South’s multi-grade classes receive P38 M

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines  – The Department of Education (DepEd) has appropriated P38 million subsidy to improve the delivery of quality basic education in  510 multi-grade (MG) classes it organized this school year in remote Mindanao rural elementary schools manned by two or three teachers.

 Education Secretary Armin Luistro said an MG class consists of 20 to 25 pupils belonging to two or three different grade levels — like Grades 1 and 2; Grades 3, 4 and 5, or Grades  5 and 6 — handled by a lone teacher who utilizes instructional methods that stress basic literacy skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic or the so-called Three Rs, and livelihood education, DepEd to offer all six grade levels in far-flung areas so they can finish elementary education.

A DepEd directive received recently by the regional office here said that of the  510 MG classes created in the country’s second largest island region, there were 100 each in Region 9 (Western Mindanao), Region 13 ( Caraga) and Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) and 70 each in Region 11 (Southern Mindanao), Region 12 (Central Mindanao) and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Luistro allotted an annual subsidy of P7.5 million each for Regions 9, 10 and 13 and P5.25 million each for Regions 11, 12 and ARMM, to be utilized for the purchase of instructional materials, pupils’ learning kits and school supplies; teachers’ professional development and school feeding programs.

DepEd Region 9 Director Malcolm Garma said that MG classes have helped in the academic advancement of rural school-age children.

ARMM assistant education regional secretary John Magno thanked Luistro for allotting 70 MG classes  for Muslim Mindanao — comprising Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi — long considered by the DepEd central office as having the lowest literacy rate in the country.