah GOALS Program.