Palawan teacher uses mobile gadgets to engage tribal community

MANILA, Philippines - “Clarissa, isulat mo nga ang number 5 (please write the number 5),” teacher Jong asks a young girl at the Sitio Bolnok Learning Center. This “classroom” is a one-room shack in a small settlement in the mountains of Malis, the southernmost barangay of Brooke’s Point, a town some 191 kilometers south of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

Amid much giggling, Clarissa traces the number on a tablet, which Reuben Herrera, more popularly known as “Teacher Jong,” holds up for her.

Clarissa is one of 21 school-age children and 16 adults in Sitio Bolnok who have been attending classes under an Alternative Learning System (ALS) program conducted by Herrera, an ALS mobile teacher, since 2010.

All of them can now read and write, thanks to Herrera, who visits them twice a week in addition to conducting classes for out-of-school youth at the town center in Brooke’s Point and on Mt. Magagong, which is about two-and-a-half hour’s hike from Bolnok.

Herrera is one of 25 mobile teachers in Palawan conducting ALS, a free education program implemented by the Department of Education under the Bureau of Alternative Learning System. The program is designed to help those who cannot afford formal schooling. These include elementary and high school dropouts, out-of-school youth, and non-readers that include even adults and senior citizens.

Herrera’s students are between four and 54 years old. To teach them, he travels 21 kilometers from Brooke’s Point to Malis on his motorbike, hikes some 30 minutes to Sitio Bolnok where he has built a one-room structure with funds raised from friends, including some he met on Facebook.

Sitio Bolnok is home to a small tribal group called Palawan (pronounced with the accent on the last syllable). When Herrera started holding classes in Bolnok in October 2010, only six out of the total population of 89 knew how to read and write, he says.

Now he has four learners in advanced elementary level (Grades 5-6 in formal school) who will take the accreditation and equivalency (A&E) test next year. If they pass, they will earn an elementary diploma signed by the DepEd secretary.

Herrera hopes they finish high school. He knows fully well that a high school diploma can give Palawans in Sitio Bolnok a chance at employment and a better life.  The Palawans, he says, eat only twice a day.

It is hard to keep the students in school, he says, since the adults often forego the two hour-sessions to make a living either planting or harvesting rice or making copra while the older children stay home to take care of the infants. Thus, he allows the older kids to bring their charges to the center.

The Sitio Bolnok Learning Center was recently recognized by Smart Communications Inc. as one of 10 winners of its new social development initiative, payITfwd. Through payITfwd, Smart lends its technology to enable the spread of social good acts that foster learning.

Each winning community-based project gets five tablets, a technology grant of P50,000, and connectivity via Smart Pocket Wi-Fi with P3,000 worth of load credit.

Herrera says, “My students get excited about the lessons and are more interested in learning when I use the tablet.” He has installed applications like Phonics, Basic Writing, Math games, and ebook ALS Modules into the tablets, which he will use for instruction. 

Herrera also believes that the students could retain learning better if they are well nourished. He also wishes that the DepEd budget could accommodate another ALS mobile teacher in his area so that he could increase the frequency of the classes.

Newly married and with a child on the way, Herrera is starting to feel the physical demands of his work. He travels a lot on bike and on foot even under adverse weather conditions. 

The enterprising young man manages to supplement DepEd’s yearly allocation of P5,000 for materials to provide for his students’ needs by writing to a TV network and getting them to support and feature Sitio Bolnok in one of their programs.

The resulting publicity has boosted his efforts to promote ALS Palawan’s efforts via his Facebook account and get support for educational materials and school supplies from friends like Pusong Pinoy as well as the construction of the learning center.

He plans to use the cash prize to buy a DLP projector, a generator or a solar panel, and LED TV for the learning center. There is no electricity in Bolnok and Magagong so he has been relying on a solar-powered charger donated by Aral Pinoy to conduct interactive lessons using the tablet.Herrera is happy that the prizes from Smart will not only benefit Sitio Bolnok, but also those he teaches in Brooke’s Point and Magagong. Connectivity will also help him do online research, download materials, report updates to and monitor announcements and advisories from DepEd and/or ALS Palawan, and seek additional assistance for his projects.

Born and bred in Brooke’s Point, Herrera sees what he is doing not as a job, but as a mission. He feels happy knowing that his students already consider him a member of their family. “Every time na may progress sila, sobrang saya ko na (I am overwhelmed with happiness when I see their progress),” he adds.

With technology now helping him breach learning barriers, Herrera hopes it will simply be a matter of time before he can get one more teacher to help him bridge physical distances and continue giving back to more members of his community.

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Smart is now accepting entries for the second round of payITfwd. For more details about the program, check out www.smart.com.ph/payITfwd.